'General Hospital' Star Alley Mills Reflects on Heather Webber’s Redemption Tale

General Hospital’s Heather Webber has stalked Port Charles since the 70s, but her run as The Hook killer marked the baby-swapping escape artist’s darkest run yet. It turned out, the beloved soap opera villain was being poisoned by her hip replacement — and now, locals like Laura and Portia are hotly divided over what that diagnosis means for her murder convictions. With Heather’s fate taking center stage this week on General Hospital, portrayer Alley Mills talks to Woman's World about her madcap character.

Mills, who you may recognize for playing Mom on The Wonder Years, first brought her sitcom and theater chops to soap operas when she joined The Bold and The Beautiful as Pam Douglas in 2006.

Having parlayed Heather’s General Hospital machinations into a 2023 Guest Performer Daytime Emmy win and a 2024 nomination, Mills reflects on whether her character can make her way out of this one.

Alley Mills reflects on Heather’s psycho-killer turn

Since 1976, General Hospital’s legacy character Heather Webber has caused plenty of mayhem – including the baby swap involving Jason, Drew and Franco that took decades to unravel. After portrayer Robin Mattson retired and Alley Mills assumed the role in 2022, however, Heather’s antics kicked into a more sinister gear.

“Heather's never been a very good girl,” Mills contends – and that’s certainly true!

The campy troublemaker had committed murder and even dabbled in poison before Mills ever signed on – and in a delicious retcon twist, after she joined the show, viewers learned there was even more to Heather’s history. Not only had she once shared a secret romance with psycho Ryan Chamberlain, but she’d been hiding the existence of their daughter, Esme.

With scheming Esme on the scene, Heather suddenly bloomed into a villain more akin to Ryan. With a newfound darkness, she took out Brando, Britt and other locals with a poisoned hook – all while locked up, of course – and left Port Charles quaking in fear.

“They were screwing with my Esme,” Mills cries in character. “It was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no! You don’t do that to my daughter. I'm gonna kill you!' Heather was still fun…but she had to kill people, and she didn't think it was wrong.”

Heather’s now thinking very differently – or so she says since her poisonous hip replacement was removed. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves!

GH star Alley Mills insists Heather was too likable to go unpunished

Once Heather was revealed to be The Hook killer, the villain, who’s spent much of her life breaking out of mental institutions, was once again sent off canvas.

“They just kept going as far as they could with Heather…until they couldn't do it anymore,” Mills says. “Now she’s in prison. Because this was a likeable character who was actually killing people – and you can't teach the public that it's okay to kill people, right? That's the truth.”

The other truth is that whatever Heather does, she always manages to find her way back. Usually, it’s via one of her breakouts, but she went so dark this time that it’s on the General Hospital writers to bring the character back to herself.

“They're working it out,” Mills says. “They have to exonerate her in order for her to get out of prison and back into Port Charles.”

Don’t tell Portia, but we agree with that endgame! Port Charles needs Heather – and hopefully, her recent metallosis diagnosis and treatment will earn her a bit of redemption without stealing her, shall we say, unique charm.

The soap star reflects on doing double duty on General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful

Before signing on to play Heather’s mad run, Mills first came to daytime to play the late Stephanie Forrester’s wacky, lemon-bar-baking sister, Pam.

The sociopath’s antics were downright dangerous back in 2008, but thanks to a bit of brain surgery, she slid into less deadly machinations – like making Hope’s fashion show marque say, "Ho for the Future” and putting itching powder in Donna Logan's lingerie.

“Pam is a LITTLE crazy...but not as crazy as Heather,” chuckles Mills – who got to bounce between the two characters as a guest star when she started at General Hospital.

“It's so natural…and it's so weird,” she says. “They’re such different characters. But I'm a theater person. I've done two roles at the same time. You just have to get out of one and get back into the other.”

Alley Mills is taking Heather’s soapy diagnosis very seriously

Currently, Heather’s antics are keeping Mills thoroughly entertained. In fact, the actress sometimes has giggle sessions over her character with General Hospital’s co-headwriter, Chris Van Etten.

“He's brilliant,” Mills raves of the Daytime Emmy-winning scribe. “He calls me sometimes. We talk late at night and I'm howling with laughter. When I heard about the hip replacement, I thought it was great fun – but it shouldn't be funny. It has to also be real.”

That means instead of going for madcap, Mills is taking her character’s recovery seriously and trying to wrap her head around being a killer.

“It's a weird thing to play, because I have to have real remorse,” she explains. “Can you imagine if you actually killed [five] people? It's a horrible thing to face. So that's what I'm working out inside me.”

The actress talks playing Heather’s redemption arc with Genie Francis’ Laura

Thankfully, as Heather tries to come to grips with what she did as The Hook killer, she’s facing it with Laura by her side – which means Mills gets to play these uncharacteristically grounded moments with General Hospital legend Genie Francis.

“I just love her,” Mills tells Woman's World. “With Genie, it’s very real. We have great chemistry, because I really like her as a person.”

Viewers will get to see that chemistry in action today on General Hospital when Heather has a surprising request for Laura.

With Heather appearing wildly level-headed since her tainted hip replacement was removed, longtime General Hospital viewers know better than to trust the escape artist. Yet Laura, who has seen this soap opera villain at her worst, remains convinced Heather’s murder case must be reexamined.

The biggest thing standing in Heather’s way may just be Portia, who simply does not care whether the serial killer was out of her mind from cobalt poisoning when she went on her rampage. General Hospital’s top doc isn’t taking any chances. She’ll stop Heather from getting any kind of do over – even if that means turning Laura’s efforts and Heather’s fate into a key political issue this election season!

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