Ginny & Georgia fans were not thrilled to see the scene where Paul hits a wall above Georgia’s head in season 3 — and Scott Porter had similar concerns.
“As a person and fan invested in the show, I was very resistant to hitting the wall. I was very like, ‘I can’t do this. Paul can’t do that,'” Porter, 45, recalled exclusively to Us Weekly. “And our director Sharon [Lewis] said, ‘We’re doing it and it has to be done. But it’s coming out of hurt and it’s not out of anger.'”
Porter tried to see it from Paul’s perspective after playing him since season 1, adding, “We really tried to utilize that in that scene and keep a lot of his frustration down and a lot more of his broken heart came out. The moment that actually I think clicked for me the most was in that scene when Georgia says the words, ‘I can’t trust you to Paul.'”
After Georgia (Brianne Howey) expressed doubt about her connection with Paul, Porter understood the intense reaction.
“Paul has been begging her to trust him since season 1. To open up and be honest with him. I would love if somebody would put a reel together or a TikTok together of all the times Paul asked Georgia to be honest with him and then she looks him in the eyes and says, ‘No more lies and no more secrets,'” he noted about Georgia’s tendency to keep the truth from Paul. “In that moment she says, ‘I can’t trust you.’ And he doesn’t understand it.”
Porter found himself immersed in Paul’s emotions, telling Us, “You hear me yell ‘why’ off camera. That was encouraged by the crew on set to just talk over each other. That was a messy scene and it was a messy day — but we did not do too many takes of it. We were so prepared. … It was just so emotionally charged and we felt really good about it leaving that day — even though the content is really rough. I guess it’s on TikTok everywhere [now].”
Season 3 of the hit Netflix series, which premiered on Thursday, June 5, slowly tore Georgia’s marriage to Paul apart amid her murder trial. After Paul found out that Georgia was linked to the deaths of her ex-husbands — which she didn’t mention to him — their relationship was at a crossroads.
The situation only got worse when Georgia used her daughter, Ginny’s (Antonia Gentry) positive pregnancy test to trick Paul into staying. He figured it out and they had a fight, which resulted in Paul hitting the wall above Georgia’s head, triggering her PTSD from past relationships where she dealt with abuse.
“It’s an immediate regret for Paul at that moment. He never ever meant to hurt her. That was never his intention. But he is somebody who wants a family and he didn’t know that before he met her. He’s somebody who loves [her kids] Austin and Ginny and has stepped in and said, ‘I will be there for them as a father figure.’ That’s a really tough thing to do to invest in,” Porter explained to Us. “I have a stepfather who came into my life at 6 years old and said, ‘You are not my blood but I will be your father.’ We tried to bring some of that to Paul.”
Porter made it clear that he didn’t condone Paul’s actions, adding, “He is out of his body at that point a little bit. But I’m not saying he was right. I’m not condoning the action. But definitely I can see what put him there in that moment.”
While reflecting on the emotional moment, Porter praised creator Sarah Lampert and show runners Debra J. Fisher and Sarah Glinski for always being “highly collaborative” on set.
“I trust them. They are mapping out a show that’s unlike anything I’ve ever been on before. The twists, the turns, the cliffhangers and it works. So these scenes, my No. 1 one word for this season and for me filling the shoes of Paul is intimidating. I was intimidated with some of the stuff they presented me with and I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with our two leads who were so incredible,” he gushed about Howey and Gentry. “When they’re asking Paul to reach these emotional depths, falling apart in front of our eyes and of letting a little bit of his inner darkness out, I was intimidated.”
He added: “We have trust in each other from top to bottom. Our crew is incredible too. So when we go to work and we are asked to do things that make us blanch a little bit, we know that we have a safe environment to go to and that means the world as.”
Despite fans siding with Georgia, Porter has hope that they will keep an open mind with Paul heading into season 4.
“People are a little grumpy with Paul. But the thing I want everybody to remember is every single character in our show is flawed because every person that walks this earth is flawed. Our writers’ room just really wants to show that people a lot of times make decisions that aren’t the best for them. This season is a reckoning for all of our characters who have made a lot of decisions over the first two seasons that maybe weren’t the best thing for them to do,” he explained. “A lot of those things are catching up to everybody this season and they catch up to Paul in a big, big way. So the fan response is incredible. I love how invested our fans are. We are not here as one of the most-watched shows on Netflix in the past four years without them. But they’re grumpy with Paul right now and they are letting me know.”
The third season ended with Paul’s marriage crumbling, him getting recalled as mayor and some friendships falling apart. So where does Paul go from here?
“Paul cares a lot. Paul [said in season 1] that he wants to make real change in the world. He doesn’t want to do it the way that his father did it. He wants to do it on his own. And he really believes that but that dream is now slipping away. His ability to do good in the world has now been taken away from him in some ways,” Porter teased. “I always wondered why somebody who is so driven, wants to be governor by the time they’re 40 and wants to make change in the world, why would you leave college and then go off the grid for a little while?”
Porter is excited to explore more of Paul’s backstory.
“There’s parts of Paul we still don’t understand and we haven’t seen. So his resilience and how he rebounds from this in season 4, I’d love to see some of that. I’d love to see a little bit of the old Paul,” he concluded. “We’ve heard how good he is at his job. He was elected mayor before Georgia ever walked into his life. I’d love to see that fight, that wit, that charm come back a little bit in season 4.”
Ginny & Georgia is currently streaming on Netflix.
