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Carly Corinthos (also Spencer) is a fictional character from the American ABC soap opera, General Hospital. The role was originated by Sarah Joy Brown in 1996. When Brown left the role April 24, 2001, the role was first recast with Tamara Braun on May 2, 2001. Braun last appeared on April 15, 2005 and the character was recast with Jennifer Bransford from April 18 to October 5, 2005. Carly was recast again on November 4, 2005 with the current actress, Laura Wright. Carly was created and introduced under head writers Robert Guza Jr. and Karen Harris and executive producer Wendy Riche as the "vengeful" and "manipulative" daughter of former bad-girl Bobbie Spencer. Hiding her identity, she tries to ingratiate herself to Bobbie through Bobbie's son Lucas only to be rejected. Carly in turn seduces Bobbie's unhappy husband Tony Jones.

Carly has a brief affair with hitman Jason Morgan who becomes her best friend. Carly later falls in love with Jason's business partner, mobster Sonny Corinthos and their lives are intertwined from the moment they first meet, for better or for worse. Despite being married and divorced several times, the duo always end up back together. Sonny adopts Carly's Michael – the product of an ill-fated fling with A. J. Quartermaine – they also have two other children, Morgan, and Donna. During one of her divorces from Sonny, Carly marries his rival, corporate raider Jasper Jacks and they have a daughter, Josslyn. However, the marriage is plagued by Carly and Sonny's dysfunctional nature.

Creation
Former head writers Claire Labine and Robert Guza Jr., and script writers Karen Harris and Patrick Mulcahey are credited with creating Carly. What set Carly apart from other characters, according Mulcahey, was that "[The writers] were afraid of her." At one point, a member of the writing staff even quit during the process because of how important the character had become to the show before she even appeared on-screen. He continued, "The pitfalls are obvious, and I imagine Bob [Guza, the headwriter] promised Wendy [Riche, the executive producer] and ABC that we had no intention of falling into them." Though it sounds "terrifying," Mulcahey admitted the writers had no idea who or what Carly would be. Carly's original portrayer, Sarah Brown felt that the variety of actresses that auditioned for the role implied that there was not any set direction for the character. Brown spent the first few months of her tenure crafting a backstory for the character. Brown explained her choice in a 1997 interview: "I decided the way not to lose my job was to spend every ounce of free time for a couple of months developing a history for her of things that would build psychological bridges to what she does." For the first year of her run, Brown kept a journal in which she wrote down ideas about who Carly is. "It helped me connect innately to where this woman was coming from."

Backstory and lineage
Carly was originally scripted as being born on November 5, 1973, to a 16 year old Bobbie Spencer in Jacksonville, Florida. The child is adopted by Frank and Virginia Benson and raised in Pensacola, Florida and named Caroline Leigh Benson. "Carly is not downtrodden, by any means" Brown declared to Soap Opera News in 1997. However, "She's been through quite a few tragedies and traumas." According to Brown's backstory for the character, "[Carly] has had a life similar to many young women, where her mom worked so much that she didn't really have time to pay attention to her." At some point, Frank abandons his family because "She doesn't have a father figure in her life." Without a father, "she had to learn the tough way how to take care of herself." Additionally, Carly loses her best friend at a "very young" age. Meanwhile Carly's relationship with Virginia was nonexistent. "Carly never had maternal love" from Virginia. Carly's uncle Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) famously said "She gave you backyard and a yearbook." Accoridng to Sarah Brown, Virginia "didn't have time for little Carly and might have had some bitterness toward her." Due to Virginia's lack of affection, Brown said "Carly learned how to manipulate people, how to get what she wants by smiling big and pretending to give them everything that they need."

In 2001, Soap Opera Update said Carly "was a character with a volatile lineage" as Bobbie also had a home-wrecking past. While Carly's relationship to the Spencer family rarely factors into the character's story after her initial introduction, Sarah Brown said in 1997 "She has that Spencer bloodline pumping through her. I think she takes after her momma a lot…" According to Brown "Luke really likes the spirit he sees in Carly. He sees some of the Spencer blood running through her, and that excites him. He sees a bit of himself in her." In 2015, Laura Wright is tasked with bringing the Spencer family's tragic backstory to the screen when she portrays Luke and Bobbie's abused mother, Lena Eckert Spencer, opposite Geary, as Luke's abusive father, Tim Spencer. Set in 1963, the episode reveals a dark twist in which a teenaged Luke kills his father in a fit of rage after he watches Lena. Wright learned she would play Carly's grandmother about a month before the scenes were filmed but she had no idea her portrayal of Lena is what stops Luke from committing suicide. Wright said "It’s so funny to play the mother that is telling Luke Spencer what he should do with this life" because she grew up watching Luke and Laura (Geary and Genie Francis).

Personality
In 1996 Soap Opera Weekly described Carly as "love-starved" and "manipulative." In 1997 Daytime TV magazine described Carly as a "master manipulator." Alan Carter described Carly as a "manipulative sex kitten." Soap Opera Digest simultaneously described her as a "bitter vixen" and a "complex woman plagued with insecurities." Carly is an "insecure" person that is "desperate to be loved." Daytime TV magazine said "Carly is certainly a woman who is quick on her feet in adverse situations." Soap Opera Digest later called Carly an "insecure guttersnipe." In 2000 Michael Ausiello (Soaps In Depth) referred to Carly as Bobbie's "vengeful long-lost offspring." Rosemary Rossi called Carly a "lass with a difficult past." Carly posses a "sexual, dangerous and moody facade" said Robert Schork from Soap Opera Magazine. In 2008, Matt Webb Mitovich of TV Guide called Carly a "hell-raising" "tomcat." In a 2018 piece for Variety, Michael Maloney described Carly as Bobbie's "volatile daughter." In 2019, Chris Eades described Carly as a "heroine."

In a Soap Opera Digest interview, Brown defended when she said "I don't think she's bad. I think she's human." However, upon further deliberation, Brown agreed that when you look at Carly's actions "she's bad. She's a slut and she's feisty." In comparison to herself, Brown said Carly "But she's a fighter like me… We're both survivors. We speak our minds." In 1997, Brown said "She's manipulative out of survival instinct." Brown later said Carly is "so insecure that people don't know whether to hate her or feel sorry for her!" According to Brown, "She doesn't have a lot of skills, she's not well educated, she's not brilliant. What she has is street smarts and survival instinct and it's that survival instinct, just like her mother's- to turn tricks in order to keep herself afloat- that's Carly's way." Brown believes that though she is "tough,' Carly is also "very needy." Brown continued, "She's childish, not immature, but she still thinks like a little girl."

In 2005, Jennifer Bransford said her favorite thing about Carly was how "fiercely loyal" she is. Bransford continued that "if someone does her wrong or gets in the way, she doesn’t hesitate to act out." She further described Carly as "impulsive" and said "I love her heart and how she makes mistakes because she’ll do something and then think about it. […] I love how Carly's not even close to perfect."

Sarah Brown
The role was originated by Sarah Joy Brown. "Carly was a hotly contested role" said Soap Opera Weekly of the casting. Brown revealed that she attended eight different screen tests during the process. Fresh off her breakout role as Kaitlin Star in VR Troopers, Brown was invited to screen test for the role of Carly in early 1996. Casting director Mark Teschner recalled that Brown missed the first round of auditions for the role because she was filming another project at the time. "She came in with this studded leather jacket, this real rock ’n’ roll edge, and she read for me and the light went off." Teschner who immediately had Brown read for executive producer Wendy Riche said "From day one she made the role her own." Brown auditioned opposite Steve Burton who played Jason. As she competed against seven other actresses, including Burton's real-life girlfriend at the time, Brown was not confident. "There was a Miss America there, and I'm looking at her going, 'Why am I here?' A real Miss America. She was like, 6-foot. But we weren't all drop-dead beautiful; it wasn't like that. Then there were a couple of severe brunettes and a redhead who was really cute." Unlike many of her peers, Brown did not grow up watching soap operas and had never auditioned for one. In fact, "Before I came to GH, I swore up and down that I'd never do a soap opera." Brown officially booked the role on her 21st birthday, February 18, 1996. The actress started filming in March 1996. A year into her tenure as Carly, Brown said "I feel extremely lucky to have landed this role." Once she won the role, Brown knew she had to "slow down the frenzied style of performing" she'd become accustomed to and turned to Mark Teschner for advice. When she joined the cast Brown said "I expected to wander around, but everyone greeted me like a family" Brown recalled. Her co-star Vanessa Marcil, who played Brenda Barrett would tape Brown's scenes for her so Brown could review her work. Brown appreciated that she finally got to flex her acting muscles. "On VR Troopers, we said three or four lines per scene; then, fight. So that killed me. Now on GH I'm getting bombarded with 30 pages of dialogue a day, three times a week. I love that. I have to study the acting work."

Tamara Braun
In 2001, the role was recast with Tamara Braun. In an interview with the New York Post, Jill Farren Phelps explained that while she was against it, the recast was necessary due to Carly being such a vital part of the canvas. The actress auditioned opposite Maurice Benard for times. In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, the actress revealed that "Right before booking this job, I had vowed to quit acting and just re-evaluate." The character was named "Sarah" in the casting notice who Braun assumed was a recast of established character, Sarah Webber. "I was certain that I wasn’t [trying out for the part of] Carly" she explained. "I was a little naive" Braun admitted. It was so "hush-hush" that Braun wasn't made aware of her role until about a week and a half before she began filming. Braun concluded that "they hired me without my knowing anything [about the part I was really auditioning for], so I must have a similar enough essence." Though she did her research, Braun admitted that she was nervous about replacing such a popular actress but she welcomed the challenge. In 2005, it was announced that Braun would leave the role as she had decided not to renew her contract.
 * Phelps NYP
 * Auditioned four times with Benard
 * Sarah Webber faux-casting
 * Dyed hair

Jennifer Bransford
On March 28, 2005, it was announced that Jennifer Bransford had been hired to recast the role. Phelps said that it would be difficult, but viewers would eventually accept the recast as long as the actors made it work. Bransford reportedly beat out stars like Jamie Luner (Melrose Place) and Sarah G. Buxton (The Bold and the Beautiful).

Laura Wright
On September 12, 2005, it was announced that Laura Wright was hired to play Carly. While she was sad to leave the role of Cassie Layne Winslow on Guiding Light, Wright was excited to step into the role of Carly. "Wow! What a challenge" she said. Wright was due to begin filming in October after her contract with CBS expired. In 2019, Wright revealed that she nearly turned the role down. In an interview with Soaps In Depth, Wright admitted that it was "because I didn't want to leave the East Coast, and I was nervous about moving my family." More importantly, Wright was afraid to leave Guiding Light and the role of Cassie behind. However, when a friend asked her if she could play Carly, Wright was confident: "Oh hell yeah. I was made to do the role!" The actress felt her her previous daytime roles prepared her for Carly. But "I couldn't have played her early on. I didn’t have the strength or confidence as an actor. I needed the experience and all the incredible actors who helped me become the actress I am today. I just didn’t yet have a lot of things I needed to play Carly." Wright knew how popular the character was "so I had to prove myself" she stated. Wright explained her process in preparing for the role: "I was concentrating on the dialogue and talking to the writers and finding out who she was — I really wanted to give the audience what they loved about Carly." Wright would go on to become the actress to play Carly the longest.

Introduction
Under the alias Carly Roberts, she joins the nursing program at the hospital to get close to Bobbie. In character, Brown explained Carly's motives in a 1996 interview: "I went into the nursing program thinking Bobbie would love it, that she wouldn't know who I was, but she'd fall in love with me and eventually I'd be able to tell her." While Bobbie does take Carly "under her wing" initially, "once they started to get close, Bobbie got really protective of her husband and son; she felt threatened." Despite her subsequent actions, Brown maintained that ruining Bobbie's life wasn't part of the plan. "I don't think Carly came to Port Charles with the intention of ruining Bobbie's life." However, Soap Opera Weekly said Carly was introduced "with an agenda so shady it leads back to Bobbie Jones and her days as a soap opera 'ho." Faced with rejection, Carly begins a "torrid affair" with Bobbie's husband, Tony Jones. "As misguided and self-destructive as they may be", Carly's actions stem from her "feelings of being alone and lost in the world." However Brown concluded that the plot is "not written for you to feel sorry for Carly."

From Carly's perspective, "This is all Bobbie's fault. She's brought this upon herself, and if she hadn't thrown me out, I wouldn't be back 20 years later to ruin her life." Tony is having a "midlife crisis" and has "fragile state of mind" because Bobbie has pushed him to it. Still reeling from the loss of their daughter in 1994, Carly uses the couple's son to ingratiate herself to Tony. As far as Bobbie is concerned, Carly isn't just "trying on my jewelry," she is "really trying on my life." According to Jacklyn Zeman, "Bobbie sensed that Carly had an agenda and a neediness that was just a little beyond some girl passing through town." Though Carly eventually finds out that Bobbie's life wasn't always so grand, she justifies her actions by blaming Bobbie for what her life has turned into.

Relationship with Tony Jones
While her intentions for Bobbie seem clear, "Tony was a completely different story" Sarah Brown insisted. Even though Carly's initial pursuit of Tony is "written as revenge," Sarah Brown intentionally plays into Carly's love for Tony. What starts as an affair eventually develops into a relationship when Tony leaves Bobbie for Carly. "She really didn't want to fall for the guy, but now he is the most important thing in her life-more important than destroying Bobbie and she wants to hold onto him." Brown told herself, "No, she loves him, because if she doesn't, what's the point?" Once Carly learns about the circumstances that forced Bobbie to give her up, she has to justify her relationship with Tony. Carly feels that "I've got to hold on to this man. He's the only man- only human being- I've ever found who loves me." Additionally, Carly uses the fact that Tony is so unhappy with Bobbie as an excuse. "This man is miserable with her" Brown stated. Though she'd never been with a married man, Brown could identify with the part of Carly that thinks "I'm in love and I'm going to hold on with all I have because it's all I have to live for." On one hand, Brown stated "I think with Tony, she feels the most comfortable and the most like a needy child," on the other, Carly fulfills Tony's need to be needed, the way Bobbie once needed him.

When she realizes that her future with Tony depends on protecting her secret, "Carly is scared to death of the truth coming out. She doesn't believe Tony will be able to forgive her, she is so afraid that once he finds out her secret, he'll dump her in a second." Carly's fear that Tony will eventually leave her for another woman, the way he left Bobbie for her, leads to her affair with A. J. Quartermaine. Soap Opera Digest said "Carly's betrayal was borne of a desperate desire to be cared for." However, that same night, Carly finds herself sleeping with Tony again. "That's the way Carly always solves problems with Tony, because she knows the huge power she holds over him, and over all men, is her sexuality." But her efforts to smooth things over leaves Carly sorely disappointed. The relationship ultimately crumbles in December 1997 when Tony confronts Carly about her lies in regards to the baby's paternity. Soap Opera Weekly's Freeman Gunter said "Carly used all of her standard defenses, and they no longer worked. […] As the truth dawned on Carly, gradually and in layers of lies peeled away, she went from prevarication to panic. Cornered, she became vindictive and cruel." After "[slamming] Tony on every aspect of their relationship, including his sexual prowess," Carly lies and claims Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) as her baby's father, then convinces him to go along with it.

Caroline Benson and motherhood
Following the birth of her son Michael, Carly finally reveals her true identity to Bobbie in early 1998. Linda Susman of Soap Opera Weekly said the confession was not surprising due to meticulous plotting and the increased promotional push. Carly provokes Bobbie into discussing the circumstances under which Caroline was born and put up for adoption.

In March 1998, it was reported that Brown was expecting her first child and would soon go on maternity leave. On July 6, 1998, the character is written out of the series when Carly is institutionalized due to postpartum depression.

Relationship with Jason Morgan
Carly's first romantic encounter is with Jason Morgan. "She's new in town, nobody liked her, nobody knows her, and she needs to feel loved, so she finds herself a hot, hunky guy, and she gets in bed, and expects that she's going to feel love from that. What she ends up feeling is slapped in the face." Patrick Mulcahey credited Elizabeth Korte with the Carly-Jason pairing. It was Korte's "Carly should go slumming, run into Jason and decide he'd make the perfect anonymous sex-partner." In addition to Brown having great chemistry with Burton, it helped to bolster Jason's forbidden romance with Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) and allowed the "allowed us finally to explore who Carly really was when she was alone. What she wanted, what she hated, what she didn't expect that turned her from her path." Soap Opera Digest it is "through an unlikely alliance" with Jason that Brown finds "just enough" of Carly's humanity at one of her lowest moments, when she lies and claims Jason as the father of her unborn child in December 1997. Despite their initial sexual encounters, Carly and Jason never pursue an actual relationship. However, the writers flirt with the idea of the pairing until 1999 when Jason walks in on Carly after a one-night-stand with his best friend and boss, Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard). "What was so powerfully astonishing about GH's Sonny sleeping with sworn enemy Carly - and a stunned Jason discovering this-was that everyone involved was left feeling betrayed and brokenhearted, but in very distinctive ways. […] For Carly, being confronted by the sight of Jason standing in the living room of Sonny's penthouse as she walked downstairs in Sonny's shirt meant hurting the man she loved most and losing any chance she'd had of winning him back." What makes the plot so much more effective than the usual soap "illicit one-night stand," was Steve Burton's impending departure from the series as Jason.

Carly's past (2004–2005)
In early 2005, Kari Wuhrer joined the cast as FBI agent Reese Marshall.

In September 2005, a website claiming to be Bransford official website reported that the actress had been released from her contract. The news of Bransford's release was confirmed when a spokesperson for the network said "Jennifer's casting in the role Carly did not work out." Bransford filmed her last scenes on September 9 and last appeared on October 5, 2005 "when Sonny is forced to commit the wigged-out Carly to a psychiatric hospital."

Other romances (2013–2014)

 * Shawn Butler
 * Johnny Zacchara
 * Todd Manning
 * Franco