Ava Jerome is a fictional character from General Hospital, an American soap opera on the ABC network. The role is portrayed by three-time Daytime Emmy Award winner Maura West, who made her first appearance on May 8, 2013.
Ava is part of the Jerome crime family; she is the only daughter of Victor Jerome (Jack Axelrod) and Ryan's Hopes Delia Ryan (Ilene Kristen), and the younger half-sister of Evan Jerome, Olivia St. John (Tonja Walker) and Julian Jerome (Jason Culp, William deVry). Introduced by executive producer Frank Valentini and created by head writer Ron Carlivati, Ava is introduced as the ex-lover of Robert "Franco" Frank (James Franco, Roger Howarth), and mother of his presumed daughter Lauren Katherine "Kiki" Jerome (Kristen Alderson, Hayley Erin), the missing heiress to the Quartermaine family fortune. An art dealer by day, in July 2013, Ava is revealed to be the previously unmentioned youngest child of the infamous Jerome crime family, introduced to the series in the late 1980s. Ava's attempt to use her daughter's faked paternity to get power at ELQ Industries is a part of her scheme with big brother, Julian Jerome to reclaim their family's territory from resident mob boss, Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard).
West's performance has been met with critical acclaim, winning her the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2015.
Casting and creation
In early April, Jamey Giddens and Jillian Bowe of Daytime Confidential reported a rumor that the Daytime Emmy Award winner Maura West, best known for her role as Carly Snyder on As the World Turns, was set to join the cast in a top-secret role. On April 24, nearly two weeks after Confidential's original report, Soap Opera Digest and other soap opera media confirmed the news and revealed that West had joined the cast in the newly created role of Ava Jerome, and was slated to appear sometime in May. Soaps In Depth editor Richard M. Simms immediately speculated that the character shared a connection to the infamous 1980s Jerome crime family. West made her debut on May 8, 2013.
In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, West revealed that her agent, Mamie Sparer, was contacted by General Hospital casting director Mark Teschner, who had her come in to meet with executive producer Frank Valentini, and that the meeting prompted her to sign on to appear as Ava. Of her role, West admitted the part was only scheduled as a five-day stint; however, she was offered a contract before she even began work on the soap. In an interview with TV Guides Michael Logan, West was asked what made her take on the role of Ava. She admitted, "Next to nothing. You have to put your faith in people, which was hard because I'd never met [executive producer] Frank Valentini and [head writer] Ron Carlivati, but they are so fun, so infectious! But, then, Ava was not intended to hang around all that long."
When asked about the casting of West in the role, Valentini and Carlivati admitted they both felt West was perfect for the role. "When Ron and I had talked about this character, there were several actresses we had in mind initially, and a couple of things didn’t work out. Then I thought about Maura, and when I said it to Ron, we both said, 'Absolutely!' So we both kind of stumbled upon it at the same time, because we are both not physically in the same city, we are often on the phone," Valentini revealed in an interview in December 2013. Valentini also admitted that he knew there might be some resistance on West's part when it came to accepting the role. He explained, "I understood she wasn’t necessarily into the idea of doing another soap, because she had not the best experience on another show. But, I thought let’s do it and let’s see what happens." Carlivati also mentioned being a fan of West's from her time on World Turns, stating, "I was a fan of hers from As the World Turns. And when you first see Maura, she is so classically beautiful. I was not that familiar with As the World Turns, but when you would turn it on, you would see this beautiful woman who just seems to be appropriate as a soap actress."
Character development According to West, Ava has a lot going on; "She's mysterious and strong and just has all of the characteristics of a great character." West explained that Ava is very reminiscent of her earlier portrayal of Carly on As the World Turns. However, she argued that Ava is a bit more "sophisticated." The characters are not the same, "but there are certain colors that are similar" West continued. In an interview with Boston Herald, West said of Ava, "There’s a ton of mystery to Ava. [...] She’s full of strength and has undertones of vulnerability." She also said she didn't originally know that Ava was part of the infamous Jerome crime family, but in fact played her as if she possibly could be. She remarked, "am certainly playing her and making an early assumption that she is. This woman isn’t all poise and ladylike. There’s grit under there."
If Ava's connection to the notorious Jerome crime family panned out, not only would West's arrival cause trouble for Port Charles's local kingpin, Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard), but there was also great storyline potential for Ian Buchanan and Finola Hughes's Duke Lavery and Anna Devane who shared a quite volatile history with the Jerome family. Critics began speculating that the character would be the long lost daughter of Tonja Walker's Olivia St. John (born Jerome) despite the relatively small age difference between the actresses; however Matt Webb Motivich of TVLine also suggested that Ava could be a previously unknown child of Olivia's crime lord father, Victor Jerome (Jack Axelrod). The character is immediately thrown into a major storyline as it is revealed that she is helping to hide Morgan and that she is Lauren's mother. According to series head writer, Ron Carlivati, "This is [a] woman who conceived a child with Franco, so you have to worry about that right there." Though Ava initially comes off as a "devoted mother," there is much more behind to her. At the Winter 2014 Television Critics Association press tour, West opened up about portraying Ava and how it compared to portraying Carly on World Turns. She described, "I have to be honest, I work very hard. ... I wanted to create a character that was different. I loved Carly, but I can’t play her again. Then when this part came up, I thought, how am I going to play this role? She’s different. She has similarities as women do.‘How does she carry herself?’ Ava never touches her hair. Ava never moves. Ava’s a snake. She only moves when she is going to strike. And these are things I think about. This is how I wanted to create this person." When asked how she keeps Ava sympathetic and vulnerable, West described, "You never judge your own self. You do what you do — we all do this every day. Ava doesn’t judge herself, she does what she does because she thinks she is right. [...] She is not retrospectively looking at her actions. She is just living in it. As an actor, you can’t judge your character ever. Let others judge it."
Relationship with Morgan, affair with Sonny and pregnancy At the Winter 2014 TCA's, West opened up about Ava's relationship with Morgan and where it was headed. She said, "She was worried about the thought that there are other elements that interfere with love. [...] Family interfering with love is as old as love itself. I do think she loves him and her heart is broken." During May 2014 sweeps, Ava cheated on Morgan and had an affair with his father, Sonny. The pair slept together in a crypt. In an interview, West spoke about the events of the affair and its locale. She stated, "A lot of people seemed shocked by it and I was very surprised by that reaction. I was never even thinking about the locale! I was thinking about Ava's pain." West also spoke about her alter-ego's revelation that she was carrying the next Corinthos family baby., stating: That it's a classic soap story that has worked since television began. [...] Nothing bothers me. I'm here to play."
Connie Falconeri murder Following the revelation that Ava had in fact murdered Connie Falconeri (Kelly Sullivan), head writer Ron Carlivati opened up to Michael Logan of TV Guide about the revelation, and whether or not he felt he had turned Ava into a cold-blooded killer. Carlivati stated, "Of course, we were nervous! Especially the more we and the audience got invested in Ava. It was always my plan to have her be the killer but there was still the chance that we would change our minds and not write it that way. As the character started growing in popularity, [executive producer] Frank Valentini said, "You know, Connie's killer doesn't have to be Ava. Maybe something else happened. Maybe someone else came in and killed Connie." There was certainly that temptation to protect Ava but, in the end, we decided it was a stronger move to stick with our original idea and see where that could take us down the line: What will happen between Ava and Sonny if and when he finds out she killed Connie? What will he do? She will have nowhere to run!"
Cancer In early 2015, Ava (after escaping from prison) is shot by Carlos Rivera (Jeffrey Vincent Parise), as revenge for causing him to be falsely imprisoned, and falls from a bridge. She is presumed dead and a wake in her honor takes place, although in reality she survives. Silas Clay (Michael Easton), who has stashed Ava in a secret hospital room in New York, informs her that she has cancer and is dying, with her condition quickly worsening. After a bone marrow donor cannot be found to save her, Silas agrees to euthanize Ava (per her wishes), on April 16. Soap Opera Digest speculated as to whether or not this was in fact the character's final appearance. Despite General Hospital refusing to comment on West's contract status, Carlivati claimed that this was possibly Ava's "final farewell", explaining that "Basically, we kept writing ourselves into a corner with Ava and then figuring out a way out. We were like, 'Wait a minute, what if she's pregnant,' you know? And then we painted her in this cancer corner and we kind of couldn't figure a way out." Discussing Ava's wishes for Silas to help her die, he said: "Ava wants to die on her own terms, even if it's only a few weeks ahead of what might happen", and clarified that the soap opera was not trying to "come down on either side of [the euthanasia debate]".
Storylines