The Ginny & Georgia cast and creative forces are coming together for a live stream reunion event on May 26 in support of Huntington’s Disease Awareness Month and to raise $50,000 for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. Ginny & Georgia cast member Scott Porter is the one who assembled the cast for this reunion event, and he spoke EXCLUSIVELY to HollywoodLife about Ginny & Georgia season 2 and why he’s so determined to fight Huntington’s disease.
“As far as Mayor Paul goes, I have had questions since day one about where he came from because of the things that he says in the show,” Scott told HollywoodLife. “He went to Brown. He has an Ivy League education, and then he abandoned all of it to travel overseas, backpack, teach English, and get a sense of the world that is much different than a lot of people who try and fast track their way into politics. But then, upon his return to the States, he magically did that. What drives a person like that? He’s multifaceted, yet very direct and focused. So what made him that way? I’m really excited to discover more about his family and where he came from. I think the show was great at building that out. Even the smallest characters on our show, you get a glimpse of their home life, and it completely changes how you feel about that character. I hope we see more of that with Mayor Paul going forward. I also really love the pairing of Paul and Georgia in a way that he has to keep himself clean, but he knows that Georgia is willing to get dirty. Is this a product of them as people falling in love with each other, or them also having that component of professionally needing something that they both have? Where does that take them going forward? And then last but not least, how does he fit into the true dysfunction of the Ginny and Georgia and Austin family? Once he starts to really peel back the layers of what that family is built upon, it’s going to be very, very interesting going forward.”
By the end of season 1, Paul and Georgia are engaged. They seem like the picture-perfect couple, but Georgia is hiding dark secrets from everyone. So, would Paul be supportive if he knew all that Georgia’s done? “I think on a human level, he 100 percent would go to the ends of the earth to support Georgia,” Scott said. “I think professionally is where the conflict really starts to happen. Because if he does want to be governor by the time he is 40 and if he does have eyes on a higher office in the country, then the scandals that she has wrapped up in her past could be very damaging. How does he balance that desire and that drive politically with his feelings for her personally? I think that’s going to be something that’s very interesting to watch unfold. I think he would be there for her and she feels that support from Paul 100 percent on a human to human level, but I don’t know how he can escape what she’s done if it all comes to light on a political level. So it will be very, very interesting.”
Ginny & Georgia was renewed for season 2 in April 2021. Scott admitted the whole cast was shocked by the show’s success. “I think we were all blown away by the response of everybody that watched the show,” Scott said. “I’ve been a part of shows that barely held on for years and years and years. Friday Night Lights was canceled twice before ultimately being saved by DirecTV. Hart of Dixie was always on the bubble every single year on The CW. Ginny & Georgia kind of felt the same to me. It was about a smaller community with characters that were incredibly well-defined, dealing with issues that, much like Friday Night Lights, people didn’t always want to talk about. Less like Hart of Dixie as far as the issues go, but very much Hart of Dixie and the humor of it all.”
He continued: “I felt comfortable in what we made. I felt like we did something special. But none of us ever could have predicted that in 2021, you could be a hit without being a superhero show or without being a period piece, or having some of the bells and whistles that a lot of other shows have. We’re a little show, We are a small, character-driven, conversation-driven show. It’s just nice to see that there’s still so much of an audience for that. We are so excited to have more conversations, build out more characters, see where more of our characters came from, and really just build out the overall perspective of the show for the fans that really loved it. I know that Sarah and Deb are hard at work already jumping into season 2, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.”
Scott revealed how he got the inspiration for the Ginny & Georgia reunion event. “In a time where normally some of the cast would go to television conventions or the different pop culture conventions and being able to interact with fans that that’s not going to happen for the near future, at least. May is Huntington’s Disease Awareness Month. I’ve always wanted to do something charitable in that month to raise awareness and hopefully raise some money to fight Huntington’s disease. I thought it was just a no-brainer to get together to do a reunion live stream, to say thank you to the fans, and to raise awareness all at the same time,” Scott said.
Raising awareness about Huntington’s disease is very personal to Scott. “About six years ago, we found out that my mother-in-law — after three years of trying to get a diagnosis — was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease,” Scott explained. “She had been battling a loss of balance, a loss of motor skills, and she wasn’t sure why. Once she found out, we very quickly realized that Huntington’s is a genetic disease, which means that every child of a parent who has Huntington’s has a 50-50 shot of inheriting it, which meant my wife was in danger of being positive for it. She immediately got tested, and we found out that she is indeed positive for the Huntington’s gene. Now, there are two different classifications for someone who has Huntington’s. You’re symptomatic, where it’s really affecting your everyday life and manifests itself as a triad of motor and cognitive and psychiatric symptoms all at once. It’s often described as having ALS and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s all at the same time. Or you are gene-positive, meaning that you would feel all the effects of that eventually. We have both facets in my family. My mother-in-law is symptomatic, and my wife is gene-positive. We’re fighting to support my mother-in-law and other people out there who are living symptomatically with Huntington’s right now and to, hopefully, find a cure or treatment that will keep people who are gene-positive, like my wife, from ever fully feeling the effects of Huntington’s as we go forward.”