Scott Porter gave insightful comments about Paul Randolph's complex journey in Ginny and Georgia Season 3, discussing whether the character is a villain, Paul's status with Georgia, and the big pregnancy reveal in the finale. As the Mayor of Wellsbury, Paul Randolph was responsible for keeping the small town together, but the stakes became high when his wife, Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey), was arrested during their dream wedding at the end of Season 2 for the murder of Tom Fuller.
While Paul initially stood by Georgia's side when Season 3 began, things started to crumble between them after her lies and manipulations slowly emerged, which was capped off by Georgia's last-ditch effort to keep Paul by her side by presenting him with a fake pregnancy test. This was the reason why Paul left and publicly divorced Georgia in Ginny & Georgia Season 3, but it backfired quite drastically after his ex-wife was proven not guilty in the finale. In the eyes of the public, Georgia is now the hero, and Paul is the villain who abandoned his wife.
The Direct spoke with Ginny & Georgia star Scott Porter to talk about Paul's "villain" arc in Season 3, but he clarified that he believes that his character is not really as such, pointing out that Paul is simply "dealing with the fallout of something he thought was going to be the rest of his life falling apart in front of his eyes" and his action and reaction does not make him a villain:
"I’m going to start off by saying, our show doesn't really have many actual villains. Yeah, in our regular cast, we have a lot of characters who make poor decisions, sometimes repeatedly. That does not make them a villain. I don't think that Paul is in his ‘villain arc’ right now. I think he is dealing with the fallout of something he thought was going to be the rest of his life falling apart in front of his eyes, and knows that his wife had a large hand in it, and so did he. But that guilt, that one action, that reaction, does not make him a villain."
Porter also clarified that Paul is just a human being "who acts, reacts sometimes poorly, [and] makes mistakes:"
"I think audiences nowadays, for some, want to see things in black and white, and we are not a show that deals mostly in black and white. Yes, we have a couple of characters, especially in the flashbacks, that are, ‘Yes, these are not good people. These are closest to villains.’ [These are] Georgia's stepfather, Gil, you know, those characters? Yes, villains, but Cynthia, not a villain, a human being. Paul, not a villain, a human being who acts, reacts sometimes poorly, makes mistakes, and tries to figure out their way through. So just want to start there."
At the end of Season 3, Paul's political career was in shambles after his ties to Georgia resulted in his removal as mayor. Despite his character's downfall, Porter mentioned that he is excited to see "Paul's resilience" during the recall election in Season 4:
"He's going to have to do it again after being recalled at the end of Season 3. So I think Paul has been here before. I don't think he's a villain, but I'm super interested and hopeful that we see Paul's resilience and his ability in Season 4 as we go into this recall election. But who knows what's going to happen?"
Season 3 had no shortage of twists, and the big reveal in the end was the confirmation that Georgia is actually pregnant, with the father being a toss-up between Paul and Joe.
After dealing with a fake pregnancy, Porter thinks Paul would need valid "scientific proof" to make him believe that he is the father of Georgia's baby, which makes sense considering what he went through with all of his ex-wife's lies and manipulation:
"I think it would take scientific proof. You need to go to a doctor together. I need to see the paperwork. I need to see a blood draw. I need to see all of it. I need every single T crossed and every single i dotted to make sure that this is actually what's happening."
If it ends up being Paul's child, then the actor says, "he would have a hard time believing it at first, but I think he would come around to it eventually."
Ginny & Georgia Season 3 revolved around Georgia's murder trial as it pulled back the curtain on the dark secrets she kept hidden all these years. Joining Scott Porter and Brianne Howey in the Netflix series is a stellar cast headlined by Antonia Gentry, Felix Mallard, Diesel La Torraca, Katie Douglas, Aaron Ashmore, Sara Waisglass, Sabrina Grdevich, and Nathan Mitchell.
Paul’s Complicated Journey in Ginny & Georgia Season 3 Explained by Star
"I don't think Paul ever saw himself as [Georgia's] knight in shining armor..."
- The Direct: Paul is described as Georgia’s knight in shining armor, and this was further proven in Season 2 when he stood by her side despite learning some of the truth about her dark past. Before Season 3, there is a sense that you will accept Georgia even if you knew the whole truth. However, cracks emerged between you in Season 3 when Georgia’s secrets started to unravel in the trial. The final straw was when she faked her pregnancy. Can you talk to us about Paul’s journey in Season 3?
Scott Porter: I think one line about Paul that happens in the big kitchen fight scene in Episode 8 of Season 3 says a lot about him. He asks Georgia, after telling her, 'I know you killed Tom, I have known this whole time. Didn't you wonder why I never asked you? Because I knew you did it, and still I stayed.' Paul has known what he thought the capabilities of Georgia were for a long time. If you remember, the way that they met was engineered by Georgia. If you remember, Cynthia brought charges against her that she stole from Paul's office, which she did.
I've always played it as though Paul kind of knew, and he wanted to see if it would come back. And it did. Paul wants to create change in the world, but he doesn't want to get his hands dirty, not in the way that his dad did for a long time. Yeah, he wants to try and take a different path, politically, career-wise, family-wise, than his father did. I think that's a big deal to him. Georgia, it seemed to him, was his perfect match because she was somebody who would do those things, who would color outside the lines quite a bit and allow Paul to stay in his lane.
But, over time, her lying directly to him started to wear him down. You know, her doing the things that she would outside of their relationship that weren't directly impactful to Paul didn't bother him as much. The lies that she told that served her elsewhere didn't bug him the way that the lies she would say directly to his face did, and so throughout this journey, I think Paul thought they were this perfect, unstoppable union because of who they are as people and how they complete each other.
I don't think Paul ever saw himself as [Georgia's] knight in shining armor. He saw himself as someone who really understood what Georgia was capable of, and he wanted to be her future. When he proposed to her, he said, ‘Zion sees you from the past, but I see who you can become.’ And that was his pitch. 'This is why you should choose me.' And over time, the cracks in their relationship just built up because he constantly asked her to just let him in.
He really believes that if he had known everything that happened to her, he could have protected them, but because she kept it from them, he wasn't able to. So the heartbreak you feel in that scene in the kitchen in Episode 8 of Season 3 is all of that piled up on top of a very personal lie that Georgia was willing to tell him, and that was about the pregnancy, and he just thought, 'that's a lie about us, that's a lie about our family.' That's a building block of this relationship. And if you're willing to lie to me about that, then I'm not sure that I can stay here any longer.
- The Direct: And I think that’s the point of no return in your relationship, right? The one where Georgia lied about her pregnancy?
Scott Porter: Look, our show is fantastic [with] the never-say-never idea. After the scene in the kitchen, after Paul left earlier in the season, which was also just so heartbreaking for him to walk out of that household and say goodbye to those children, you thought that after he did that in Episode Five, Paul would never come back. And then through Georgia's manipulation, he does, and once he discovers [the fake pregnancy], he leaves again. But you see him at the bar, tell Joe later in the season, ‘You'll never understand until you've been with a woman like that.’ And I think it's going to be a very long time, if never, that Paul encounters a woman like Georgia in his life ever again.
So I wonder for Paul, like, is a piece still going to be kind of missing, or is he going to be missing that struggle, constantly, that challenge in a relationship for the rest of his life? So our show, like I said, does very well with the never-say-never thing where they break it, they say, ‘Oh, really? You think we could never put these two characters back together? Hold my beer.’ It's like that kind of thing. So is it a point of true no return for Paul and Georgia? I would say right now, both of them are pretty broken in different ways, and they have to put themselves back together. They have to do some soul searching.
But on the other side of that, who knows? Who knows what our writers are capable of? And I could see a world where these two characters do orbit each other once again and could spark something like they had in season one.
Scott Porter on Paul's "Incredibly Difficult" Argument Scene With Georgia
"Paul's frustration came out in heartbreak, in devastation, and disappointment, and then finally, in a physical action..."
- The Direct: In your final confrontation with Georgia right before leaving her, and the scene where you publicly divorced her. There was this line where you mentioned, “I knew you did it, and I still didn’t leave.” That hits hard, and it shows how genuine Paul’s love is for Georgia. However, that scene when you hit the wall midway through the argument was difficult to see. Can you talk us through what was going through your mind filming that scene?
Scott Porter: That was an incredibly difficult process. There were a lot of conversations about Paul's actions. A phrase I've seen thrown around by the fans, and I think it's pretty on point, is 'right reaction, wrong action.' Paul's frustration came out in heartbreak, in devastation, and disappointment, and then finally, in a physical action, all of the feelings are very warranted. The physical action was a really tough thing for me to meet as the actor portraying Paul, because over the first two seasons, you know, I really thought that Paul could stand tall through all of the Maelstrom that is Georgia Miller, and he knows a bit of her past at that point.
He knows that Gil did abuse her, he knows that she has a history with this, and he never meant to touch her, and he doesn't touch her, but the physical act of banging the wall creates almost a PTSD for her, and that is not something that Paul would ever want to inflict upon her.
And I know that about Paul being the actor that's inhabited his character for a number of years, he is a very thoughtful character, and that action is thoughtless, but in talking with Sarah Lampert, our creator, and working with our director, Sharon Lewis, who was just so perfect to pilot that scene, and of course, working across from Brianne, we were able to find something where I could find the truth and the honesty in it and deliver it as painful as it was. I never wanted Paul to hit that wall. I still to this day wish he never did, and that's where Paul is probably sitting right now. I wish I had just not hit that wall, but I did.
So, where do I go from here? And he starts to see his world crumble even further after that action. And there's another phrase that I hear a lot, hurting people hurt people. And you can see his action after that scene. His hurt manifests itself in the way he dismisses Nick. His hurt manifests itself in the way he does not want to accept Georgia's apology or any chance at reconciliation.
And you see the way that he starts to approach his career, almost with the same thing he's hurt, and he almost hurt somebody else, and it just deepened it. So, you know, it was a very tough scene to do that day, which was very emotionally charged. But our show is so highly supportive of our cast, our directors, our creatives, we all have each other's backs, and I really felt the magic of that that day."
Scott Porter Explains Why Paul Is Not A Villain
"He's just a guy who made a very large mistake and is trying to figure out his way through..."
- The Direct: It goes without saying that Paul’s political career is important to him. At the end of the season, Georgia was proven not guilty of the murder, and suddenly, the roles are reversed. Georgia is now the hero, and Paul becomes the villain (in the eyes of the public, at least). Going into Season 4, how does that affect Paul’s arc?
Scott Porter: "I’m going to start off by saying, our show doesn't really have many actual villains. Yeah, in our regular cast, we have a lot of characters who make poor decisions, sometimes repeatedly. That does not make them a villain. I don't think that Paul is in his ‘villain arc’ right now. I think he is dealing with the fallout of something he thought was going to be the rest of his life falling apart in front of his eyes, and knows that his wife had a large hand in it, and so did he.
But that guilt, that one action, that reaction, does not make him a villain. I think audiences nowadays, for some, want to see things in black and white, and we are not a show that deals mostly in black and white. Yes, we have a couple of characters, especially in the flashbacks. ‘Yes, these are not good people. These are closest to villains.’ [These are] Georgia's stepfather, Gil, you know, those characters? Yes, villains, but Cynthia, not a villain, a human being. Paul, not a villain, a human being who acts, reacts sometimes poorly, makes mistakes, and tries to figure out their way through. So just want to start there.
Okay, that being said, their roles being reversed with Georgia kind of being the hero in town is very interesting to me, but I want audiences to remember that in Season 1, Paul was embroiled with the battle against Cynthia, and as he called them, the other, quote, unquote, Wellsbury moms, who didn't want this town to step into the future, he was trying to open a string of dispensaries that would be local government run that would help the city improve itself, and people were fighting him on that.
So, has he really been the local hero, or has he been the guy fighting the battles against this idealistic town in Massachusetts for quite some time now? You know, he had to run for his life at the end of Season 1 against Cynthia, which, with Georgia's help, he won.
He's going to have to do it again after being recalled at the end of Season 3. So I think Paul has been here before. I don't think he's a villain, but I'm super interested and hopeful that we see Paul's resilience and his ability in Season 4 as we go into this recall election. But who knows what's going to happen? It does eat him up inside a little bit that she is seen as so innocent, because he does know truths about Georgia that the rest of the world doesn't.
They see her in a very different light, and that's why that last scene between the two of them in Season 3 was so fun to play. Paul really does believe that she is insidious, that if she gets inside something, she will destroy it from the inside out. And now he's very worried about his town, because she's got her hooks into the whole thing, and if she does, and people really love her, and then she manipulates it the way that she manipulated him. He thinks it could be the end of Wellsbury, as he knows and loves it. So Paul's not a villain. He's just a guy who made a very large mistake and is trying to figure out his way through."
Will Nick Return in Ginny & Georgia Season 4?
"If I don't get him back... I'm going to be the most depressed person you've ever met..."
- The Direct: Paul also fired his assistant, Nick, for giving him “ineffective” advice amid Georgia’s trial. You mentioned in a previous interview that it’s Paul’s way of looking for someone to blame, and it’s unfortunate that it falls to Nick. Given that Nick worked for Paul for a long time and already forged a strong bond with him, do you think there is a chance at reconciliation for the pair in Season 4, or that’s it for Nick in Ginny & Georgia?
Scott Porter: "First off, let me say Dan Bierne, the actor who plays Nick, is just so wonderful that. If I don't get him back in scenes with me in Season 4, I'm going to be the most depressed person you've ever met. I love Nick and Paul's interactions, and I love their journey over the last couple of seasons. When you first meet them, Nick has a working crush, kind of, on Paul. You see it in a couple of scenes very early on, and then their relationship became way more strategic. It became strained as Georgia came into the office and pushed them, and yet they stuck together.
Paul's trust in Nick didn't wane for a very long time, and Nick almost became Paul's informant, as I said earlier in the interview, Nick is the one that informed him that Georgia actually did commit this crime, and I'm sure he told him, You know, I'm sure Nick told Paul about a couple of other things that Georgia has done, and Paul has overlooked it, and it creates a strain on the two of their their relationship, but they still stick together. As I also said earlier in the interview, I feel like hurting people hurt people, and Paul was looking to lash out and blame somebody, and he did it with Nick.
I hope Paul can get his back up and apologize because he's going to need somebody like Nick. He's got to understand that Nick really did have his back the entire first three seasons. He's got to be able to see that if he can't get out of his way and apologize to Nick, Paul's going to be in a lot more trouble than I, or even you know the fans think he is. I hope that Nick and Paul come back together, because they're one of my favorite relationships on the show."
What Paul's Departure from Georgia's Life Means for Ginny & Austin
"He stepped in and wanted to be a father figure for them..."
- The Direct: Let’s talk about your bond with Ginny and Austin. It was heartbreaking for Paul to leave both kids because, for him, they are family. Can you talk about what Paul’s decision to leave Georgia behind means for Ginny and Austin?
Scott Porter: "I’ve seen a lot of people talk about Paul abandoning the children, as well as Georgia. And yes, it was another very heartbreaking thing for Paul to do this season. He stepped in and wanted to be a father figure for them. They're not his flesh and blood. And he was willing to step up to bat and say, I want to be there for them with Jenny. He understood that Zion was around, so he was very careful in the way that he moved, you know, navigated being, you know, step-parent in that household with her, because he didn't want to get in Zion's way at all.
He never wanted to act like he was stepping into Zion's place. But with Austin, I think he loves that kid so deeply, and there are a couple of things that I've seen the fans say in their reactions after Season 3 aired. You know, Paul didn't do anything for those kids on his way out.
Well, that's not true. Paul petitioned for custody of Austin to try and keep him out of Gil's hands, but there's only so much a mayor can do, yeah, and his political power didn't allow him to break so many laws. Gil is his legal father, and there was nothing Paul could do about it. Paul tried, and I understand Paul left the house, but he tried to continue his relationship with them. He returned to make sure they had police custody. He was there to make sure he saved them from the press and that they all knew the rules. You know, he could protect them from afar as much as he could. So Paul stepped in and did some things.
Again, some of the fan base sees the actions of a character in black and white when there are a lot of grays here for Paul. Another thing that they said is that he abandoned the family by stopping to pay [Georgia’s] lawyer. And it was interesting to me, because Paul says a number of times throughout the course of the season, he is going bankrupt paying for this lawyer.
He is not paying for Josh Finn [the lawyer] out of his dad's pocket. He's paying for Josh Finn out of his own pocket, which is, as we saw in Season 2, when we dealt with the wedding between Paul and Georgia, not an infinite bank account. You know, he's a single guy. He's out there. Yes, he's the mayor of a town, but the mayor of a small town does not a millionaire make, so Paul's funds were running short.
Everything he had, he banked on that relationship with Georgia, and he watched it all fall apart. He's broke, you know, he's lost his family. He's lost the person he thought was going to be his partner for life. And whether or not you agree that he was pushed to that point, Paul truly believes it.
That being said, going forward, I do believe that Paul really wants to make sure to check up on Austin and see if he's okay. I think Paul's pretty confident in his friendship with Zion, now that he knows that Ginny will be 100% taken care of by her two parents. But Austin, I think, is the one he worries about. And I could see a world where Paul continues to try and, from afar, check up on Austin and make sure that he's going to be okay."
Scott Porter Shares His Thoughts About Georgia's Pregnancy Twist
"He would have a hard time believing it at first, but I think he would come around to it eventually..."
- The Direct: Ginny and Georgia Season 3 ended with the big reveal that Georgia is pregnant, and the baby could either be with Paul or Joe. There are a lot of theories out there, and I want to know your take on them. Hypothetically, if it’s Paul’s baby, it will be hard for Georgia to convince him that it’s his. What do you think it would take for Paul to believe Georgia that she is now telling the truth about her being pregnant?
Scott Porter: "I mean, ah, four months in. I mean, maybe he'll buy it then. But if she tells him right away, in this first trimester where you can't even, like, when Georgia Miller is not showing at all, like, I think it would take scientific proof. You need to go to a doctor together. I need to see the paperwork. I need to see a blood draw. I need to see all of it. I need every single T crossed and every single i dotted to make sure that this is actually what's happening. I think Paul would very much say the old movie quote, ‘I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.’ If Georgia came up to him tomorrow and was like, ‘I'm pregnant,’ What? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
He would have a hard time believing it at first, but I think he would come around to it eventually. I don't know if it's Paul's. I don't know if it's Joe's. Our writer's room has been out in the press, letting people know that it's a very fluid situation as well, for them. [Creator] Sarah Lampert walked into the writer's room and said, I know exactly whose baby it is. Convince me otherwise. And then they had debates day after day in the writers’ room on whose it was. And that is so interesting for our show, and that is so exciting for our fans to know that they are taking this much care examining it all from all the angles.
So you know, you've got the easy, happy ending way with Joe, and you've got the more complicated, high, dramatic way with Paul. And we'll see where the chips fall. I'm just as excited as all the rest of the fans to see what happens next, and I'm in the same boat as far as not knowing anything at all."
Scott Porter Reveals 1 Dream Storyline for Paul in Season 4
"The only thing I really want to see for Paul is for him to rebound... [and] show a high amount of resilience..."
- The Direct: Do you have any dream storylines for Paul in Season 4?
Scott Porter: "The only thing I really want to see for Paul is for him to rebound, do some soul searching, show a high amount of resilience, pick himself back up, and fight for what he has always wanted, which is to keep his position and remain in a place where he can create real, honest change in a different way than his father did, politically.
That's really all I want. I'm not sure how that affects the relationships around him, but we've heard for years how good at his job Paul is, but we have rarely seen it. So I hope in Season 4, we can finally see what made Paul Paul before Georgia Miller stepped into Wellsbury."
The first three seasons of Ginny & Georgia are streaming on Netflix.
