Tamara Braun dug deep as Kim faced uncharted territory

After GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Kim went through months of fear, hope and heartbreak with Oscar, Tamara Braun was allowed to let her character sit with her pain and try to fi gure out what came next. While Kim searched for a straw to grasp, her portrayer kept her performance grounded and ultimately won this week’s Gold Star.

The Family Oscar Wanted

With Mt. Kilimanjaro a gnarly climb, Kim was hit hard after she and Drew scattered their son’s ashes — and Braun completely sold her character’s altitude sickness as well as the medicated haze she fell into after receiving treatment. With her defenses down, Kim’s pain was palpable. And when she saw Oscar in Drew’s place, she glowed with love. Waking up later, Kim didn’t remember facing her regrets or apologizing to Oscar for not giving him the family that he’d deserved. But her hand moved unconsciously to her belly, and with a smile, she whispered, “A little brother or sister… Can you imagine?”

Kim’s Strange New Life

When she returned to her apartment in Port Charles, Kim seemed distracted. While Drew responded to the stuffy air and noticed that she needed groceries, she just stared pensively into the space that she formerly shared with Oscar. “There’s no rush,” she said with an awkward smile. “All we have is time — just time to miss our son.”

The mother’s once-overwhelming plate of responsibility was suddenly empty. There was nothing to fi ght for. No one to protect. No ashes to scatter. Everything had already been done. Or, as Braun puts it in her Feature Interview, page 38, Kim had lost her anchor.

The Mother Of Invention?

When Julian showed up with provisions, Kim smiled softly and let him come to her. Leaning in to him, she stared out into the night and quietly told him about returning her son to the heavens. She smiled wistfully — in fact, that’s how she responded to most of what Julian said. At times, like when he said she had been a good mom, there were tears behind that smile, but she wasn’t giving in to the pain. However deep her sadness, she had to fi gure out who she was now. 

Curled up with Julian on the couch, Kim couldn’t comprehend what healing would look like, and at the thought of one day not seeing herself as a mother, Braun fi nally let her character’s tears fall. “It would be like looking in a mirror and just seeing a stranger,” Kim cried. But then something hit her.

Turning to “Charlie” with what seemed like clarity, she told him she loved him, gave him a hungry kiss and said, “Make a baby with me.” A sense of calm fell over Kim, who believed that she’d found her lifeboat… and knowing better, we couldn’t wait to see Braun face the storm that was sure to come.