‘V.C. Andrews’ Dawn’: Donna Mills on Why ‘Lillian Is Way Badder’ Than Abby From ‘Knots Landing’

Donna Mills’ most famous TV part is undoubtedly the manipulative Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner, whom she deliciously played for nine seasons (1980-89) on CBS’s primetime soap Knots Landing. But the actress says that even Abby might run and hide from powerful hotel owner Lillian Cutler in Lifetime’s limited series V.C. Andrews’ Dawn, premiering Saturday, July 8. “People say to me, ‘You’re used to playing the bad girl because you played Abby.’ And I say, ‘Lillian is way badder!’”

In the premiere, Lillian’s nastiness is unleashed on innocent teen Dawn Longchamp (Brec Bassinger, DC’s Stargirl), who learns that she’s really the presumed-dead Eugenia Cutler, and the humble “parents” she grew up with (played by Jesse Metcalfe and Helena Marie) abducted her as a baby.

Being a minor, Dawn has no choice but to be separated from her loving brother, Jimmy (Khobe Clarke), and move in with grandmother Lillian, who quickly puts Dawn to work at Cutler’s Cove as a chambermaid. “Did you expect to be treated like some long-lost princess?” Lillian seethes to a horrified Dawn on their first meeting.

Lifetime

Dawn believes she’ll find solace once she meets her biological parents, father Randolph (Jason Cermak, whom Lifetime viewers might recognize from V.C. Andrews’ Heaven) and mother Laura Jean (Miranda Frigon), but she soon finds that they and everyone else in the hotel live by Lillian’s stern rules. She manipulates the family “through punishment and falsifying things,” Mills says. “It’s going to be the way she wants it to be.”

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The four-part movie series (subsequent chapters air every Saturday in July) is based on four of the Flowers in the Attic author’s dark Cutler books — Dawn, Secrets of the Morning, Twilight’s Child, and Midnight Whispers — all of which Mills studied to get into character. “You’re going, ‘Oh, that’s weird. That’s twisted [while reading].’ But it’s fascinating,” she admits. (Andrews, who died in 1986, would have been 100 this past June.)

As Dawn’s drama becomes increasingly unraveled, the strong-willed high schooler fights Lillian every step of the way. Could Dawn and Lillian be more alike than they first perceived? “I think so,” Mills says. “Dawn was brought up in a whole different way, but she does have the Cutler blood.” That’s very evident in the July 15 installment when Dawn is able to get the upper hand on Lillian and moves to New York City to enroll in a performing arts school.

Playing the vicious matriarch was a kick for Mills, and she found Lillian’s psychology endlessly fascinating. “She’s very nasty, and the thing is, you don’t know why.” But, she adds, “you find out a lot of [her history].” And you can bet it’s juicy!

V.C. Andrews’ Dawn, Series Premiere Saturday, July 8, 8/7c, Lifetime