How much more can Sully suffer? As viewers of the hit CTV Original drama series “SULLIVAN’S CROSSING” know, the walls are closing in on Sully Sullivan, played by Scott Patterson. His campground business in Nova Scotia has not recovered after a tough couple of years, and financial pressures are mounting. Sully’s fraught personal life is about to become even more complicated as echoes of the past resurface in a new episode airing Sunday, April 16, at 7 p.m. ET on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app.

Sully, of course, has demons lurking within him, which he has been managing to keep at bay, with great effort. The struggle is always apparent in his sad and weary eyes. With everything seemingly getting worse, at what point might he give in to his darker impulses? Scott Patterson, best known for his role as Luke Danes in the beloved series “GILMORE GIRLS,” brings a deep and personal connection to the character of Sully. He explained that Sully’s struggle mirrors what many people with addictions experience – the feeling of spinning your wheels and not moving forward.

“I think that’s what a lot of people with addictions experience, and it can cause the feeling, in anybody’s life, whatever the addiction might be, of just spinning your wheels,” Patterson said. “Because if you can’t get out of your own way, you ain’t goin’ anywhere. Sully is in a phase where things seem to be on a downward trend, personally and professionally. While Maggie’s (Sully’s daughter, played by Morgan Kohan) return initially gives him hope, it feels like the ‘same old, same old’ result is going to happen. So yeah, I think it’s an apt analogy.”

Patterson’s portrayal of Sully is enriched by his own life experiences. “I come from the same kind of background, and had experience with that in my family, and I battled it myself in my youth and overcame it,” Patterson said. “I’m so grateful that I did, because we know where that other path leads. And I guess you’re right, you can never take that cloak off. It’s always there. It’s just part of you.”

Blending reality and fiction is a courageous form of acting. “I’ve lived a lot of life in my 64 years, I’ve had a couple of different careers, and I guess I kind of wear it – it’s inevitable,” Patterson said. “From a technical acting point of view, it’s knowing enough about the craft to allow your life to exist on camera, instead of trying to cover it up with artifice. You borrow from your life, you let it breathe, you let it exist, and then you layer on a couple of other things that you think are valid, or pertinent, for the character. The uniqueness you can bring to the role is yourself. They cast you to play the character, so you have something to do with it, right?”

Patterson chuckled at this, but his character Sully hasn’t had much to chuckle about lately, with more troubles looming on the horizon. Reflecting on his acting career and notable roles, Patterson made an intriguing observation for fans of both “SULLIVAN’S CROSSING” and “GILMORE GIRLS.”

“There are some people who are trying to draw comparisons, and I’ve done it myself, and I will say this: it’s almost like playing Luke Danes had his life not gone well,” Patterson said. “Had he not married Lorelai (played by Lauren Graham in “GILMORE GIRLS”). Had he been rejected. Had he left that town. If Luke had run, maybe he ends up in the woods in Halifax, running a campground with a heavy heart and a hole inside him. That’s what really clicked for me. Because Sully is similar, in another form and another place, and he’s older now. It’s almost like the “GILMORE GIRLS” audience can come along and see what Luke could have turned out to be, had this magic with Lorelai not happened.”

As viewers prepare for new episodes, they can look forward to more of Sully’s journey, knowing that despite the cancellation, “SULLIVAN’S CROSSING” continues to deliver compelling and deeply human stories.