Wood said that she is sometimes puzzled when reading Steffy's scripts, but connects her present storyline to the character's past. She said: "I just think back to all the things Steffy has been through. She has a lot of deep seeded [sic] issues. That is where I think it stems from with her father leaving her, losing her sister, her mom sleeping with her sister’s boyfriend, etc. There are just so many traumatic things! Explaining her reaction to Steffy killing her cousin Alexandria Forrester (Ashlyn Pearce) in self-defense, Wood stated in August 2015: "When I first heard about it, I was in major shock, of course. Then I started thinking about how everything bad happens to Steffy and that it makes sense that she's a murderer now. It's kind of perfect, really."