'General Hospital' Cast News: Anthony Geary Trashes Luke's Exit Storyline, It Was 'Ill-Conceived' & 'Cheesy' [PHOTO]
His final scenes in the iconic role of Luke Spencer on General Hospital are airing in the coming days, but Anthony Geary isn't very happy with what happened with his character's big exit.
Though he admitted in an exit interview with TV Insider that he loved getting to work with older colleagues who all came back to send him off in some way, he also admitted that the storyline was one he didn't care much for, because it undid so many of the greatest storylines he had been a part of over his 35 years in the role.
"I loved that they brought back Emma Samms [Holly], Genie Francis [Laura], Jonathan Jackson [Lucky] and Nathan Parsons [Ethan] so I could work with them one last time, but I did not like the conceit that brought us all together," he said. "It was ill-conceived, cheesy and showed a lack of imagination. We saw Luke shoot Frank in the back over 20 years ago. And by the way, that character was old then. He would have been in his hundreds by now."
As for the storyline that saw his grandson, Jake, whom his character thought he killed years ago in a drunk driving accident, Geary admits he still wasn't a fan of that either.
"The audience saw that little boy dead on the operating table, and his organs were harvested. I do not understand the value of disassembling two of the best stories we've told," he said. "I guess the point of bringing the child back from the dead was so Luke could be redeemed, but I never fely he needed that. I hate redemption. I'm sure there are audience members who didn't want him to be a child killer and so they're pleased, which is fine. But I was not thrilled."
Geary also talked about how he wouldn't miss newer writers and producers coming into the fold and trying to tell him how to portray his role--something he grew to detest over the years.
"...Acting is an interpretative art and that's really forgotten on our show, where the actors are expected to be slavishly devoted to the stage directions in the script. I get scripts where I'm literally told where to take a deep breath and what line to cry on and when to turn my body. Sometimes the writer's stage directions are longer than the scenes themselves," he said. "...There's a mistrust of actors on out show, as if we're going to misunderstand the material. To be told to weep on a certain line is absurd. I don't know when the hell I'm going to weep, if I weep at all, until I'm actually playing the scene. You don't plan that s--t out!"
"In all modesty, Jane Elliot [Tracy] and I have 90 years of professional acting experience between us and for us to be handed a scene where we are told how to read every line is insulting," he continued. "Now, she and I will just laugh it off and get on with the damn scene, but I feel bad for the younger ones because it can thwart any creative moments they might have. Any real moments. We should be spontaneous and thinking on our feet, not acting by rote."