Anthony Geary Tells All in 'General Hospital' Exit Interview

One of Daytime's beloved leading male actors, Anthony Geary, will wrap up the character of Luke Spencer, saying his final goodbye to Port Charles and all of its mobsters, doctors and con-artist inhabitants on ABC's General Hospital. Die-hard soaps fans remember the once blond and curly haired Luke who constantly chased the next adventure on the open road alongside his tight-knit family. In the midst of Geary's final dwindling days, he's shared his last on-screen moments with fan-favorites Genie Francis (Laura), Jonathan Jackson (Lucky Spencer) and Jane Elliot (Tracy Quartermaine). The soap veteran's last show will air Monday, July 27, which already conjured heavy commentary from Geary in an interview with TV Insider. He expressed his sadness over parting ways with the many faces he's worked with over the years but detailed his readiness to close the Luke Spencer chapter of his life.

'Yes, I was a bit emotional, but I assure you it had nothing to do with it being my last day as Luke. I was very happy about that. What was tugging at my heart was the people. I was saying goodbye to folks who are so very dear to me, some of whom I've spent half my life with. That's the hard part ," he told TV Insider.

Geary originated the character in 1978 and reeled in a total of eight Emmy Awards, reports Entertainment Weekly. He continued to take a few jabs at the GH writers, admitting the storyline wasn't all that it could be and that the writers take too much control over the script, leaving no room for the actors earnest creativity. "Being told how to do my job. Acting is an interpretive 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. The great playwrights don't do that. They trust their material. They don't feel the need to tell actors how they're supposed to be feeling at every moment," he said. Although he's spent over three decades coming and going while perfecting the mobster, rapist, alcoholic, murderous villain that somehow came to be the well-loved Luke Spencer, he cant seem to shake his one true image, Laura's counterpart. Who could forget the most watched episode of Daytime drama, the wedding of signature power couple Luke and Laura? "I just get really tired of the whole Luke-and-Laura thing. I think Genie would tell you the same. We've both been dragging the corpse of that relationship around for 30 years. I was able to insist on moving away from it, but being hyphenated as Luke-and-Laura has been a real pain in my ass. It irritated me that, no matter what I did on the show, no matter how many Emmys I won, I could never unhitch from that. He joked, "It's like having your high school graduation picture dragged out. [Laughs] Nobody wants that!"

Celebrate the Luke Spencer Farewell Event with us this week on #GH #FarewellTony! https://t.co/jsKwFUffCI — General Hospital (@GeneralHospital) July 21, 2015

It's not necessarily the fairytale ending Luke and Laura fans wanted to hear, but then again, it wouldn't be a soap opera ending without drama. Geary specified that he'll spend his time in Amsterdam, enrolled in courses concerning literature and Dutch theater history. It seems like Luke Spencer will head on an indefinite adventure away from Port Charles but he's not saying good-bye to acting just yet.

"Even the minutes I have hated, I have loved. I made a smart move joining GH and then hanging on doggedly through the bad times, bullying my way to the top. Or the middle. Or wherever this is. I had a character that was mythic and wildly unique and the best they had to offer in television. I am really, really fortunate," Geary beamed.

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General Hospital