Adam J. Harrington Opens up About His Last Days at GH

Viewers may have been shocked when Sonny shot Jagger in cold blood on General Hospital, but Adam J. Harrington had known for months that his character was on the way out. The actor, who joined the soap in February 2024, admitted that he could see the writing on the wall given the multiple changes in headwriters during his brief time in Port Charles.

“I think in the six months I was there I only shot four-and-a-half months because of the breaks they would take,” Harrington said during an interview with Michael Fairman. “They take a break at the end of every month and I think there was a two-week break in there. So over four-and-a-half months, I think the first writers were gone within a month and then the second writers, I don’t know how long they lasted, and then the third came in. So every time a new writer team comes in, they’re gonna want to put their own stamp on it to show the bosses why they got hired. So I knew after the first writer change everything might be up in the air as far as why I’m there. Because Jagger’s so newly introduced.”

As John’s vendetta against Sonny intensified, it became clear where the soap was headed with the character. “You bring in an FBI agent, two things are gonna happen,” Harrington chuckled. “People are gonna go to jail or he disappears. They had let me know in May, I think, that I was gonna be done. So that final chunk, I knew I was gonna wrap up, it was just a matter of how. And then when the time came, they let me know how. So that final arc was just backtracking from the confrontation with Sonny and how to plot that.”

Jagger’s final scenes with Sonny and being shot dead in the rainstorm were not actually the final scenes that the actor shot for GH. “I finished on a Friday,” Harrington revealed. “That was filmed on a Wednesday. Thursday I was partly lying on the ground with rain going up my nose. So Friday was just… wonderful and sad and bittersweet and everything.

“But it was a really intense day because it was the last day before everyone goes on hiatus for a month,” he continued. “So everybody was working really hard and I had 70 pages of dialogue to do that day. So it was a purely chaotic day. Of course, by the afternoon, your brain’s fried and you can’t really remember anything. And then we had a really sweet hug-fest at the end.”

While Harrington enjoyed his run on the soap, as an actor, he understands this kind of thing is all part of the gig. “I knew I was gonna miss everybody,” he confessed. “As far as the job of telling Jagger’s story, I thought that was complete for whatever it’s gonna be. And you’re in this business long enough that, when a job ends, a job ends. I think I finished at 8:00 that night and at 5:00 in the morning I was at the airport on my way to Costa Rica [for a surf trip].”

While it’s unlikely Jagger will be popping back up on GH, we’re sure a talented actor like Harrington will soon be on screens again very soon. Keep checking back here at SoapsInDepth.com and we’ll keep you updated on where you can see him next!

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