Dominic Zamprogna Reveals Why He Really Left — and Returned to — GENERAL HOSPITAL
Fans who were upset when Dante left Port Charles in 2018 were thrilled when he returned to screens in August 2020, and now Dominic Zamprogna has revealed exactly why he chose to leave GENERAL HOSPITAL and eventually come back. The actor shared his feelings in an interview with castmates Bradford Anderson (Spinelli) and Steve Burton (Jason) in an episode of their podcast That’s Awesome! With Steve and Bradford.
Zamprogna admitted that in 2018, he began to question his career. Because he was always busy on GH, it was hard for him to go out on other auditions and he worried his limited resume would hurt his chances for future jobs. “I came down to L.A. with that job,” he said of his GH gig. “I knew nobody. I knew no casting directors, nothing.”
But also, he found that his attitude towards his regular gig at GH had changed, and not in a good way. “I was in a place where I wasn’t feeling confident about my work,” Zamprogna confessed. “I went from going up on that stage and having a great time to going up on that stage and stressing out and just not feeling like I was doing good work. That’s the other reason why I wanted to step back. I felt like I needed to clear my head. The whole thing that I realized when I left is, ‘Do I really want to act?’ It affected me so much.”
After leaving GH, Zamprogna and his wife and three daughters took a trip to Italy, then sold their house and rented a new one in a different area in California to change things up a bit. Then, of course, he began to miss Port Charles. “Everything was going really well,” he reported. “It wasn’t until like, September, October, I got the itch. You do miss your team. Even though it was my choice to leave, it still sucks to see everything continuing on and everyone having a good time. You start realizing what you want. And what I really want is to be with my people.”
Though he felt awkward asking to come back, Zamprogna finally did, and the rest is history, which Dante returning in the Aug. 3 episode when the soap came back from the pandemic hiatus. “It felt good to me and it felt right to me,” he said of being back on set as Dante to continue telling the story that was left unfinished last year. “And everybody seemed to be really excited about it. It was nice to feel welcomed back by you guys, too. It just proves you are where you’re meant to be.”
