Finola Hughes Reveals the Truth Behind Peter’s Death on GENERAL HOSPITAL
Many viewers expected Peter’s death on GENERAL HOSPITAL to be a whodunit mystery but instead, it was written as a much more personal and intimate experience between him and the woman who once believed she was his mother. “It was written so eloquently,” Finola Hughes (Anna) told Soap Opera Digest. “It was so chilling and it’s so strange because you’re just watching someone’s lights go out, that you’re sort of responsible for.”
The actress admitted that she’d always wanted her alter ego to be part of Peter’s eventual downfall, and wondered if she would be the one to end his reign of terror forever. “I asked Frank [Valentini, GH’s executive producer],” Hughes recalled. “I was like, ‘Do I kill him?’ And he sort of explained it to me and I was bummed! I was like, ‘Oh, I really feel like I should.’
“Frank was like, ‘Well, they don’t want you to be responsible for too many deaths,’” she continued. “I mean, I think there was a sort of consensus among the writers and I accepted that. And he said, ‘Wait and see how this is written.’ And when I saw it, I thought it was so artful and very clever.”
Anna may not have been the one to strike that fatal blow but she agreed to sit with Peter as he passed away so that he wouldn’t have to die alone. “It was really sad on that last day,” Hughes admitted of saying goodbye to co-star Wes Ramsey. “He was such a darling person to work with. I loved working with Wes. He was just a dream to work with.”
She also expressed admiration for the way that Ramsey handled all of the ups and downs in Peter’s storylines over the years, including his ever-changing dynamic with Anna. “We were going in one direction and then it went in another direction,” Hughes expressed. “There were so many iterations of this relationship. We both very much believe in honoring the story and we just went with it. I think as an actress, I always wanted to honor the [Anna/Peter] relationship, and me as the character, I always wanted to feel like I felt a bit responsible for him. If someone’s troubled, they’re not bad all the time.”
Hughes also wanted to remind fans that no matter how they felt about Peter, his portrayer was nothing like his evil alter ego. “Let me tell you, he has grace in droves,” she declared. “He comes from a great family and he’s just a great team player. Kirsten [Storms, Maxie] and I worked with him a lot and he never let us down. He’s like that as a friend, too.”
