Adam J. Harrington went out in a big way when his character, John “Jagger” Cates, was shot twice by Sonny Corinthos in cold blood on General Hospital.
The actor spoke with Michael Fairman on his Youtube Channel about his incredible experience at GH, highlighting certain people and moments as well as having worked on a project with the late Billy Miller (ex-Drew, GH; ex-Billy, Young and Restless; ex-Richie, All My Children).
Last Looks
When the actor, who had recently cut his hair shorter for a role he was preparing for (but couldn’t give details about) sat down for his livestream interview with Fairman, he shared that he wasn’t entirely surprised to find out that he was being killed off the show, explaining, “They take a [production] 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 [head] writers were gone within a month and then the second [head] writers, I don’t know how long they lasted, and then the third [head-writing team] 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.”
The show certainly mounted a dramatic exit for Cates, which, because the show often shoots out of order, was not actually the last material Harrington filmed. He shared, “I finished on a Friday. That [Sonny/John showdown] was filmed on a Wednesday. Thursday I was partly lying on the ground with rain going up my nose.” He described his last day at work at GH as “wonderful and sad and bittersweet and everything,” adding, “It was an really intense day because it was the last day before everyone goes on hiatus for a month.
So everybody was working really hard and I had 70 pages of dialogue to do that day, and the cast and the crew and the producers were all amazing just to try to get me through it…. It was a purely chaotic day and of course, by the afternoon your brain’s fried. You can’t really remember anything. So, you just go and you go, and then we all had a really sweet hug-fest at the end.”
The actor acknowledged that he was bummed because “I was gonna miss everybody,” but had a pragmatic view of his exit. “As far as the job of telling Jagger’s story, I thought that that was complete,” he noted.
“You’re in the business long enough that you know 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 surfing outing].”
Harrington was impressed by the rainstorm GH produced for the moody setting of John’s demise. “[The rain] adds to the mood… the only note was be a little elevated.
I can tell I’m a little elevated in my volume and all that stuff.… These things are filmed so fast so they can get the product out to the fans every day on TV that [they say] ‘Speak up and go.’ So you’re just trying to gauge how loud the thunder might be or how loud the rain is going to be.” He summed up that shooting the scenes “was all kinds of fun.”
Harrington said that he could see the writing on the wall for John as the character began going off the rails in his vendetta against Sonny. “You bring in an FBI agent, two things are gonna happen,” Harrington posited. “People are gonna go to jail or he disappears.” And he had plenty of time before he wrapped filming to make peace with leaving.” 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.”
Good Company
Harrington had plenty of praise to offer for his GH co-stars. Of the man whose character did in Jagger, Maurice Benard (Sonny), Harrington said, “Maurice and I had very few conversations and when we did, they were really lovely… We would talk when we got to set, we’d figure things out.
But I don’t know, man, it just kind of clicked right away. I trusted it, he trusted it.” The intense hatred they had to play in the world of Port Charles, which culminated in Sonny unloading his gun on Jagger, ended when the cameras stropped rolling. “There was a big hug after we shot the final [scene]. I have an enormous amount of respect for him and he is such a delight to work with.”
Harington also loved getting to go toe-to-toe with powerhouse actress Maurice West (Ava). “It was so much fun,” he recalled. “We clicked — so much trust there.” The actor shared that when he shot the final interaction between Ava and John, “All I wanted to do when I was walking out of that hotel room with the luggage and you can see me, I’m ever so slightly awkward at the door because all I wanted to do is go back to her and kiss her one last time.
And even where John was at, there was a part of him that knew what he was doing was wrong, but he couldn’t stop himself.”
He also had the pleasure of working with another GH legend, Finola Hughes (Anna). He joked, “I hated working with her because she never let me get away with anything. Everything Jagger was saying was right and she wouldn’t budge… that’s why she was so much fun to work with and [she’s] just a wonderful person… We had a lot of endless conversations about stuff but man, did she make me angry in those scenes…”
Paying Tribute
Harrington also talked about his work in prime-time and was asked about working with the late Billy Miller (ex-Drew, GH) on Major Crimes. “You know, there’s people that come along in your life and they just make an impact right away,” he began. “Billy was one of those people.” He recalled of Miller, “For a guy that had such a kind of a blue-collar, you know, bluster kind of thing… He [was] such a sweet guy.
And I remember there was a lot of laughing between takes and then watching his work, I was like, ‘Wow, this guy’s good. This guy is really good.’ And then we would see each other around town every once in a while and have a conversation. But I’d always thought, ‘Man, I’d love to go toe to toe with him again in some work.’ ”
