General Hospital's Vinessa Antoine Never Planned To Exit, But Execs Made Their Own Decision
It’s not unexpected for General Hospital to recast, but at least be honest about it.
When you've been watching a soap opera as long as General Hospital, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, you expect to see some actors come and go, as well as their characters. But it's also expected that some of the main characters will be recast and the plot will move on.
General Hospital viewers are no strangers to seeing their favorites look a little different, but they're not so used to seeing some shady business surrounding someone's departure.
The first recasting of Jordan Ashford, which took place in 2018 and saw original actress Vinessa Antoine leave the show and be replaced by Briana Nicole Henry, came as a surprise to many.
At the time, Antoine was lucky enough to land a starring role in the upcoming Canadian drama Diggstown.
In order to film the series, the actress would have to take some time off from the show, which ABC gladly used as an excuse to write her off the cast. The statement released by the network to Soap Opera Digest read as follows:
“Vinessa Antoine exercised her pilot out and is choosing to leave the show. While we are incredibly sad to see an actress of her caliber go, we feel that the character of Jordan Ashford is too important to lose and will be recasting the role.”
While the statement is completely understandable, it wasn't entirely true. As the actress later revealed, she had every intention of staying on as Jordan Ashford and never made the decision to leave the show altogether.
If anything, the decision was made for her by someone higher up in production.
"I thought that I would get to stay. It was quite a shocker for me. <...> I knew that we were only going to be gone for the summer, so I thought maybe my character could go away on an undercover mission or fall into a coma. But they had other plans, which was out of my control," Antoine told TV Watercooler.
Either way, after Antoine was done with the show, the role of Jordan Ashford went to several different actresses, finally landing on Tanisha Harper in March 2022.
If you are interested in Jordan's current events, tune in to General Hospital on ABC Monday through Friday.
Source: TV Watercooler