General Hospital star Jeff Kober is speaking out after his character's sudden demise on the soap opera last week.
The 71-year-old actor has played Cyrus Renault on the long-running soap opera in 247 episodes since 2020, though his run came to an end last week.
Cyrus was shot and killed by Josslyn (Eden McCoy) on Thursday's episode, bringing an end to a character who has ended many lives himself in his five-year run, which comes after General Hospital's Leslie Charleson's cause of death was revealed.
Kober's run included picking up a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor back in 2022.
The actor opened up about his run in a wide-ranging interview with Soap Opera Digest where he admitted that he was still processing his exit.
'I’m just now starting to process it because I shot five episodes on January 15th, and on January 16th, I flew to India for nearly a month and had all the experiences that one has when one goes to India for nearly a month,' he said.
'I miss going to work, I miss the people, I miss the process. I gotta tell you, I love acting on a soap,' he added.
'It’s so dangerous for an actor to let go and let the scene happen, and General Hospital gave me an opportunity to practice that letting go, day after day after day, and I relished that. And I will miss that,' Kober admitted.
One of the signs Cyrus may be on his way out happened in December, when it was revealed he killed Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco), which he thought was, 'a leap.'
'The thing about soap opera writing and acting is, it’s always open to interpretation. As an actor, you kind of have to be ready, willing and able to jump in a particular direction,' he added.
Kober joked, 'When I saw that script, I said, “Wait a minute! Don’t I get a vote?” And they said, “No, of course not."'
'And I had to make it work within the realm of my logic of the character and of the world. You have to go to a certain level of crazy,' Kober added.
'The whole thing of, “Did he find God or not?” — we lived in that world for a long time and from that perspective, it was kind of a relief to go, like, “Oh, he’s killing people. Even if he’s doing it in the name of the Lord, still, he’s killing people!”' he added.
'The character made sense to me more. Just in terms of the way it feels to be in a character, it was a relief and a return to form.
He added that working with Eden McCoy, 'was just a joy,' adding it may have been one of his favorite deaths.
'I’ve died many times in many different storylines, and I think this is perhaps one of my best deaths,' he said.
He added that there was a measure of 'magic' in their final scenes, adding, 'So, I’m really happy with the way it turned out. I do feel like it was a good death.'
When asked for some final thoughts on the character, he added, 'I would like to thank the audience for working through their initial hatred of Cyrus — of course, this is just from social media, that’s all I can go on — to embracing him as a valid character and a good place to put their anger and judgment and hatred!'
'I really do appreciate the fans’ appreciation of me and of the character and of the stories we were able to tell. There’s nothing like the GH audience! They’re so solid and delightful in all my experiences with them,' he added.
