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Emmy Winner Sarah Joy Brown (Claudia) has announced she is leaving ABC’s ‘General Hospital.’
Sarah Joy Brown (Claudia) has announced she is leaving ABC’s General Hospital. “All the news that is fit to print. Claudia Zacchara has been a wild ride, every ride stops when the music ends. The Music stops mid Oct,” the actress posted via Twitter earlier today. “Its been nice being back at GH, but it’s time for the Character to come to an end, at least for me. Much love.”
This news should come of no surprise to her fans. The three time Emmy Winner has made no secret of her displeasure with the direction her character was taken in. “GH is a fantastic Drama, but Claudia Z is a mess. I’ve spoken my peace about CZ hurting Kids. I’m strongly opposed to the ideas.U support?” she wrote on her Twitter page in August.
“It’s important to me that Claudia is multidimensional,” said Brown to in the August 11 issue of Soap Opera Digest. “How can anyone relate to or be sympathetic to someone who’d go after a kid. But I’ve said it before. I love the ‘opera’ in soap opera.” That same week, Soap Opera Weekly reported in their August 11 issue the actress implied she was considering now renewing her contract during General Hospital’s Fan Club Weekend in July.
Soap Opera Digest is reporting the actress will be leaving in November. “Her departure from Port Charles will be buzz-worthy for November sweeps,” said a spokesperson to SOD.
Brown rejoined GH in January 2008 as mob princess Claudia Zacchara after a 7 year absence. Her much anticipated and heavily promoted return would suffer from mixed reactions by the fans. The inconsistent writing for Claudia made it hard for fans to connect to her. It also didn’t help that Claudia had little, if no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Claudia slept with Sonny (Maurice Benard) almost immediately upon her introduction, incurring the wrath of fans of Sonny & Kate (Megan Ward). Any chance of “redeeming” the character was severely reduced in April 2008, when Sonny’s son Michael (then Dylan Cash) was shot in the head after the hit she ordered went terribly wrong. In the months after, Claudia lied and covered up her involvement in the shooting. To make matters worse, Claudia and Sonny married later in the year!
Over time, their tumultuous relationship seemed to soften after Claudia would prove herself useful to Sonny. When Claudia’s involvement in Michael’s shooting became in danger of being exposed, she concocted a plan to get pregnant with Sonny’s child, thereby preventing Sonny or Jason (Steve Burton) from killing her. The paternity of her child was in question, as Claudia had an ongoing relationship with Sonny’s brother Ric (Rick Hearst) at the time. Claudia lost the child in a car accident the same day it was confirmed Sonny was the father. Any chance of “redeeming” the character was once again lost after Claudia vowed revenge on Michael (now played by Drew Garrett), whom she believed to be initially responsible. When Claudia learned it was Sonny’s other child Kristina (Lexi Ainsworth) who caused the accident, she promised to make Kristina pay for what happened to her baby, even leaving the girl to die during an accident at a hospital carnival.
The actress seemed to be looking forward to the future, and thanked her fans. “Have a film in the works for Nov – a lead role to die for – and we shall c what else comes up. Thank you for your support, means the world!” she tweeted.
So what does this mean for Claudia? It seems doubtful that GH would recast the role, but stranger things have happened. The walls will soon close in on Claudia though, as the list of Port Charles residents with a bone to pick with her continues to grow. She’ll also have more to deal with when Sam (Kelly Monaco), Jason and Spinelli (Bradford Anderson) team up to get the goods on Claudia on October 7!
TVSource Magazine wishes Sarah the best in all her future endeavors!
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