News that General Hospital’s Jonathan Jackson would be leaving his role as Lucky Spencer shocked the soap community last week. Now the Emmy winning star is talking about what led to his departure. In an interview with TV Guide, Jackson discusses Lucky and Elizabeth not being put back together and his exhaustion from Lucky’s many emotional scenes.

TV Guide Magazine: What brought you to the decision not to renew your contract? How was your exhaustion manifesting itself?
Jackson: It's an interesting paradox. The storylines don't stay with me in the sense that I feel personally tormented by what my character is going through, but it does take its toll on me physically and emotionally. It's a real energy zapper and there are days when I feel like I have nothing left to give. And in this medium where you're dealing with a pretty insane amount of dialogue, day in, day out, the collision of a heavy workload and increasing exhaustion can make you a little crazy. I love to work hard but I've been at maximum capacity in terms of mental and emotional output for months on end and it has become too difficult. I am extremely thankful that they wanted to give me all those storylines with so much depth, but there's just no balance. Usually, you might get one or maybe two really good and intense story arcs per year. There's usually a cycle to this stuff on soaps. But this has been nonstop. There was just no reprieve. I have a wife and three kids and other things in life I have to think about. I just knew I couldn't sustain the schedule at GH and that kind of emotion for much longer. It was just too intense.

Read the entire interview at TV Guide.

While Jonathan Jackson's departure from General Hospital has been rumored online for weeks, news that the actor actually made the decision to quit has been a shocker for soap fans and the industry. Since the initial report, more deets have come out about what possibly made Jackson decide Port Charles wasn't such a 'Lucky' fictional city to live in anymore.

According to TV Guide's Michael Logan, setsiders claim Jackson "is exhausted from a heavy work schedule and months of a harrowing storylines that have included the death of Lucky's child and the character's addiction to drugs. " Meanwhile, ABC Soaps In Depth is reporting ABC Daytime may be scrambling to convince Jackson to stay. I know, why not hire a new showrunner and head writer? Wendy Riche and Sri Rao, anyone?
  READ MORE

This is a shocker! According to Soap Opera Digest, Jonathan Jackson is leaving his role as Lucky Spencer on General Hospital. Reportedly, he will depart Port Charles in early 2012.  The magazine says the show has not revealed if it intends to recast the role. 

 

SOAPnet is giving a special gift to fans of General Hospital's Lucky Spencer (Jonathan Jackson). On Nov. 25, viewers can tune into "Lucky Friday", a five-hour marathon of episodes featuring Luke (Anthony Geary) and Laura's (Genie Francis) first born, starting at 7 pm EST. Check out the details after the jump!

  READ MORE

General Hospital star Jonathan Jackson and his Enation bandmates Daniel Sweatt, Richard Jackson, Luke Galeotti and Michael Galeotti (pictured above) unveiled their new billboard in Times Square, on October 11, in New York City. Their album, My Ancient Rebellion, recently cracked the iTunes Top 200 National Alternative Album Chart.  For more information on Enation, visit their official website. See more photos from the unveiling after the jump! READ MORE

From the moment we first watched the explosive scenes where Lucky Spencer verbally destroyed those who had betrayed him on General Hospital, we knew Jonathan Jackson was on his way to easily securing his fourth Daytime Emmy win. The gentle, emotive thespian brought two of his kids with former GH costar Lisa Vultaggio (ex-Hannah) with him backstage to field questions from the press, following his recent win for Outstanding Supporting Actor.

Is it hard for such an all-around good guy to rip apart his costars and childhood friends Rebecca Herbst (Liz) and Tyler Christopher (Nikolas) during such powerful scenes?

"It is difficult, you know?," began Jackson. "Because I really love them as people, so to have to go there...I asked Tyler and Becky to come aside with me and we all said a prayer together, because I said, 'I don't really like going to these places without having a kind of covering of prayer."

Even with the added help of his faith, however, Jackson felt the need to apologize to his longtime leading lady following the volatile scenes. READ MORE