Andrew Hawkes did not play Cullum like a man who woke up one morning and decided evil looked good with a suit. The General Hospital villain lied, kidnapped, tortured, and nearly burned down the WSB from the inside, but the actor gave him a reason that made sense to the man doing it. In a new interview, Hawkes revealed the private backstory he created for Cullum that was driving his character.
Key Takeaways
- Andrew Hawkes created a private backstory to explain Cullum’s rage.
- Hawkes said Cullum believed he was doing the right thing.
- His backstory imagined that the WSB abandoned Cullum after a mission.
- Cullum’s rage came from being unable to reach his dying daughter.
- Hawkes said Cullum’s mission was not about money, but revenge.
- Cullum wanted to destroy the WSB from the inside out.
Cullum Thought He Was Right
Hawkes spoke to Michael Fairman TV about finding the darkness behind Cullum. He explained that he had to make the character’s choices personal, even when the audience only saw the damage. “My character, in my eyes, was doing the right thing always.”
That was the key. Cullum was not playing random villain bingo, even if his list of crimes kept getting longer every week. Hawkes said he imagined that Cullum had once done a WSB job, only to be abandoned by the agency and kept from returning home when his daughter was dying.
That pain became Cullum’s engine. Hawkes said the WSB locked him out, leaving him with no health insurance, no money, and no way to reach his child. “I couldn’t get to my child in the time of her greatest need, and I couldn’t do anything because of the WSB.”
Revenge Became the Whole Point
Hawkes made it clear that this was his own actor’s backstory, not something handed down by the writers. Still, it helped him understand why Cullum carried so much rage. The mission was not greed or power for its own sake.
As Hawkes put it, “It’s not about money. It’s about revenge.” That explains why Cullum did not just want to win. He wanted to tear the WSB apart from the inside and make everyone in his way pay for a betrayal they may not have even known existed.
Hawkes also summed up the difference between hero and villain in a way that fits Cullum almost too well. “A hero says, ‘The world hurt me, and I don’t want to hurt anybody else.’ A villain says, ‘The world hurts me, and I’m going to hurt the world.’” Cullum chose the second door, then kicked it off the hinges.
MORE: Cullum and Sidwell’s reign of terror ends for now.
