Since leaving General Hospital, Marcus Coloma has kept himself busy bouncing between acting projects, directing, horror films, and other creative work after playing Nikolas Cassadine. But he recently dove into something far more personal than movie roles or camera tricks. He was candid about anxiety, fear, Scientology, celibacy, social media burnout, and the thing that still clearly matters to him most professionally.
Key Takeaways
- Marcus Coloma says fear controlled him on set for years.
- He credits GH’s final months with making him fearless as an actor.
- Coloma revealed undiagnosed tachycardia affected his final weeks on GH.
- The actor says missing his final GH episodes still bothers him.
- Despite his exit, Coloma says he still loves GH.
Coloma Says GH Finally Forced Him to Stop Playing Safe
Coloma appeared on Maurice Benard’s (Sonny) State of Mind and admitted something surprisingly vulnerable for an actor who spent years playing a Cassadine prince. He revealed that despite acting professionally for decades, he spent years terrified on set. “I got very nervous on sets,” he said. “I would have an idea, and I’d be too afraid.”
That fear apparently followed him straight into GH for a long time. Coloma explained that he routinely ignored his instincts whenever directors gave notes because he worried about making the wrong creative choice. Then something shifted during his final months on the show. “The last six months,” he said, “I got that fearlessness.” Suddenly, he stopped trying to please everybody in the room and started trusting his own performances instead.
What really stuck out was the way he described finally quitting the mental gymnastics every actor probably does on set. Like, he finally stopped treating acting as this terrifying pass-fail exam where one wrong choice gets you launched into the sun. He got to a place where he could hear a note, think about it, and still go, “Yeah, but I think the character would do this,” and actually commit to it. He called the experience “very liberating.”
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The End of GH Still Clearly Bothers Him
The conversation took a heavier turn once Coloma explained why his final stretch at GH became so physically difficult. After years of never struggling with dialogue, he suddenly started forgetting lines and feeling increasingly anxious at work. Eventually, doctors discovered he had tachycardia, with his heart racing constantly at around 110 beats per minute, before he ultimately underwent heart surgery.
That revelation completely changed how he viewed those last weeks on the show. Coloma admitted he originally blamed himself because he didn’t understand what was happening physically. “The way it ended bummed me out,” he said, explaining how painful it felt after putting so much into nearly 300 episodes only to miss the final handful because of his health issues.
Still, despite all the complications surrounding his exit, Coloma made it very clear there is no bitterness toward the show itself. “I absolutely love General Hospital,” he said while reflecting on the experience of working beside actors with wildly different styles and creative approaches. It was clear he understood how much the show changed him as both a performer and a person.
