Jacqueline Grace Lopez’s character Blaze in General Hospital left the show in August 2024 to join rockstar Miguel Morez on his tour. Onscreen, her girlfriend Kristina had to let her go to pursue her dream during their heart-wrenching final scenes. In real life, Lopez experienced a very emotional and bittersweet final day, but she was also surprised by the behind-the-scenes look she got.
A Surreal Last Day
Lopez told Michael Fairman that filming her last scenes was “Incredibly difficult…I felt like I gave it my all. It was one of those things where I mic dropped.” She described that last day as being “surreal” because she only had a few scenes left and thought they would be shot quickly and she would be done. But her final two scenes were the last to be shot that day. “It was so crazy,” she stated, adding, “There was this part of me that really wanted to just be like, ‘I did it. I did it. I love you all. Goodbye.’” And that would be that. (Find out more about Lopez’ tearful goodbye.)
As tears welled up in her eyes, she remarked, “It was the most beautiful goodbye.” She elaborated on the sentiment by explaining that costar Amanda Setton (Brook Lynn) advised her to check out the control room before she left. She did, and when she went to say farewell to executive producer Frank Valentini, “He showed me how he fine-tuned edits at the end of the day.”
Seeing how the episode was edited was mind-boggling for her because she felt, “At the end of the day, I was non-contract. At the end of the day, I’m a glorified day player. None of this should be accessible to me. And yet it was.”
Peeked Behind The Curtain
Lopez explained that the production doesn’t have much time for a celebratory goodbye when an actor leaves due to time and money constraints. She didn’t even know it happened when she was written out of GH in April 2023. “It wasn’t until like a couple weeks later that I read on Soap Opera Digest that I was in fact off the show,” she said.
But this exit was much different. She also referenced an Instagram video from August where she was in her dressing room, and a voice over the loudspeaker announced that there were cookies in the makeup and hair room to celebrate her goodbye.
She continued telling Fairman that she didn’t think they did things like that for non-contract players, and explained that there were flowers, cookies, and champagne, along with a good portion of the cast. She felt extremely special that day, continuing to state that she thought of herself simply as a day player, “But that day made me feel like more.”
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