General Hospital’s Dex Heller is the latest character to die a mysterious death in Port Charles, which means his portrayer, Evan Hofer, has wrapped his run on the soap.
Hofer, who joined the cast in 2022, sat down with TV Insider to discuss his exit, which he took in stride. “I think my first reaction to Frank [Valentini, executive producer] was, ‘Is it cool, like, is it a cool death?’ ” Hofer recalls. “And he goes, ‘Let me get back to you,’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s not promising!’ But then it ended up, it’s pretty cool.”
In the story, Dex was stabbed but expected to survive; however, he went into cardiac arrest. For Hofer, who had previously played out a death scene in the film, Run the Race, Dex’s proved to be more of a challenge. “I had to lay there in that bed for these big, long monologues [given by other people],” he explains. “Like, Eden [McCoy, who plays Dex’s girlfriend, Josslyn Jacks] had this big, beautiful monologue, and I was like, ‘I’m going to serve dead as best as I can to do it for her,’ and I think at one point, I definitely had to gulp for air.”
Hofer admits he had mixed feelings in Dex’s final days. “It was both exciting and it was sad,” he reflects. “I really fell in love with Dex over the last three years. I told my mom it’s almost like mourning the loss of a friend. He was such an incredible guy, and I wanted all these wonderful things for him, and he got to experience a lot of those wonderful things. It was sad, but it’s also really fun to be able to play those scenes and do these extremes.”
His ouster came as a surprise to his coworkers, partly because Hofer kept the news under wraps. “I didn’t tell anybody, so a lot of the crew found out on my second to last day, ’cause we filmed my death my second to last day,” he says. “People were coming up to me, like, ‘What’s going on?’ and I was like, ‘Don’t worry about it; we’ll talk on Monday.’ I kind of wanted to kick the can down the road. I love everyone there so much and so saying goodbye to everyone, I knew, was going to rip my heart out.”
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That last day, he describes, “was so wonderful. The crew threw me a party, a going away thing. My mom brought cookies for everybody. It was super beautiful and just great to be able to express that love for everyone there for making that a home for me for the past three years.”
Hofer says he will take a lot of good memories with him from his time in Port Charles, from his relationship with Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos) to his friendship with the late Johnny Wactor (Brando Corbin), who was killed in Los Angeles in May. “Johnny was my big brother on the show, and from my first day there he was like, ‘You need anything, you come to me. You ever want to hang out in my room, come knock,’ ” Hofer relays. “And did that plenty. Took him up on that a ton. Even after he left the show, we spent tons of time together, always got dinner and stuff. He was just such an incredible example of the kind of man that I want to grow into.”
In this farewell video above, Hofer shares the highlights of his Port Charles stay, who he wanted to work with more, how he prepared for Dex’s stabbing, and so much more.
As for what’s next, he teases, “Fun stuff in the works; stay tuned.” And if another soap reaches out, he is open to taking the call. “If the right role and the right story came along, absolutely,” concludes Hofer.
General Hospital, Weekdays, ABC
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