General Hospital’s Steve Burton Says Jason Morgan’s Haggard Look ‘Was Intentional’
When Steve Burton returned to General Hospital on July 13, viewers immediately noticed Jason Morgan’s haggard appearance. Portrayer Steve Burton spoke out about Jason’s physical transformation — and fan reaction to it.
Steve Burton Explains Jason’s New Look
During a recent episode of That’s Awesome , the podcast Burton co-hosts with friend Bradford Anderson (Spinelli), the actor noted that fan response to Jason’s return was, “So glad you’re back, but… then all the negative starts,” specifically mentioning viewer comments like, “What’s wrong with his hair?” and “What happened to his face?”
“Someone literally said, ‘He took time off to get work done and to elongate his forehead,’” Burton relayed, laughing uproariously at the idea. “I said, ‘Who wants a five-head?’ We have a forehead. Like, who would want to make their forehead taller?”
Reacting to additional comments that he’d lost too much weight, Burton explained that he made “a conscious decision” to undergo a physical transformation for the storyline surrounding Jason’s return home to Port Charles after spending months in a WSB prison overseas in Jakarta.
“I’m like, ‘Okay, well, if I’m in jail, I should probably start slimming down,’” he said. “I’m gonna just kind of tighten things up, get a little leaner, just so I look a little more emaciated and then makeup can do what they do. And then maybe people will go, ‘Yeah, he was somewhere for like, three months not really eating and got beat up and a lot of bad stuff happened to him.’”
Jason’s return to Port Charles from his cell in Jakarta was so swift that he did not have time to heal, and bruises from his violent ordeal were still plainly visible on his face. “Makeup did a wonderful job,” Burton praised. “This is why hair and makeup were nominated for an Emmy [this year].”
Burton made it clear that his alter ego’s haggard new look was all to make Jason’s new storyline more effective for the audience and not a reflection of the actor’s personal appearance in real life. “The hair change was intentional,” he declared. “The weight loss was intentional. The makeup was intentional. It was all intentional, because I think I look pretty good right now!”
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