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GH’s Andrew Hawkes Shares He Wants New Villain WSB Boss Ross Cullum’s Humanity to Come Through Even For a Split-Second

By Michael Fairman

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Photo: ABC

Recently, General Hospital fans learned that Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota) is in cahoots with the never-before-seen character of WSB Director Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes), who is one bad dude.

This guy has made his presence known in Port Charles and is putting the screws to Dr. Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud), threatening Rocco Falconeri (Finn Carr), who has a special place in Britt’s heart (she gave birth to him), and had put WSB Bureau Chief, Jack Brennan (Chris McKenna) on notice, and that’s just for starters. Back on the January 14 episode of the ABC daytime drama series, viewers were introduced to actor Andrew Hawkes as Ross Cullum as his arrival is also tied to Cesar Faison’s final project, whatever that turns out to be.

Hawkes appeared on the latest episode of the That’s Awesome podcast where his new GH co-stars, Steve Burton (Jason) and Bradford Anderson (Spinelli), welcomed him to the soap and talked a lot about the craft of acting and in particular, the daunting rigors of performing in the genre when learning massive amounts of dialog with little to no takes o time before scenes go to tape.

NOT A ONE NOTE VILLAIN

In addition, Andrew shared his take on playing a villain and revealed an intriguing back-story for the guy that would be interesting to see if something like it came to light on GH. Hawkes explained that Cullum’s purpose is, “All for good reason for doing whatever I do in this show. It may be seen in a different way, but I think I just want to see those moments of humanity come through. So everybody loves Succession. Brilliantly written, brilliantly done. But, I couldn’t get through the first half of an episode because I I felt like there was no humanity there.”

He added, “It’s those human elements that we all carry, and the scars that make us up as people, and if we’re serious about acting, serious about our craft, we bring those things with us. So, he’s (Cullum) not just this prototypical villain who’s ruthless and cold, and doesn’t care about anything. From my standpoint, he’s extremely caring and feels like he’s been wronged in a huge way.”

Photo: ABC

When thinking how Hawkes has been wronged and what could be driving his motives, Andrew explained, “In real-life, I’m a father, so I made (Cullum’s back-story) involve his child, and something where the system was turning their back on him, and kind of excommunicating him and watching his child go away. So, that’s my kind of ‘if,’ because otherwise if I go in there (to tape scenes) and I I don’t fill in the blanks for myself, it’s just going to come off as one note. So, probably it’s (all in a) moment that can be found. That’s just a split second of something (that help registers it to the audience).”

Hawkes is a well aware that to play the WSB Director, he has to maintain outward control of every situation, “This guy has to be efficient on top of it. It just has to be delivered in a certain way that this guy’s a professional, in that, he speaks (when and) as he needs to.”

So, GH fans do you think at some point we will find out why WSB Director Cullum has truly taken this turn and what is driving him to align with Sidwell and company on Faison’s last project? Is it money, power, payback, or is he also being blackmailed from someone else we don’t even know about?  Share your thoughts via the comment section below.

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Well, if he’s human, we haven’t seen it yet. So far, what we have seen of him on screen has looked down right cold blooded reptilian.

Now if he’s talking to Steve & Bradford about this, he might be referencing things that have been taped, but not shown on screen yet. They are careful not to do spoilers on that podcast, but he might be making vague references to “character traits” in Callum which have yet to be shown to the audience. He mentioned something about Cullum having a child, which certainly hasn’t entired into the storyline as of yet.

Based on what we have seen so far though, he’s basically a dirty cop who’s moonlighting as a mad scientist. Hard to find a “good side” in either of those.

You posted without mentioning dragons or giving people nicknames so I almost didn’t recognize this answer.

As a long-time visitor to this site, this is an example of how insightful their comments used to be on a consistent basis. Nice to see they still have it in them.

Last edited 5 months ago by OG Steve

General Hospital

GENERAL HOSPITAL: Jason Tries to Help Rocco Move On; Nina Makes Last Ditch Effort to Silence Drew

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Steve Burton and Finn Carr

The Friday, July 24 episode ended with quite the cliffhanger with Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros), pushing a wheelchair-bound Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) into the lake surrounding the Quartermaine boathouse.

Previously, Nina received a call from Willow (Katelyn MacMullen) telling her that she received very bad news from Jack Brennan (Chris McKenna).

The WSB Port Charles Bureau Chief called the congresswoman to inform her that the black box containing the leverage he has over Drew has gone missing. Saying he owed Nina, Jack was willing to provide a plane out of town for her and her children, Wiley and Amelia, with passports for new identifies, but they must leave tonight.

Nina and Drew

Courtesy/ABC

Willow tells her mother she can join them if she wants to, but it’s up to her since she has a life in Port Charles, but she has to go and get ready and to let her know. Suddenly, Chase (Josh Swickard) shows up at Willow’s office telling her he has to take her down to the PCPD.

DREW PUSHED INTO THE WATER IN A WHEELCHAIR

After her call with Willow, Nina becomes desperate, so she unlocks the wheels of Drew’s wheelchair in horror, when suddenly Drew speaks (as had been in the ABC promo for GH released on Monday), “What’s wrong, Nina? Get some bad news?” A shocked Nina replied, “Bad for me. Worse for you.” Suddenly, she pushes Drew’s wheelchair with Drew in it into the lake.

Meanwhile, the heart of the episode was brought by Steve Burton and Finn Carr who finally had the scenes where Jason and Rocco talk about what happened the night on the pier, when Rocco shot Cullum and Jason took the blame and was carted off by the WSB for several months.

Jason attempted to ease Rocco’s guilt telling him he is indebted to him for saving his life and Britt’s. When Rocco questioned if Jason would do the same thing all over again knowing how much it cost him, he told Rocco, that they both have to find a way to move on with their lives. Jason tells Rocco its best for him to try to let this all go. Can Rocco? Can Jason?

BRITT IS A COMMON THREAD OF JASON AND ROCCO

Rocco becomes emotional when talking to Jason about going on the run with Britt (Kelly Thiebaud), and how scared he was for her due to her “illness” with symptoms of Huntington’s.

Later, Jason comes to General Hospital and runs right into Britt, who is all smiles when she lays eyes on Jason. However, with Jason seemingly looking for a fresh start and a new outlook, is there any future for Britt and Jason after all that has happened? Stay tuned for the Monday, July 27 episode for some answers/

Now below, and in case you missed it, check out the scenes between Jason and Rocco from today’s GH.

Then let us know, what did you think of the performances of Steve Burton and Finn Carr? Do you think Nina just made everything 10,000 times worse, and Drew will be swimming around in no time in the water revealing he is A-OK much to the chagrin of Willow and Nina? Share your thoughts and theories via the comment section.

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General Hospital

‘General Hospital’ Writes Maxie Jones and Her Family Off The Show

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Kirsten Storms

The answer to what General Hospital fans have been speculating about for months has come to a conclusion, for now.

On the Thursday, July 23 episode of the ABC daytime drama series it was revealed in story that Maxie Jones (Kirsten Storms), along with her man, Spinelli (Bradford Anderson) and her three children, Georgie (Lily Fisher), Bailey (Miley and Riley Plonski) and James (Gary James Fuller) are headed to Australia to live after Spinelli received a job offer he couldn’t refuse.

However, the message of the status of Maxie and her clan, came from none other than Cody (Josh Kelly) during a conversation where he explained that they were all packing up to head to the land down under the following night and they were just “itching to get out of Port Charles.” In addition, Maxie has divested her shares of Deception Cosmetics and sold them to Michael Corinthos (Rory Gibson).

Kirsten Storms

Photo: ABC

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR MAXIE TO RETURN?

All of this paves the way for the series to deal with the longer absence of Kirsten Storms who is back in Tennessee and not having her figure into any immediate storyline.

While the family uprooting themselves to Australia certainly doesn’t look like any return in the near future would be likely, the series can always decide down the line and take their time of what to do with Maxie, if Kirsten Storms, should never return to the role or they would decide to recast, if needed.

This does complete Maxie’s story for now. It was back in February of 2026, that Maxie came out of her coma and was reunited with her family and saw her believed-to-be husband, Nathan West (Ryan Paevey) back from the dead, who later proved to be Cassius Faison. Storms comeback lasted about a month and by March she was no longer on the series.

It was back last month in June that Storms took to Instagram to share that “As for what is in my future, where GH is concerned…. Given what’s been going on, I can’t say I will feel comfortable heading back to Los Angeles and returning to work.”

All of this stems from her reported break-ins to her apartment, the hacking of her devices all occurring in Tennessee, coupled by the restraining order served to her by her ex-husband Brandon Barash (ex-Johnny, GH and ex-Stefan/Jake, Days).

So, how do you feel about General Hospital writing out Maxie Jones with a sudden move to Australia, taking Spinelli and the kids all seemingly off the canvas? Do you like the way this leaves a door open for Maxie to visit or return to Port Charles one day?

Do you think the series should honor the work Kirsten Storms did in the role and not recast, or should they recast down the line? Let us know via the comment section.

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General Hospital

RATINGS: ‘General Hospital’ Scores 15-Week High in Total Viewers and Crosses the 2 Million Mark for First Time in 9 Weeks

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General Hospital

General Hospital had more people tuning in than over the past three and half months for the week of July 6-10. According to the latest ratings report from Soap Opera Network, GH’s storyline and the fallout from Cullum’s (Andrew Hawkes) death and the arrival of Z (John Oliver) had piqued fans interest enough for the ABC soap to bring in its best total viewer overall average in the last 9 weeks.

In addition, GH attracted its largest audience in 15 weeks since the week of March 23-27, 2026. The last time the ABC soap opera clocked in at over 2 million total viewers for a particular week was the week of May 4-8, 2026.

For the July 6-1o ratings period General Hospital average 2.052 million total viewers which was up p +72,000 week-to-week and +132,000 year-over-year. Let’s take a look at what was driving the numbers below for the ratings week:

Photo: ABC

Z REVEALS CASSIUS IS ALIVE

Carly (Laura Wright) confronted Z and demanded he pull Josslyn (Eden McCoy) from the WSB. Z refused, leading Carly to slap him across the face. Meanwhile, director Ross Cullum was exposed as a rogue double agent who had abducted individuals to finish Cesar’s final project.

At the end of the July 6 episode, John Oliver finished his 3 day guest-stint, but not before revealing to viewers that he had imprisoned Cassius Faison (Ryan Paevey) and he was actually alive. Z had then propositioned Cassius with work for the WSB or be sent away for Cullum’s crimes that they are pinning on him.  The episode also marked the end of Ryan Paevey’s General Hospital run.

Elsewhere, Britt Westbourne (Kelly Thiebaud) discovered the truth that this entire time she had been duped and never actually suffered from Huntington’s disease, having been manipulated by Cullum’s operation to finish the cold fusion project.

ANNA COMES HOME

Anna (Finola Hughes)  finally returned home to Port Charles with her loved ones in tow. She was greeted later by her ex-flame, Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) who was at her front door who was concerned for her mental well-being. Once along, Anna is haunted by the ghost of Peter August (Wes Ramsey) telling her to take care of things.

Later in the week, Sidwell (Carlo Rota) and Jordan (Tanisha Harper) clashed. He wants her to get his money for him from some off shore accounts in exchange for hooking her up a the same German clinic Michael went to to recover from his burns. He tells her she can jump on the line and help restore her scarred face, if she follows his demands, which Jordan turns down.

It should also be noted that General Hospital remained as the #1 most-watched show on Hulu on July 7,  8 and 10 and remained in the top five for the rest of the week. Source for the above ratings numbers are derived from Nielsen (Live+Same Day Big Data + Panel).

So, was the July 6-10 week of episodes having you glued to your set and tuning-in every day to watch General Hospital and not miss an episode? Would you agree that the preceding week which featured the shootout where Josslyn saves the day and ends up killing Cullum, one of the more exciting in a long time? Do you think based on the strength of its storylines and day-to-day episodes that you’d hope General Hospital would score even higher than it did against the other soaps? Let us know you thoughts via the comment section.

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Jonathan Bennett joins the cast of GH as Joe Fitzpatrick. Catch the latest promo! Leave a comment.Leave A Comment

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