Did they jump or were they pushed?

[ajm]

Hi,

I don't know how practical this is (in terms of finding out the real reason(s), but does anyone else think it might be interesting to have a thread abt why characters left the show?

IE Did they decide to or was it a plot device or whatever?

For eg, Tom - did he choose to and if so, that would be interesting as he's been hardly seen on TV since?

Just putting it out there...

[ajm]

Er, I mean did the actor decide to leave....

[lissyloo87]

Ok, I have to throw a comment in here because I've been thinking for weeks that someone needs to open discussion on this.

IMO Tessa James (Nicole) was booted out of the show. If you watch this interview with her and Luke Jacobs on there final scenes and departure there is a clear attitude from tessa that she was 'pushed'. Unless the actress herself is just an uptight princess, I thought she was rather bitter about leaving and likely it was not her decision to go. Luke on the other hand seemed really positive and ok about the future. That, or he's just a whole lot more professional.

Anyway, here's the link for those who have not seen the interview.

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/home-and-away/video/

[Perry]

She doesn't seem bitter at all ^ looks a little upset about leaving but thats natural. And as far as I'm aware it was the oppposite, Tessa left on her own accord and Luke's contract didnt get renewed because the produces felt the character had run its course.

[Dan F]

This is pretty much the sort of reason why a thread solely dedicated to speculating on who decided to leave and who was let go generally wouldn't work. People start to make assumptions based on the tiniest of things, which in turn snowball into big theories, and then we get people complaining and making potentially libellous comments about Seven sacking people which could get us into trouble.

Of course there's nothing stopping discussion about actor's departures around the time as long as people stick to the facts, but a thread dedicated to it wouldn't end nicely.

I can honestly say that in the majority of cases it's usually the actor's decision to leave anyway - especially in a time when young stars are seeing former H&A actors head to Hollywood after only a few years on the show - they certainly don't push away good actors if they can help it. Obviously there are some times when characters do run their course, but that's television.

[ajm]

Fair enough - unless the people who posted actually knew the actor or their management, all it would be is speculation and as you say Dan, it could all end in tears (so to speak).