General Hospital's Gary James Fuller reveals his favorite scene...and the Port Charles role he almost landed

Since debuting as General Hospital's James West in 2023, Gary James Fuller has won the hearts of fans with his always amusing and endearing portrayal of Maxie Jones' precocious young son. Recently, he appeared with co-stars Bradford Anderson (Damian Spinelli) and Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) on their That's Awesome podcast to talk about his full life as a very young soap star.

An abracadabra General Hospital introduction

In the two-and-a-half years Fuller has been bringing young James to life, the character has had many adventures. He fell into the lake, he broke his arm while sledding, he's run away from home multiple times, and he even witnessed some interesting moments between Drew (Cameron Mathison) and Willow (Katelyn MacMullen). However, it turns out his favorite James moment was one of his first James moments.

Fuller began playing James at the 2023 Nurses' Ball, which also coincided with General Hospital's 60th anniversary. Victor Cassadine (Charles Shaughnessy) kidnapped Liesl Obrecht (Kathleen Gati) that night via a magic box, and James unwittingly helped him.

"When I first started, and in my very first episode, it was when we did the Nurses’ Ball 2023," he told Anderson and Burton. "That was one of my favorites, because we disappeared [during the magic trick] and then we didn’t come back, and then no one was in the box! We made water disappear, and we made our grandma disappear."

Liesl was eventually found in Greenland with Victor's other hostages, so James got his "Oma" back. You can see the scene Fuller describes below.

The role that got away

James meets his dad for the first time on General Hospital | Image: ABC

When Fuller auditioned for James, he learned he got the part right in the GH parking lot. However, it wasn't the first time he was at the GH studio, and not the first time he auditioned for the soap.

"I had an audition for the part of Wiley and I didn’t get that part," Fuller said. "But then, two years later, I got the audition for the part of James. I obviously got that before we even left the parking lot! My agent told me that I booked it, and that’s when I met Frank Valentini and Kirsten Storms."

Currently, James is going through quite an upheaval in life as his mother lingers in a coma and the father he met is allegedly back from the dead. It's a confusing time for the little boy, but Fuller's portrayal of James West has us glued to the screen watching his tale.

Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu.