Beverly Hills 90s Star Regrets Leaving, Says It Hurt His Career!

Many actors who find success on a TV show feel compelled to leave the familiarity behind to pursue other, often more ambitious or lucrative projects. However, this risky move can backfire, as some struggle to replicate their previous success.

Exiting Beverly Hills

Jason Priestley, who portrayed Brandon Walsh in Beverly Hills, is a prime example. The Aaron Spelling series, chronicling the lives of high school students, catapulted him and his co-stars—Shannen Doherty, Luke Perry, Jennie Garth, among others—to international fame. During the 1990s, the show was a cultural phenomenon.

Priestley was particularly adored by teenage girls, who plastered his face on their bedroom walls. Yet, during season 9, he decided to leave the show because, as he explained to CNN in 2014, “I felt that Brandon’s character had run its course. I had explored everything I wanted to with him.” In episode 5 of season 9, Brandon takes a job at the Washington bureau of the New York Chronicle, leading to an abrupt end to his long-term relationship with Kelly, much to the fans’ dismay at the time.

A Time for Regrets

In the same interview, Priestley admitted, “Looking back, I regret leaving. Knowing what I know now about storylines and character development, I think Aaron Spelling wanted to evolve the story so that Brandon and Kelly would end up together at the end of the series, and I probably should have stayed to see that happen.”

He believes his departure negatively affected his relationship with Spelling: “Aaron and I worked closely for many years. He gave me a lot of opportunities, and I believe my leaving hurt him, which was never my intention.” Priestley had the chance to direct about fifteen episodes of Beverly Hills during his time on the show.

A Grateful Actor

Now, he looks back on the experience with pride, as he shared in 2022 at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival: “It was a global phenomenon that touched people in a unique way. Many people will always identify me with that character. That’s fine, and I have no problem with it. On the contrary, I feel incredibly fortunate to have had that experience and to have been part of that series. Very few actors get the chance to be involved in a show that’s both popular and long-running. For me, that experience was a blessing.”

While he has not matched the success of the teen series, Priestley has been busy since, making appearances in various shows and playing an exaggerated version of himself in the meta-series Beverly Hills: BH90210 in 2019. More recently, he directed much of season 2 of “My Life with the Walter Boys,” available on Netflix.