As the World Turns fans have finally accepted the news: Scott Bryce has been fired from the show.

An outpouring of support for the actor has followed this announcement, but the man who has portrayed Craig Montgomery for years is taking it like the professional he is.

Bryce recently chatted with TV Guide about the shocking development:

TVGuide.com: Your followers, and they are legion, are having coronaries over this!
Scott Bryce: I have to say an enormous thank you for their love and support. I'd started thinking to myself, "Wow, maybe I stink" but the response from the fans has been so amazing and overwhelming that it's helped soften the blow. It's touching and affirming and it means the world to me.

TVGuide.com: Word is, your peeps at As the World Turns are pretty bummed.
Bryce: The response from the cast and crew has been equally unbelievable. Hugs and kisses and shock and disbelief. This is a real drag because I've never been fired from an acting job before. In fact, the last time I was fired I was flipping burgers at the Big Top Shop in Westport [Connecticut], so this is kind of stunning.

TVGuide.com: You created Craig in 1982, played him off-and-on into the '90s, then came back to the show just last April. It should have been a triumphant return. What went haywire?
Bryce: I've had dozens of relationships with executive producers and this one, with Chris Goutman, was odd and very disconnected. I think we had an inherent disagreement or a different vision of who Craig is. The plots on the show are so much darker than they used to be — dead babies, pornography, methamphetamines — and maybe I didn't fit into that vision.

It's not the As the World Turns I remember from those many years ago. Chris would say to me, "This is your character, run with it." But when I did he never seemed pleased. Craig, as I understood him, has a need for family and love and fulfillment, and at all costs, which is what creates all the mayhem and madness in his life. Yes, he's a villain but he doesn't know that.

Bryce will appears on the series for the final time on February 21. Read his full interview with TV Guide now.