Portia de Rossi is closing the door on acting.
The star confirmed the news on her wife Ellen DeGeneres’ show earlier today. Portia told Ellen viewers that she has quit acting to focus on her art curation and publication company called ‘General Public.’
The Arrested Development star says she wants to do something that will be “challenging and different”.
“I made this decision about 18 months ago,” Portia, 45, says. “Shonda Rhimes (creator of Scandal) wrote me off Scandal; it was fine.”
However, Portia had a slightly more difficult time being written out of Arrested Development.
“I called Mitch Hurwitz, who’s the creator of Arrested Development, and I said, ‘If there is a season five, I won’t be doing it because I quit acting.’ And he seemed really understanding and he totally got it. We had a great conversation, and then he wrote me into five episodes.
“Don’t know how it happened, but yes, I am on Season 5,” she finishes.
Portia, born Amanda Lee Rogers, was raised near Geelong. After winning small roles in Australia, Portia moved to Hollwyood, where she secured roles in Scream 2 and legal drama Ally McBeal.
She has played Lindsay Bluth Funke on the hit comedy Arrested Development for close to a decade, and recently playing Elizabeth North on Scandal.
The former actress admitted to Ellen that her decision to leave acting behind was a long time coming.
While the star officially bids farewell to acting on May 29th, Portia will now focus her time on another kind of work, as the owner of General Public.
Arrested Development season five will air on Netflix later in May.
