I know, I know, you're still teary-eyed over Dr. Shepherd's death on last week's Grey's Anatomy, and part of me hates to bring it up again. It's still raw; still too wrong, right? But Patrick Dempsey gave a fascinatingly in-depth interview to Entertainment Weekly on the subject of his much-beloved character's passing, and it's a must read. Also, you know, he didn't cry one bit — "It was like any other day [on set]. It was just another workday," Patrick says of filming his death scenes, adding that he's "still processing it ... I'm still processing it. This is part of the mourning process, the post Grey's experience."
On his time on the show as a whole, Patrick says "it was an amazing run." Though he described his exit — which came a full season early, after he'd signed a contract through the end of the show's 12th season — as "surprising," he added that "it just sort of evolved. It's just kind of happened." The creative process surrounding Dr. Shepherd being written out played out "very quickly," he explains, and there "wasn't a lot of discussion" or debate over whether the death, and its ramifications, would be ~too much~ for fans to handle. Patrick adds he probably won't talk, or explain, any reasoning behind Shepherd's move to a D.C. hospital either — but he also acknowledges his slip in an interview he gave last year, in which he said Dr. Shepherd's exit was coming "very soon" pissed off a lot of people at ABC. (This would suggest that the "quick" time frame he mentions still took a couple of months to play out.)
Everything's good with Shonda Rhimes though, Patrick clarifies later in the interview, despite rumors to the contrary in recent weeks. He's also cool with Ellen Pompeo, whom he heaps praise on throughout the article, and with the rest of the Grey's cast — well, maybe. Asked if he's leaving in a good place with them as a whole, Patrick only replies, "I think so, yes."
Just to bring things full circle, then, we're going to talk about all the tears some more. Patrick notes in the interview that he hasn't even watched his final episode — in fact, he says he hasn't watched the show "at all this year." He clarifies he just doesn't like watching himself, even as McDreamy, the pinnacle of male perfection in surgical scrubs no less, but the point is that if/when he gets around to the episode, he'll surely bawl like the rest of us. OK?
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