When “Grey’s Anatomy” launched in 2005, Ellen Pompeo may have played the titular role, but handsome, charismatic co-star Patrick Dempsey was more famous and therefore the initial draw for fans.
But that fame from his prior film career and the show’s phenomenal success gave Dempsey, 55, a lot of power on the set, according to a new book that offers a behind-the-scenes oral history of ABC’s long-running, hit medical drama. Soon, the show was dogged by reports of Dempsey’s diva-like fits, tension between him and Pompeo and the eventual decision for Dempsey and “Grey’s Anatomy” to part ways.
In Lynette Rice’s book, “How to Save a Life: The Inside Story Of Grey’s Anatomy,” some cast and crew members open up about the dark side of McDreamy. That’s the nickname series creator Shonda Rhimes coined for Derek Shepherd, the “ideal man” and heroic neurosurgeon that Dempsey played on the show. The unflattering portrait of Dempsey is outlined in an excerpt from the book published in the Hollywood Reporter.
“There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set,” said executive producer James D. Parriott about what was happening with Dempsey during season 11, his last season on the show.
“Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him,” Parriott added. “He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people. The network and studio came down, and we had sessions with them. I think he was just done with the show. He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and (series creator Shonda Rhimes) were at each other’s throats.”
Producer and writer Jeannine Renshaw said that Dempsey’s natural charm made him well-liked by many. “We all love Patrick. Patrick is a sweetheart,” she said.
But she also said that Pompeo, who played Dr. Meredith Grey, Shepherd’s love interest in the drama, got “frustrated” and “angry” with him over her perception that he wasn’t working as much.
“She was very big on having things be fair,” Renshaw said. “She just didn’t like that Patrick would complain that ‘I’m here too late’ or ‘I’ve been here too long,’ when she had twice as many scenes in the episode as he did.”
Renshaw added that Dempsey is “high energy” and not someone who likes to be kept waiting. “He wants to be out driving his race car or doing something fun,” she said. “He’s the kid in class who wants to go to recess.”
An unnamed crew member agreed that Dempsey’s behavior “wasn’t the greatest,” and he could act like “the Lone Ranger.” But the crew member said he liked Dempsey and noticed he had no one to talk to, especially after some of the actresses on the show were getting “all this power.”
For his part, Dempsey, who participated in the book, said he got tired of the long work days and the intensity of working on a weekly TV series.”
“It’s 10 months, 15 hours a day. You never know your schedule, so your kid asks you, ‘What are you doing on Monday?’ And you go, ‘I don’t know,’ because I don’t know my schedule,” Dempsey said. “Doing that for 11 years is challenging.”
But Dempsey denied having diva-like intentions, saying he could only be grateful to be on the show, because he was “well compensated.” He also admitted that he probably stayed on the show longer than he should.
“It (was) hard to say no to that kind of money,” he said. “How do you say no to that? It’s remarkable to be a working actor, and then on top of that to be on a show that’s visible. And then on top of that to be on a phenomenal show that’s known around the world and play a character who is beloved around the world. It’s very heady. It (was) a lot to process, and not wanting to let that go, because you never know whether you will work again and have success again.”
Parriott said the show crafted several storylines to try and keep Dempsey on the show, including one where his character would stay in Washington, DC so he could shoot completely separately from Pompeo and others. But the network “ultimately decided that just bringing him back was going to be too hard on the other actors,” said Parriott.
“The studio just said it was going to be more trouble than it was worth and decided to move on,” Parriott added. The show killed McDreamy off in the Season 11 episode “How to Save a Life.”
Dempsey’s final scenes were filmed at a Hawthorne, California hospital, 22 miles away from the show’s home studio in order to keep his character’s death a major TV surprise.
But the secrecy meant there was little fanfare when it became known on the set that Dempsey had left the series, added castmate James Pickens, Jr.
“It was kind of on the fly,” Pickens said. “So whatever information we got, we pretty much got it kind of right before it happened,”
As “Grey’s Anatomy” fans know, McDreamy made a return to the show in November 2020 in episodes depicting dreams or hallucinations that Meredith Grey was having while in a COVID-19-induced coma.
