Grey’s Anatomy Popular Castmembers’ Shocking Secrets Revealed
Hey, “Grey’s Anatomy” fans. In this article, we’ve put together a couple of shocking secrets from some of Grey’s Anatomy’s most popular castmembers that you may not have known about.
The first big secret is in regards to Sandra Oh who played character Cristina Yang from 2005 to 2014. It turns out that she actually auditioned for the role of Miranda Bailey which is now played by actress Chandra Wilson.
In the “Beyond The Screen” video series, Sandra explained the whole situation saying, “When I first auditioned, I actually auditioned for the part of Bailey. And I played Bailey nothing like how Bailey was supposed to really be which is Chandra Wilson. And they said, ‘You know what, we’re gonna test a bunch of people. Why don’t you come in? We’d love for you to test for Bailey.’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t want to test for Bailey. There’s another part you haven’t cast yet, and that’s the part of Cristina.”
It turns out that was a good decision for Sandra because she went on to not only land the Cristina gig. She also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting actress in a Series and a Screen Actor’s Guild award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. She was also nominated multiple times for an Emmy Award.
The next big secret is in regards to the main star of the show Ellen Pompeo aka Meredith Grey. It turns out that she was originally trying to land a role on a completely different ABC pilot show called “Secret Service.” However, ABC decided not to pick up the show.
The showrunners were so impressed with her natural talent that they asked her to audition for Meredith in Grey’s Anatomy and the rest is history. At the time, Ellen actually had a moderately successful and growing film career. When she landed the Meredith role, she was actually worried that she had ruined her career as a film actress. I don’t think she has to worry about that anymore.
The third big secret belongs to the Arizona Robbins star Jessica Capshaw. Apparently, Arizona is far from being the first character that Jessica auditioned for. She had actually auditioned for a couple of other roles on Grey’s Anatomy before getting the Arizona gig.
The first role she tried out for was for Derek Shepherd’s love interest Nurse Rose. After that, she auditioned for the role of Sadie which was a wild friend of Meredith Grey. After that, she finally got the Arizona part.
Jessica has described what it’s like to play Arizona stating, “I am quite in awe of this character’s resilience and her ability to weather storms and get through them and move on. I love it so much when they write it for her ,and I get to play it so much. But just the humor, and the redundant questions and the hilarity that you find in the middle of things that sometimes feel like despair.”
The fourth big secret goes again to Ellen Pompeo. It turns out that during the entire 6th season of Grey’s Anatomy, she was pregnant. The show’s production team had to use very clever filming angles to hide her growing baby bump. Almost every shot of her in season 6 was a mid-shot or a close-up shot. Eventually, they had the Meredith Grey character donate part of her liver so they could take Meredith out of the picture long enough for Ellen to take a maternity leave.
Apparently, Ellen has done her best to keep her children out of the spolight. She’s mentioned it in an interview stating, “It’s a challenging. It’s still a luxury challenge. So, it’s just a balancing act. Every family, every new mother, every new dad, everyone has to balance certain things. I just have a slightly different set of circumstances to balance. And, at the end of the day, it’s still. It’s a luxury problem to have.”
The fifth big secret belongs to Avery Jackson star Jesse Williams. It turns out that before landing his famous Grey’s Anatomy gig, he was a high school teacher. After graduating from Temple University with a degree in African-American Studies and Film and Media Arts, he taught in the Philadelphia public school system for a pretty long six years.
He had also wrote a screenplay which he eventually submitted to Sundance. It went on to make the finals for the prestigious Screenwriter’s Lab. This particular success caused him to pursue his showbiz dreams. He went on to do some modeling, and then he landed some theatre roles that eventually led to his major break on Grey’s Anatomy.
Jesse originally wanted to be a lawyer or football star, and never intentionally aimed to be an actor. Jesse has mentioned his life changing decision stating, “I knew then I needed to follow my creative desires, I didn’t want to look back and say ‘What if?'”
The sixth big secret belongs to the Jo Wilson star Camilla Luddington. It turns out that she had actually missed her initial Grey’s Anatomy audition due to having a very hectic schedule promoting the Tomb Raider video game. Fortunately for Camilla, the producer were not able to cast the Jo role during the initial round of auditions. So, Camilla was given another shot to try out for it. Within one week of her audition, Camilla had landed the Jo role.
Also, the Jo Wilson character was initially just going to be a temporary, recurring role. Then she became a series regular character in season 10. The Jo Wilson character first started out as an intern under Meredith Grey who used her as an example of failure. As of the recent 14th season, Jo has become Chief Resident. Before Grey’s Anatomy, Camilla Luddington had roles on popular shows, HBO’s “True Blood” and Showtime’s “Californication.”
Last, but certainly not least in the 7th spot, actress Chandra Wilson who plays character Miranda Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy is actually a former Broadway star! Before Grey’s Anatomy, Chandra starred in musical Broadway hits like “Caroline or Change,” “On the Town Revival,” and “Avenue Q.”
Chandra used to attend training classes three times a week in the Houston theatre group, called, “Theatre Under the Stars.” During her time in the junior section, she learned singing and dancing. She also attended the High School For The Performing and Visual Arts in Houston.
Alright guys. That’s it for a couple of the big secrets from some of Grey’s Anatomy’s most popular castmembers. Did any of them come as a surprise to you? Let us know in the Facebook comments and stay tuned. Also, be sure to follow us on our Grey’s Anatomy Facebook page for more Grey’s Anatomy news by Clicking Here.
