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Patrick Dempsey Speaks, Says He Left “Grey’s Anatomy” on Good Terms

Reports of a feud with Shonda Rhimes still persist

Apr 27, 2015 14:28 GMT  ·  By
Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo in ABC's long-running and successful medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy”
   Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo in ABC's long-running and successful medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy”

Patrick Dempsey, the actor who played Dr. Derek Shepherd, aka Dr. McDreamy, on “Grey’s Anatomy” on ABC for 250 episodes, is speaking out after the character was killed off on last week’s episode. He wants the fans to know that his departure wasn’t prompted by on-set disputes.

If anything, he left on very good terms both with series creator Shonda Rhimes and co-star Ellen Pompeo. There was no emotional goodbye scene or much discussion about his last day at work, but he didn’t leave slamming the door behind him, Dempsey tells EW in a new interview.

Diva rumors and Shonda Rhimes’ vengeance

Prior to the shocking plot twist, reports claimed that Dr. Shepherd had been absent for most of the season because he had started acting like a diva on set and Rhimes wanted to bring him down a notch by cutting his on-screen time down to a minimum, to teach him a lesson.

Dempsey had renewed his contract for 2 more years before shooting for this season started, so it really made little sense to have him off-camera for this long, especially since he’d been on every other episode from the series until now.

As the actor puts it, the reason he signed for 2 years was that he couldn’t say no to the money and the other advantages that came with the contract. That didn’t mean though that he actually expected to be on the show for this amount of time.

In doing so, he’s denying reports that Rhimes chose to write him out after he continued acting like a diva, convinced that she wouldn’t fire him when he had another year and a half on his contract.

A friendly, professional departure

Dempsey tells EW that he left on good terms with the entire cast, but also with Rhimes. He denies that he let issues from his personal life (his divorce) get in the way of doing his best in front of the camera.

“You’re a professional,” he says. “You leave your personal life at the door. I’m not going to talk about my home life as part of show.”

So basically, what he’s saying (even though the EW reporter doesn’t ask it) is that all that talk about an ongoing feud between Shonda and himself are unfounded, because things never got to be this bad on set.

Moreover, he praises Rhimes for the way he handled the writing on his final episode and says that he believes the fans will find it that it’s done justice to the character. Shonda “cares deeply for the fans,” he says.

At the same time, he admits that his character’s death came as a shock and that he’s yet to process it. It was a huge surprise and he is not over it yet, but it came in a very organic, unforced way.

If you ask the fans, the way it played out on the small screen, it was anything but that. Not only did loyal fans take to social media to berate Shonda for her creative decision, but they also launched a petition to force her hand into bringing Dr. McDreamy back. Because they deserve better compensation for their loyalty than this.