Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes has said it “wasn’t easy or fun” to kill off Patrick Dempsey’s character in the hit US TV show.
Patrick played Dr Derek Shepherd, a brain surgeon nicknamed McDreamy, who was Ellen Pompeo’s love interest for 11 seasons on the long-running medical soap.
Speaking to TV critics, Shonda said she was faced with either having McDreamy leave Ellen’s Meredith Grey and taint their love story, or be killed off, keeping it intact.
“The only way to preserve what felt true to me was that Derek was gonna have to die,” she said.
Ellen said the loss was an interesting challenge creatively because “those are the best scenes to play” as an actor.
She also pointed out the realism of the situation.
“So many people lose their spouses in a myriad of different ways and feel they can’t get up again and to tell the story of how life goes on after… that’s a story worth telling.”
Shonda teased that season 12 will be “lighter in tone” and will show Meredith in a position she never thought she’d be in, as a widowed mother.
The new series of Grey’s Anatomy’s will premiere in the US in September.
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