Patrick Dempsey’s ‘Terrorizing the Set’ Led to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Ouster, Producer Says

This is sad to hear, because I always thought he was a professional.

Not only that, but I had a huge crush on him.

Unfortunately, I really hate DIVAS.

[quote] He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working.

He’s my spirit animal.

Yes R2 but it’s easy for him to say with $80 million in the bank.

[quote]There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way.

Suddenly I lost all interest in reading any further.

I always suspected that he was an asshole. I am not surprised. Never got the hot of this one either.

Tiny meat/short temper

DEREK DEAD???!!!

This is why shows shouldn’t be milked this long.

He looks like he could be hung, R6.

Just a guess.

From what can be seen from photo shoots, I’m sure he’s all balls.

[quote] Patrick Dempsey left 'Grey's Anatomy' amid 'HR issues': 'He knew he could stop production and scare people'

Grey's Anatomy fans still aren't over the heartbreaking episode in which Patrick Dempsey's dreamy character, Dr. Derek Shepherd, dies, but it was a relief to some of the people involved in the show.

James D. Parriott, who worked as a producer on the ABC hit for several years, from 2005 to 2006 and was brought back again in 2015, just before Shepherd's demise on the April 23, 2015 episode, tells author Lynette Rice for her upcoming book, How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy, that his second stint there was all about keeping Dempsey happy — something he hadn't been in a while.

"[Creator] Shonda [Rhimes] needed an OG to come in as sort of a showrunner for fourteen episodes," Parriott says in an excerpt of the book published Thursday in The Hollywood Reporter. "There were HR issues. It wasn't sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him. 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 Shonda were at each other's throats."

At that time, Dempsey's relationship with his on-screen love interest, Ellen Pompeo, was also strained. Former producer Jeannine Renshaw said Pompeo often resented her leading man's objections to the many hours of work. She was spending even more time on the job.

"There were times where Ellen was frustrated with Patrick and she would get angry 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. When I brought it up to Patrick, I would say, 'Look around you. These people have been here since six-thirty a.m.' He would go, 'Oh, yeah.' He would get it. It's just that actors tend to see things from their own perspective. He's like a kid. He's so high energy and would go, 'What's happening next?' He literally goes out of his skin, sitting and waiting. He wants to be out driving his race car or doing something fun. He's the kid in class who wants to go to recess."

Dempsey himself explained his annoyance back then.

"It’s ten months, fifteen 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," said Dempsey, a father of three. "Doing that for eleven years is challenging. But you have to be grateful, because you're well-compensated, so you can't really complain because you don’t really have a right. You don't have control over your schedule. So, you have to just be flexible."

He said that he considered leaving when Sandra Oh, who played Dr. Cristina Yang, left in 2014, but he was being paid too handsomely — an estimated $400,000 an episode.

"How do you say no to that?" Dempsey said. "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."

Renshaw said the "final straw" was when Rhimes saw Dempsey's alleged bad behavior for herself.

"Shonda had to say to the network, 'If he doesn't go, I go,'" Renshaw said. "Nobody wanted him to leave, because he was the show. Him and Ellen. Patrick is a sweetheart. It messes you up, this business."

Dempsey — who had been on the ABC hit's first 250 episodes — was conspicuously absent from a string of eps just before his character was killed off. Rice's book confirms that the actor had been in talks with executives about his future.

Small dick raging energy

More like BIG DICK aggressive energy, R12.

Is this show still on? And with 24-25 episodes a season? What can they write about it?????

[quote]during her season-long COVID-induced dream that takes place on a beach.

Hold up. What?

I remember taking a magazine photo of him into my hair stylist when I was a freshman in HS. I said "I want to look like this." She gave me a "body wave perm" and it looked like shit. I remember crying and was afraid to go to school.

Patrick Splay’s Anatomy

I had the biggest crush on Patrick, from "Can't Buy Me Love."

I thought he was SOOOOOOOOO handsome.

he can terrorize my set any time.

Ellen Pompeo is gonna ride this show until the wheels come off (and I can't blame her for 20M a year). But Dempsey and Sandra Oh got bored and had more than enough in the bank. If you're rich as fuck and tired of your job, wanting to leave is understandable.

Wasn’t Grey’s Anatomy Season 11 like 50 years ago?

Isaiah Washington tried to tell y'all, but you wouldn't listen.

It couldn't have been THAT bad. Certain cast members have never been invited back.

I remember him from when he was a young cutie delivering pizzas to Kirstie Alley. What happened?

I hope this book also exposed what a bitch Heigl was.

I have a good friend that worked as a grip on Greys. He told me that Dempsey was a difficult asshole, but was also having sex with a married intern. Everyone on set was gossiping about it, and Shonda thought that it was distracting. Did they fail to mention the affair out of respect to his wife (who everyone seems to like)?

R26 what else did he say?

He started out nice, but changed a lot once he became more popular. He is short (my friend said that I wouldn’t be attracted to him in person). Apparently, they made zero effort to hide the affair, and were banging on set. Shonda does not play. I have never watched the show, so I only asked about Dempsey because I thought he was hot.

I’ve always thought he has great hair!

R9 and R13, please see R17 and report back. TIA.

Skinny legs and a flat butt. Plus, his nose is oddly shaped.

I want the dirt on why Justin Chambers left. It was SO awkwardly handled, there has to be a story there.

Chambers had either a mental breakdown or an addiction issue. He's had sleep issues before (code for coke issues)

Ellen told Denzel to GET FUCKED.

Get it, gurl!

"She gave me a "body wave perm"

Oh I remember that. We beat the shit outta you.

Shonda Rhimes is one the most abusive cunts in the industry and she’s proud of it. She’s a passive-aggressive bitch with a major chip on her shoulder. She knows most aren’t going to stand up to a black woman and she uses that for all it’s worth. She’s constantly ready to play her race card.

13 years ago Isaiah Washington told us Patrick Dempsey was an asshole who held up production. Which led to the confrontation that he had with Dempsey. Katherine Heigl (who turned out to be as big of an asshole or worse) and TR Knight hijacked the situation to advance their own careers. And after Washington was fired. They both left the show. Thirteen yrs later people are still claiming Washington called Knight a gay slur and people are surprised that Dempsy’s assholery is once again being outed.

No wonder Sandra Oh fled from the show and never wants to return.

Dempsey has, I am sorry to say, a teeny weeny peeny.

[quote] If you're rich as fuck and tired of your job, wanting to leave is understandable.

Which is what he should have done. It’s bullshit to take the money AND be an asshole to those around him. You can bet the combined salaries of the crew on that set didn’t add up to what he was making per episode, but HE’S the one with the attitude?

[quote] 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. When I brought it up to Patrick, I would say, 'Look around you. These people have been here since six-thirty a.m.' He would go, 'Oh, yeah.' He would get it. It's just that actors tend to see things from their own perspective.

This guy should work for the UN, because he’s a world-class diplomat. That was the nicest way of calling someone a self-centered twat that I’ve ever read.

[quote] Dempsey has, I am sorry to say, a teeny weeny peeny.

You’re “sorry” to state the obvious. We can all see his micro penis with our own eyes.

R40 the diplomat in that quote was Ellen Pompeo.

[quote] Dempsey has, I am sorry to say, a teeny weeny peeny.

Link please!

Speaking of Ellen Pompeo...

[quote] Isaiah Washington said Ellen Pompeo felt 'uncomfortable' with the idea of him playing her love interest, according to new book

A new tell-all book about the untold history of "Grey's Anatomy" reminds readers that Isaiah Washington could have been Meredith Grey's McDreamy. But according to Washington, Ellen Pompeo had reservations.

"I didn't audition for Burke, I auditioned for McDreamy," said Washington, according to "How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy" by Lynette Rice, Entertainment Weekly's editor at large. He said that creator Shonda Rhimes' original vision for the character was "a brain surgeon who looked like Dr. Ben Carson."

But Washington ultimately got the role of Dr. Preston Burke because, according to Washington, Pompeo didn't want him to play Derek Shepherd.

"There's a rumor out there or something that Ellen didn't want me to be her love interest because she had a Black boyfriend. The context is that she's not into white men," Washington said, according to the book. "I guess she implied that her boyfriend may have had a problem with her doing love scenes with me, so she felt uncomfortable."

Washington said he "supported" her feelings.

Pompeo's then-boyfriend, record producer and fashion executive Chris Ivery, became her husband in 2007.

The actress addressed her reaction to Washington almost being cast as McDreamy in an interview with the New York Post when the series was celebrating the 200th episode.

Pompeo said Rhimes wanted "a Black man in the mix" to play Meredith's love interest, but the actress "didn't think they were really going to put an interracial couple on the show."

"And I didn't want him. It was too close to home," she told the Post. "I said I wanted that Dempsey kid."

Although Pompeo had her reservations about Washington, who was fired from the ABC medical drama in 2007 for using a homophobic slur on set, she's a vocal ally for people of color.

She also infamously called out the lack of diversity in the room when she was on set for a "Women in Television" interview for Porter magazine in 2018.

"This day has been incredible," she said. "And there's a ton of women in the room. But I don't see enough color. And I didn't see enough color when I walked into the room today."

"How to Save a Life" gives readers new information (and reminders) about the long-running ABC drama.

Representatives for Pompeo, Washington, and Rhimes didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. A representative for ABC declined to comment.

I call bullshit on Pompeo having any say over the casting of McDreamy. She was a total nobody when the show started and was lucky to have even been cast.

Now Twitter wants to CANCEL! Ellen Pompeo because her having an argument with Denzel Washington on set was her being evil and racist and full of yt privilege.

R42 no it wasn't. It was a producer

Does The Fray get residuals from the book taking their song title?

They repeated multiple times about him negotiating his way out of it, what does that mean?

To be fair, Pompeo is a cunt herself, and Denzel was right, he was the director. It was his job to direct the actor.

That cast seems to have been a complete nightmare:

Patrick Dempsey (biggest asshole)

Katherine Heigl (biggest asshole)

Isaiah Washington (asshole)

TR Knight (asshole)

Eric Dane (drug addict)

Isaiah Washington was a homophobic asshole, and also became violent, which is why he was fired. There were problems with him on other acting sets as well. He has since become a conservative Republican which should surprise no one.

I didn't agree with that then and I don't agree with that now. IW was mad that TR Knight was being a little bitch and letting Dempsey walk over him, the show, and his fellow cast. He said and I quote, "I'm not going to be Patrick's little f word like TR." Poor word choice, but it was twisted to sound like something that it wasn't. He wasn't upset with TR's sexuality. He was upset with TR for being a pushover. TR and his little bitch goddess KH then used that for press and publicity. But I guess the justice is, all three eventually got wiped out.

Is that thing STILL on?

[quote] Isaiah Washington was a homophobic asshole, and also became violent, which is why he was fired.

He was fired after he again denied calling TR Knight the f word, at an awards show (and actually said the word). He was always honest about having used the word. He however explains that he directed it at Dempsey, not Knight. Why because of the same asshole behavior (from Dempsey) mentioned in the article.

[quote] ABC released a statement reading, "We dealt with the original situation in October, and thought the issue resolved. Therefore, we are greatly dismayed that Mr. Washington chose to use such inappropriate language at the Golden Globes, language that he himself deemed 'unfortunate' in his previous public apology."

IW played gay in at least two movies before GA.

I definitely didn't appreciate his use of the f slur, but I don't know that it makes him a homophobe. I think it made him a dumb person with a limited vocabulary. Funny how we haven't yet fired Matt Damon from anything for the same choice.

Washington sealed his fate when he said the "f" word at the Golden Globes. It was completely unprofessional and it wasn't a good look for the show.

If he had not addressed it, he would have probably not been fired.

Shondra Rhimes is behind this book. She comes off as a pathetic bitter Lesbian. There is a reason she has ADOPTED kids and NO man.

I agree. When he said that I didn't call TR an f-word sealed his fate, but at least he was being consistent. And in his own stupid way, trying to let people know he wasn't a homophobe, but just made it worse. But using words like "faggot" "punk" "gay" as stand-ins for weak was a thing. Hopefully, we're gotten past it. But I still roll my eyes at the way TR and KH jumped on that and used it for publicity, especially KH.

Well, this will kill the show.

Shondra Rhimes was so "outraged" she fired Washington.....THEN she gave him a guest starring role return. Shondra is a miserable person. Someone should write a book about her. Anyone who has ever seen Scandal knows how Shondra feels about white people. No Joke.

Shonda didn't want to fire Washington. She wanted to keep him on the show, but when he took the microphone and blurted out the f word, they had had no choice. They were hoping the story would die down but Washington fanned the flames and, by saying it, he had become a liability to the show.

I stopped watching after Christina Ricci got killed by that exploding grenade that was in her hand

"That cast seems to have been a complete nightmare:

Patrick Dempsey (biggest asshole)

Katherine Heigl (biggest asshole)

Isaiah Washington (asshole)

TR Knight (asshole)

Eric Dane (drug addict)"

R51: If they hadn't gone to Hollywood, this crew would have been a shoo-in for donald's White House staff.

.,.,

[quote]Ellen told Denzel to GET FUCKED.

Good! People have said he’s piece of shit, but of course Black people think he’s just perfect and can do no wrong.

Bronson Pinchot said Denzel was one of the most unpleasant people he ever worked with.

[quote] Good! People have said he’s piece of shit, but of course Black people think he’s just perfect and can do no wrong. Bronson Pinchot said Denzel was one of the most unpleasant people he ever worked with.

Of course a white supremacist feels the need to make silly remarks about black people.

[quote] Shondra Rhimes is behind this book. She comes off as a pathetic bitter Lesbian. There is a reason she has ADOPTED kids and NO man.

Its totally Shonda Rhimes' fault that Patrick Dempsey (whose career she resurrected) is a complete asshole.

Race has nothing to do with it.

Sandra Oh felt it was time and moved on. She did Killing Eve, and now The Chair