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'Grey's Anatomy' producer dishes on Patrick Dempsey's exit: 'There were HR issues'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 9/17/21

If you need further proof that Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo are excellent actors, you've come to the right place.

Dr. Meredith Grey (Pompeo) and Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd (Dempsey) were deeply in love — one of the most definitive television couples in history — but the dynamic was much different behind the scenes.

Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter published an excerpt from Lynette Rice's forthcoming book "How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy," an unauthorized oral history, that detailed Dempsey's exit from the series in 2015.

"[Grey's creator] Shonda [Rhimes] needed an OG to come in as sort of a showrunner for fourteen episodes," James D. Parriott, a producer from 2005-06 and '15, says in the chapter. "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."

Jeannine Renshaw, another former Grey's producer, is quoted next:

"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. 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 then admits that working 15-hour days for 10 months for 11 years was "challenging," and Renshaw attributes finally making the decision to write McDreamy off the show to "a lot of the complaining ... I think Shonda finally witnessed it herself, and that was the final straw."

Derek's demise came in the 21st episode of Season 11 when he witnesses a car crash. He's able to help everybody involved, but as he's getting ready to leave the scene, he's hit by a truck. At the hospital, the doctors make the fatal mistake of not ordering a CT to check for brain damage, and Derek dies.

At the time, Dempsey was accused of having an affair with a Grey's intern — his wife, Jillian Fink, filing for divorce in January 2015, didn't help the optics — but Dempsey denied the accusation and In Touch deleted their report. (Fink and Dempsey are still married.)

Whatever it is that soured Dempsey's relationship with the Grey's powers that were back then must have been resolved, as the 55-year-old actor returned for the most recent season.

Season 17 featured Meredith unconscious in a COVID-induced coma for most of its episodes, which placed her inside her subconscious mind on a beach symbolizing an in-between state from life and death. While there, she was reunited with Derek — the ghost of Derek, Derek's spirit, whatever — and tempted to join him on the other side. Ultimately, he convinces her to keep fighting and living because their three kids need her.