The ladies of Grey’s Anatomy pose for pictures in the press room. From the left: Katherine Heigl, Ellen Pompeo, Sara Ramirez, Chandra Wilson, Kate Walsh and Sandra Oh.
Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey, aka Dr. McDreamy, is on the cover of the February issue of Details magazine. Here are a few quotes from the article:
On being more of a loner as he grows older: “I like to be alone a lot. I like my privacy. The older I get, the more I want to be around fewer and fewer people.â€
On growing tired of his character on Grey’s Anatomy: “Things are going well, but I’m not satisfied. I don’t think the character is going to change that much. Shonda Rhimes has created a great show. And I’m contributing to that and have benefited from that profoundly. And she’s benefited by being smart enough to cast me when no one else did. [It’s] been a great opportunity, but it’s not the end-all, be-all of where I want to go.â€
On competition with Eric Dane (Dr. McSteamy): “There’s no real competition. We’re so different. It will be interesting to see where the dynamic of that friendship goes in the show. I think the women characters are developed very well. I sometimes feel that the men get a little shortchanged. [Rhimes] is writing an idealized version of what men should be.â€
On being unique in Hollywood: “Grey’s has given me so much confidence. I went through five years where I didn’t get anything from auditions. You start to think, Well, I’m not attractive, I’m not a good actor. But I never gave up. I just accepted this is who I am. I’m not George Clooney, I’m not Brad Pitt, but I’m uniquely who I am.â€
Patrick Dempsey is on his way after stopping by a Santa Monica bike shop on Wednesday. The Grey’s Anatomy star, who is expecting twin boys this winter, said in a recent interview, “Fatherhood is the most important thing. Everything else is a joke.”
The star of Grey’s Anatomy and father-to-be of twins looks back on his exhilarating, gratifying, and, at times, debilitating road to success.
For years, when Patrick Dempsey auditioned, he was greeted with that special yawn Hollywood reserves for onetime gangly teen stars stymied by the leap into adulthood. The decadelong rough patch nearly damaged the actor’s confidence.
“I was getting to a breaking point,” says Dempsey, 41. “It was demoralizing.”
That difficult period informs and deepens Dempsey’s oddly vulnerable Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, making him more than just another soulful TV surgeon with awesome hair. In a revealing talk with LIFE, Dempsey, who recently received a Golden Globe nomination for the show, addressed everything from his rocky return to stardom to why someday—with his makeup-artist wife, Jillian; their 4-year-old daughter, Talula; and their soon-to-be twin sons beside him—he may just walk away from it all.
He may play the field as Dr. McDreamy on the ABC hit Grey’s Anatomy, but Patrick Dempsey has a steady domestic life.
“Fatherhood is the most important thing. Everything else is a joke,” he tells Life magazine in its new issue, about being at home with his wife Jillian, a makeup artist, and the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Talula. They are also expecting twin sons this winter.
“Now,” says Dempsey, who turns 41 on Saturday, “making money is about providing for my children. And being a father makes you look at yourself. You look at your marriage and go ‘How do I improve this? How do I keep growing and create a stable environment for my children?’ ”
One way, he reveals, is to go to couples therapy. “Yeah, we go in for checkups and go ‘Hey, here’s what we need to work on,’ ” he says. “We’ve had a very good relationship from the beginning, but you run into things you have to work through.”
He also adds that therapy “is easier than fighting with someone.”
There are also some remedies that he delivers at home. “Reading to my daughter has been therapeutic,” says Dempsey, who is dyslexic. “I’ve gone back and started to learn to read on a very basic level. I’m reading Dr. Seuss, and I’m healing that part of myself, as well as developing my daughter.”
He may play the field as Dr. McDreamy on the ABC hit Grey’s Anatomy, but Patrick Dempsey has a steady domestic life.
