“I’ll bring the booze and the Depends.” Katherine Heigl is planning her gift for Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s 60th birthday party (the actor turns 59 in April).
Sitting in their respective homes in Utah and New York, the former costars are seeing each other for the first time in years. The conversation flows easily, from their time together on Grey’s Anatomy to Heigl’s brand of dog food — which Morgan loves and would really like to come in bigger bags, if possible — to the fact that they’ve both left Hollywood behind to live on some land. “See, they were meant to be, Izzie and Denny, because Katie and Jeff are the same people,” Morgan says with a laugh.
The two have reunited to celebrate 20 years of Shondaland by reflecting on one of Grey’s Anatomy’s most devastating deaths: When Izzie had to say goodbye to Denny Duquette, the heart patient who managed to steal hers.
“I can’t rewatch it,” Morgan says of his character’s farewell in the season 2 finale. “It makes me cry. 1) because it was so awesome, and 2) it was f—ing incredibly sad to watch. I don’t see myself in there, which I take is a good sign if I can watch myself acting and not see myself. And I never did, working with Heigl and having Shonda’s words. That’s pretty special.”
Together, they look back on that pretty special scene (and more).
GREY’S ANATOMY – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl and Jeffrey Dean Morgan on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
Scott Garfield/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Do you guys remember the first time you met?
JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN: It was on set, but it wasn’t at the studio. It was at the hospital at the —
KATHERINE HEIGL: Oh, at the VA?
MORGAN: At the VA, yeah. That was my very first day and I think we shot that scene where I tell you, “I’m a Sagittarius and I dig hot chicks, blah, blah.”
HEIGL: And I dig hot chicks. What a charmer.
I feel like you guys just answered my second question, because that means there was no chemistry read?
MORGAN: No, which is super freaking weird. But maybe because the Denny thing was written to be, I think, a lot shorter than it ended up being. They were like, “Ah, it doesn’t matter if they have chemistry or not. He’s only going to be around for three or four episodes.” It just turned out that it was probably the most chemistry I’ve ever had with an actor in my life, and it just was immediate. I’ve been chasing that chemistry for 20-some odd years. I need it again.
HEIGL: Oh, let’s do something. Hold on. Wait. The wheels are turning.
MORGAN: Yeah. You want to be on a zombie show? [Laughs]
HEIGL: Somebody call Shonda!
MORGAN: It’s time. The prequel.
GREY’S ANATOMY – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katherine Heigl
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Katherine Heigl on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
Byron Cohen/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Wait, so Jeff, if it was originally four episodes or whatever it was, did you sign up for this knowing that your character was going to die?
MORGAN: I did. The same day that I auditioned, I was on my way to go to Supernatural, but I had just been offered this role in Oliver Stone’s Twin Tower movie [World Trade Center]. That was a complete conflict. So I could only pick one, and I was a broke boy, and I remember thinking, “Four episodes is pretty juicy.” Shonda told me when I went in that I was going to die, but I also thought I was going [to be] opposite of Ellen [Pompeo]’s character because the sides were with Denny and Meredith. It was a big secret. So I don’t think I found out that I was going to be working with Katie until the day before or something.
HEIGL: I remember that scene when Denny died, how stressed out I was to perform that and just wanting to give it my absolute best and really try not to chew the scenery and try not to make it overly melodramatic, but to really hit that grief honestly. I put all this pressure on myself to do that well. I was sitting alone a lot listening to really sad music, thinking about my dead brother, which was fun.
GREY’S ANATOMY – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katherine Heigl
Sandra Oh, T.R. Knight, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Katherine Heigl on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
Scott Garfield/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
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MORGAN: I didn’t have to do anything, obviously. I was dead.
HEIGL: Yeah. Dead dead dead.
MORGAN: But I remember having so much empathy for what you were going through because it was rough. And you had to sit there and cry, and they wanted to shoot it 900 different ways to Sunday. So you cried for a good 15 hours that day —
HEIGL: Yeah, it was very cathartic.
MORGAN: Which is not an easy job to do. I really remember the “What about me?” scene. And you’re crying and I’m crying. We just got so sort of into it that we weren’t even saying the lines half the time, we were just spitting out s—.
HEIGL: Oh yeah, they let us do that, which was kind of rare there.
MORGAN: It’s one of my favorite scenes. You were so good.
HEIGL: You were so good. You made it very easy to do. One of my favorite things about Shonda as a writer is how beautifully she does these tortured love stories. And I feel like that was Denny and Izzie, it was doomed from the start. And being able to do that, you have to have some camaraderie, some connection, some affection and respect for the person you’re working with. In this instance, it was magic. It just worked. Because it did happen so fast, we did meet on set, we did dive right into that storyline. It wasn’t like I had some big lead-up to, “This is coming for Izzie.” It’s always secretive there and they don’t want to spill the beans too soon. So you finding out as it’s going.
GREY’S ANATOMY – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katherine Heigl
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Katherine Heigl on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
Byron Cohen/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
MORGAN: Especially then, it was so hush-hush. We were really lucky. I remember at the time, it was lightning in a bottle. I remember people coming up to us and saying, “This is crazy. You guys seem like you’ve known each other forever.” We spent a lot of time [together].
HEIGL: Those were the good old days. It was a really extraordinary time that I’m so grateful I had. We lived it up, we had a great time, and we did work we were excited about and got to work with people we liked and enjoyed.
MORGAN: It was a really special time.
HEIGL: It was. It was one of my favorites.
MORGAN: That set was magical. I didn’t want to leave for a lot of reasons, but it was just everyone got along so well. And I know things happened later. But when I came back in season 5, it had a complete different feel to it. But years one, two, three, they were magic. People were having the time of their lives and they loved each other.
HEIGL: We were so excited. We were so gobsmacked that the success had even happened. I don’t know that any of us expected that. So we were just riding high.
MORGAN: Nobody had been on a show that was like the Super Bowl every week. 30 million people tuning in.
HEIGL: It was crazy. And it was wonderful. And then it was stressful.
MORGAN: I f—ing loved it. I [would] basically go just hang out in Shonda’s office. I think I was just trying to stay longer.
HEIGL: I think we did go in and try to convince her not to kill you.
MORGAN: We did.
HEIGL: We were in there like, “Here’s what we’re thinking. We’re thinking.” We tried. And she was just like, “I hear you. And it breaks my heart too, but he’s gotta die.” [Laughs]
MORGAN: Yeah, she was set, she was set in her ways, it was gonna happen. But yeah, I just remember sitting in there in her and Betsy [Beers]’s offices and just being like, “But this is so great —
HEIGL: “What if it’s close to death?”
MORGAN: Yeah. Or, “What if we drag it out till next year? Why do you got to end the year?” And we never really knew. She’d say, “Yeah, you got to die.” But then… you wouldn’t have the script until the read-through. It was so secretive. And she wouldn’t give any of the storyline really away other than having said, “You’re going to be a dead boy soon.” And so there was always a little bit of hope like, “Maybe she’s fooling us. She’s going to juke us here.” Because she has a really good sense of humor as well. I was like, “Maybe it’s not going to happen.” But the day that I had to die, I didn’t come out of my trailer. I wouldn’t come out of my trailer. I think they finally sent Katie and Katie was like, “Jesus Christ, Jeff, I have to cry all day. You’re just laying there.” [Laughs] Wearing her prom dress. I’m like, “All right.”
GREY’S ANATOMY – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katherine Heigl
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katherine Heigl, and Justin Chambers on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
Scott Garfield/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
HEIGL: I love that season.
MORGAN: You won an Emmy.
HEIGL: Yeah, that’s still shocking to me. I still feel a little like, “Did this get rigged?” It was one of the most exciting creative times of my acting career, the work that I was allowed to do there. That was so rewarding and satisfying. I know it sounds weird because it was so heightened and so steeped in sadness and sorrow, but I love that s—. I think that that is such a huge part of humanity, is what we have lost and what we have survived. And I loved that I got to do it and portray that and tell that story because that’s what I love about storytelling.
Katherine Heigl says she’d fast-forward through Grey’s Anatomy ghost sex if watching with daughter
Obviously Denny would come back in season 3 and then in a much bigger way in season 5. Katherine, I saw in an interview you said something about fast-forwarding through the ghost sex when you daughter watches?
HEIGL: We have not watched Grey’s. Partly because I was like, “How do I explain that?” …. But I’m like, “You can watch it, but I don’t want to sit next to you. I will be so embarrassed.” I don’t know how to explain this. And she will make me embarrassed. She will make fun of me. No, it’s better not to give her that ammunition. Do you know what I’m saying?
MORGAN: I get approached all the time by, I imagine they’re probably high school, early college-age girls usually who are sitting through 20-some odd seasons of Grey’s Anatomy.
HEIGL: I know.
MORGAN: Because there’s a new fan group. I still get stopped if I’m out in public every day and at least the one of them will bring up Denny.
HEIGL: Yeah, me too. Every time I go anywhere. And I didn’t understand what was happening at first. One of my best friend’s son, who was not born when we started the show, dressed up as McDreamy for Halloween one year. It’s crazy how popular it still is with new generations.
GREY’S ANATOMY – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katherine Heigl
Katherine Heigl and Jeffrey Dean Morgan on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
Scott Garfield/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
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Looking back preparing for this chat, I did not remember just how many episodes Ghost Denny was in!
MORGAN: It’s funny because I don’t remember much of that season because it just… I don’t know that anybody thought that was working when we were doing it.
HEIGL: What do you call that, fantasy fulfillment for Izzie and Denny to finally basically get to be together and have an actual relationship?
Wish fulfillment?
HEIGL: Wish fulfillment, thank you. I imagine that it was to give the fans a bit of this wish fulfillment, but yeah, it was awkward — not the scenes, but the concept.
MORGAN: She could never acknowledge me. And I remember I was yelling at her while everybody else was giving her doctor information. And it was throwing everybody off.
HEIGL: Yeah. It was confusing for everyone. There’s one particular scene that I will not watch with my children ever. I don’t care how old they are. I don’t care if they’re 60, I’m not watching this with them. And it was a scene where you’re in the room, but I’m trying to be like, “You are not here, you’re not here.” And Alex [Justin Chambers] and Izzie start messing around and he goes down on her. And you’re just standing there. And I was just sort of at the time like, “This is what the money’s for, right?” [Laughs]
MORGAN: Yeah. [Laughs]
HEIGL: I’m like, “I don’t know what to do.” I was like, “I’ll give it my best.” [Laughs]
MORGAN: I can’t believe I didn’t raise my hand and say, “I don’t know that dead Denny would stay for this. I think he would storm out.” [Laughs]
HEIGL: Yeah. Lots of questions.
MORGAN: But it was great to be back, I’ll say that. The work is always great. It’s like Katie said, I don’t know that the story stuck. It was a hard one for the viewers because it was so kind of out of the realm of Grey’s Anatomy. And I think by the time we… It started airing while we were still shooting the story, and we knew that the audience reaction wasn’t that excited about, “What? She’s seeing a dead guy? What the f— is going on?”
HEIGL: She’s f—ing a dead guy? What?
MORGAN: Yeah.
HEIGL: I’m sorry. Don’t use that language, Samantha! I don’t ever want to hear you say that again.
MORGAN: She’s messing around with a dead guy. But it was fun. We did have fun. There was a lot of laughing, I’ll tell you that.
HEIGL: For me, I loved Izzie and I wanted her to get to have that with Denny. And so there was part of me that loved it and wanted to do it, and wanted to see her have that, even if it was just a fantasy. But yeah, because there was this supernatural aspect of it, like you’re saying, it wasn’t necessarily in the realm of Grey’s Anatomy. I remember Shonda talking to me about it. She referenced an old movie where the actress was sick and hallucinating. Because at first I didn’t know why she was seeing him, and no one would tell me. And I was like, “So is he an actual ghost or is it a hallucination or what’s happening?” No one would tell me because it was super secretive, but then she revealed like, “No, it’s a manifestation of this illness.” And then I was like, “Oh, that’s so sad.”
GREY’S ANATOMY – Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katherine Heigl
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Katherine Heigl on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
Scott Garfield/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
The last thing I’ll throw at you guys is the impact that Grey’s had on you. Jeff, I think you said Denny was the last audition you had?
MORGAN: Yeah. It was the last audition I ever had. It changed my life completely. I was a journeyman actor who would do guest star spots and failed pilots up until then.
HEIGL: Yeah, me too.
MORGAN: I was late 30s then, and it hits like a freight train because it was so watched. I couldn’t go grocery shopping. Women would tackle me, for real. It was crazy. But it gave me a career. Zack Snyder cast me in Watchmen because he loved Grey’s Anatomy. There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t thank
Shonda Rhimes. She gave me a career. It’s pretty f—ing amazing. And then I still wouldn’t have had that career if it weren’t for the chemistry that Katie and I had. It was magic.
HEIGL: The same thing happened to me. I was job to job to job, just trying to live to fight another day. I had three offers: One pilot shooting in Canada, one for a new character on Third Watch shooting in New York, and then this untitled Shonda Rhimes project. I wanted to go do Third Watch because I was ready to get out of LA. And I had really wanted to be a part of a legitimate ensemble, I didn’t want to just be a guest character in somebody else’s show. And at the time it was feeling like Meredith’s show. And [Shonda] was like, “No, this is just the pilot, but this show is going to feature all the different characters.” And so I went for it and it changed my entire career. I’ll be like 80 years old someday going, “How did that happen?” I’m deeply grateful because it changed my whole life.
MORGAN: We’ll come up with that new show.
HEIGL: Yes. Like I said, “Somebody called Shonda!”
