Actor Camilla Luddington has revealed that she and other Grey’s Anatomy cast members were “traumatized” by a plane crash storyline from Season 8 of the hit show. The actor plays Dr. Josephine “Jo” Wilson in the long-running ABC series, which first aired in 2005 and is now in its 21st season. Luddington, who joined the cast in 2012, shared her thoughts on the startling storyline on the Call It What It Is podcast she hosts with her friend and former Grey’s Anatomy actor Jessica Capshaw, who played pediatric surgeon Arizona Robbins until March 2018, after starring in 11 seasons. During an episode of their podcast released on December 9, they spoke with former
cast member Chyler Leigh, who played Lexie Grey. She explained what it was like leaving the show after the dramatic plane crash that occurred in the final two episodes of Season 8. The plane was carrying a group of characters to assist with the surgery of conjoined twins at a hospital in Boise. Mark Sloane (Eric Dane) also died as a result of the traumatic incident. Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Luddington and Leigh for comment on Monday outside of normal business hours. “When I started the show, I heard that, um, because you had just left, right? We don’t like to talk about the plane crash episode because everyone’s traumatized,” Luddington said. “But I came on after and I thought, ‘This is a crazy way to come on because we’re losing such iconic characters from the show, this is a little bit scary.’ And everybody talked about how truly incredible you were as a cast member. “And we’re talking about like-crew always know, crew on TV shows, your reputation really sits with the crew because they see you every day. Not every actor sees you every day but the cameraman does, the makeup artist. Everyone could not say [….] they were just like, in love with you, and so sad you were leaving.” The plan crash episodes and the episodes that showcased the aftermath have gone down in television history. In the first episode of Season 9, Mark died from his injuries, and his life support was turned off, as per his will. Each survivor from the crash handled the repercussions differently, which allowed the show to examine trauma in a way it hadn’t done before. Even though Leigh recognizes how iconic the two episodes are, it’s had an everlasting effect on her. While she watched the episode in which she died, she never plans to do it again. “I watched it when it aired and then I never watched it again,” Leigh said and when she was asked whether it was traumatic to watch, she added: “It was super traumatic to film it and then to go back through it, I was like, ‘OK, I’m good.'” Elsewhere in the podcast, Leigh revealed one of her least favorite Grey’s Anatomy storylines. “The ‘break the penis’ storyline,” she said. “It ’twas not my favorite. At the table read I had no idea it was coming. Had no idea what was happening.” The episode she is referring to is when Mark fractured his penis while having sex with Lexie in the on-call room. Leigh remembered “shrinking” in her chair when she read the scene during the table read. “I was blood red,” she told the podcast hosts. “It was mortifying, absolutely mortifying.”
