LOS ANGELES – He did not go gently, neither was he proud. Jeffrey Dean Morgan hoped, prayed, schemed and finally begged for life. At one point, he marched into Shonda Rhimes’ office, turned those big shining eyes on her and pleaded: “Please, please, just let me live.”
Rhimes was sympathetic but firm, and on the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Morgan’s beloved character, Denny Duquette, survived a difficult heart transplant, asked Izzie to marry him, got her to say yes and then, in the last few minutes of the show, had a fatal stroke. While no one was watching, save the 19.9 million viewers sobbing in their homes, Denny quietly breathed his last.
“It was a grim day, let me tell you,” Morgan said of shooting his death scene. “A dark, grim day. I’m still not over it. It broke my heart to leave that show.”
The show, which follows the exploits of a group of Seattle surgeons-in-training, including Isobel “Izzie” Stevens and main character Meredith Grey, is one of the biggest hits on television. It has a devoted following, many of whom were apparently holding out hope that Denny, a long-ailing patient, would somehow pull through. After his death, countless fans lighted up the ABC switchboard in their sorrow and outrage. A few have circulated petitions in hopes that somehow Denny can be resuscitated.
“I don’t think so,” Morgan said with a grin. “I mean, I was blue.”
But death does not trump fame; in some cases, it fosters it. After working as an actor for more than 15 years, after having guest appearances on “pretty much every TV show you can think of,” Morgan has suddenly found himself a posthumous celebrity. Weeping women approach him in the supermarket, long-lost friends are falling out of the woodwork and, most important, producers and directors who wouldn’t have given him the time of day a year ago are suddenly on the phone.
“It’s very weird,” he said, shaking his head with another one of those heartwarming grins “Grey’s” fans would recognize at once. “I mean, I’ve been kicking around this town for years. … Now I can actually say no if I want.”
In fact, he said no to an audition that day – because he had just agreed to do a movie starring Lisa Kudrow and Teri Garr that begins shooting in Austin, Texas, in a week.
“It’s a small part,” he said, “but can you imagine, Lisa Kudrow? And Teri Garr? … That’s just amazing.”
Of course, if he had been able to choose precisely what he wanted to do, he’d be back on “Grey’s.”
He went into the Denny gig knowing he was a goner. Rhimes had seen him as Mary-Louise Parker’s dead husband on “Weeds” – “It has been the year for me to play the dead and dying,” Morgan admitted – and asked him to come in for an audition.
Rhimes is so secretive about her plots that Morgan was given only the barest information – that he would be in multiple episodes but that the narrative arc of his character would end eventually in his death. Which at the time was fine with Morgan.
“No one knew how much the story would take on a life of its own,” Morgan said. “I don’t think even Shonda knew how the fans would be drawn to the romance. It was pretty incredible.”
Meanwhile, Morgan was experiencing what it was like to be a pivotal character in one of the hottest dramas on TV. And although to an outsider it might seem like an easy role – Morgan was in a hospital gown and in bed for almost all of his scenes – the confines of disease were quite a challenge.
“I definitely give it to the writers that they created a guy who could charm a room without moving, but it took a lot of effort sometimes,” he said.
But as distraught as he is over his demise on the show, Morgan realizes he is standing on the ledge of one of those infamous windows of opportunity – the choices he makes next could whisk him, and his asking price, up into the local firmament or relegate him to a bit of “Grey’s Anatomy” trivia. He would like to do movies, but television’s good too.
“I’m just looking always for characters that change, because I want to get better, as an actor and as a person. But basically,” he added, “I’d really like to work with Shonda again; I would follow that woman anywhere.”
As indeed he is. He recently became the first actor to be cast in a pilot that Rhimes will shoot this fall. Who is he playing?
“I don’t know,” he said. “She just told me it was the best character she’d ever written, and that’s good enough for me.”
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