It simply wouldn’t be fall without the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial preparing to scrub in.
“Shonda Rhimes is a genius and the structure of the show is bulletproof,” Grey’s Anatomy star Caterina Scorsone (Amelia Shepherd) tells Entertainment Weekly. “She really created something that was flawless. If you go back to the pilot, it holds up like it was yesterday. All of the elements that she was able to include, and the way she can go back and forth between drama and comedy, created that structure for the subsequent showrunners and the subsequent writers. It’s a perfect thing that she made.”
While Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy, hasn’t been involved in the day-to-day or writing of the medical drama in years, Scorsone says season 23 (premiering Thursday, Oct. 15, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC) is shaping up to follow that same formula under showrunner Meg Marinis, who has been at the helm since season 20.
“There are some heavy themes that we’re dealing with,” Scorsone tells EW amid production of episode 3. “This is the perfect Grey’s balance of dramedy where you’ve got the heavy stakes, but you’ve also got the, like, ‘Okay, take a breath. We’ve got something funny happening.’”
The finale of season 22 set up several storylines for season 23, including a bombshell cliffhanger when Amelia’s former flame Dr. Toni Wright (guest star Jen Landon) arrived at Amelia’s house to find Dr. Cass Beckman (guest star Sophia Bush) in her bed.
“What was so exciting was it made such a huge impact. There was, like, war on the internet,” Scorsone says. “Previously, everybody had been super excited about [the idea of] Amelia and Cass getting together. And then Toni showed up and people got really invested in Toni. When we finally got Cass and Amelia together, it was like a scandal.”
With Landon set to return, will Bush’s Cass also be checking back in? “It always depends on Sophia’s schedule. She’s constantly doing something exciting in some country or other,” Scorsone says. “But the way they’ve structured the story, she’s, in terms of the narrative, available for anything. It could happen. That’s always in the wings.”
With one of Amelia’s exes, Link (Chris Carmack), facing a potential painkiller dependence after re-injuring his shoulder in the finale bridge collapse, she could end up spending more time with him, too, even if in a platonic way. (Link is currently married to Camilla Luddington’s Jo.)
“I’m sitting where you are, seeing the writing on the wall because this was a massively important storyline for Amelia,” Scorsone says, referring to Amelia’s battle with substance abuse that played out on both Grey’s and spinoff Private Practice. “And Link, they have to cross paths because they share custody [of a son]. That’s up to the storytellers. I’ve had some nice moments with Jo so far this season, and so maybe that’ll dovetail into something with Link.”
For Scorsone, though, “the love of Amelia’s life is medicine,” and a direct connection to Meredith Grey. And while Ellen Pompeo caused a stir online when she was missing from a recent cast photo (and landed a gig in Hulu’s upcoming medical show Not a Sound), Scorsone assures EW that she’s still appearing in her scaled back capacity. (Pompeo hasn’t been a series regular since season 19.)
“Her voiceover is in every episode and she’s, obviously, an executive producer,” Scorsone says. “We definitely have a lot of Ellen presence and Meredith presence. Meredith and Amelia have been working on this Alzheimer’s trial. I do a lot of advocacy work for the Down Syndrome community, and the vast majority of people with Down Syndrome eventually develop Alzheimer’s. So in that advocacy work, I’m really involved with Alzheimer’s research, and it’s very exciting right now. We’re seeing connections between the autoimmune and inflammatory conditions in Alzheimer’s, and we’re looking at immunotherapy in new ways. The pilot was about Alzheimer’s [and] there was kind of no hope in that area. Over the course of this show, we’ve gotten into such a different place medically in terms of the research. It’s just really exciting to be involved in something like that.”
Along with Scorsone, Luddington, and Carmack, OGs Chandra Wilson (Dr. Miranda Bailey) and James Pickens Jr. (Dr. Richard Webber) return for season 23, but longtime cast members Kevin McKidd (Dr. Owen Hunt) and Kim Raver (Dr. Teddy Altman) exited at the end of last season.
“There’s this confidence that the show and the hospital continues, and the hospital becomes the main character of the show, really,” Scorsone says of losing two core cast members. “I was texting with Kevin yesterday. In terms of the personal relationships, we’ve been together for such a long time. 23 seasons — there are adults who are voting, working and paying taxes who have never been alive when Grey’s Anatomy was not on the air. When something goes down, Kevin’s, like, one of the first people I call, if not the first person. He’s not on the show, but he’ll come back and direct.”
As far as other potential returns, Scorsone looks at it in two ways.
“Obviously, I want to see my close friends,” she admits. “Then you say, ‘What are the opportunities in terms of storyline?’ We had Sophia. Are we gonna have Kai (E. R. Fightmaster) come back at any point? Chyler [Leigh] was such a fantastic cast member. Her character is dead now, but I’ve never gotten over that death. Sarah [Drew] and I are very good friends. I would love for Sarah to come back. I think that could happen. And then, of course, there’s Private Practice people. Sometimes we get Kate [Walsh]. We’re all still on a text thread. We’re super tight, that whole group of us.”
When asked for a message to any one-time Grey’s viewers who may have fallen behind at some point in the last two decades, Scorsone laughs. “Your friends are still here! They’re waiting for you,” she says. “They need you to check in. They’re wondering how you’re doing. It’s time to come together and laugh and cry.”