Be still my beating heart because my favourite ship, Izzie Stevens and Denny Duquette, aka Katherine Heigl and Jeffrey Dean Morgan just reunited and they had a LOT to say about their time on Grey’s Anatomy, including those bonkers as heck ghost sex scenes.
Heigl and Dean spoke to Entertainment Tonight to celebrate 20 years of Shondaland and pay tribute to Mother Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton, Scandal and basically my entire roster of comfort shows.
Also there will straight up be hella spoilers in this, you have been warned. Also you’ve literally had YEARS to catch up on Grey’s so you can’t get mad at me.
Morgan basically said that he doesn’t recall much of that season, admitting, “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 chimed in, calling the ‘ghost’ storyline “awkward” and noting that it was “confusing for everyone” involved.
Heigl remembered one of the most cringe-worthy scenes involving Izzie trying to convince herself that Denny wasn’t there while she got intimate with Alex (Justin Chambers), all while Denny’s ‘ghost’ stood by. “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,” she told ET.
She joked about it, saying, “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 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?’”
Morgan even joked that if he were Denny in that situation, he’d probably storm out of the room. I mean, same.
The audience reaction wasn’t exactly glowing either. Morgan recalled that when the episodes with Denny’s ‘ghost’ started airing, viewers were pretty baffled by the whole “she’s seeing a dead guy” thing.
Heigl echoed this sentiment, saying, “She’s fucking a dead guy? What?” And you know what, yeah, it was in fact a bit of a stretch for the show, but if it meant more Izzie and Denny scenes I was down for it!
Eventually, the show revealed that Izzie’s hallucinations were due to a brain tumor. Heigl appreciated this twist, saying it made the storyline more poignant for her. She remembered Shonda Rhimes referencing an old movie where an actress hallucinated due to illness, which helped her understand the direction of the plot. Heigl noted, “For me, I loved Izzie and I wanted her to get to have that with Denny… 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.”
She added, “I remember Shonda talking to me about it… And then she revealed like, ‘No, it’s a manifestation of this illness.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so sad.’”
Despite the confusion, both Heigl and Morgan look back on their time on Grey’s Anatomy with fondness. Morgan noted that playing Denny was his last audition, and it completely changed his career trajectory. “There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t thank Shonda Rhimes. She gave me a career. It’s pretty fucking 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,” he said.
Heigl chimed in, “We were so excited. We were so gobsmacked that the success had even happened. I don’t know that any of us expected that.”
As they reminisced, Morgan shared, “It was a really special time. That set was magical. I didn’t want to leave for a lot of reasons, but it was just everyone got along so well.”
Heigl agreed, saying, “Those were the good old days. It was a really extraordinary time that I’m so grateful I had.”
I’m not crying you are! Anywho I’ve taken this as a sign to rewatch Grey’s Anatomy and relive the trauma of that darn LVAD wire.
Lead image: Getty Images
