Kevin McKidd is speaking out about his exit from Grey’s Anatomy after years on the show.
If you don’t know, Kevin had appeared on Grey’s since 2008, when he first joined in season 5 as Dr. Owen Hunt, and has remained a main cast member for most of the series since then.
THR spoke to Kevin and noted, “I understand this decision was brought to you, and it wasn’t because you asked to leave the show. Showrunner Meg Marinis told me the conversation was a painful one. Can you talk to me about that moment when you found out?”
Kevin responded by saying he’d been thinking about his exit for a few years.
“I’ve been thinking about my character’s exit for quite a few years. I’ve been noodling it in my head and wondering how it should be. And my concept for Owen’s exit from the show was that I always imagined he would die in some heroic fashion. That he would save somebody or save a bunch of people and lose his life. And the reason I see that is because Owen came into the show as this traumatized, kind of broken person. He was basically a broken man. He had lost all his platoon in Iraq, and carried that wound,” he shared.
He said he mainly wanted to know if his character was going to die or not.
He added, “She is such a brilliant showrunner. She felt that the story we tell is one of a new chapter, and of two people coming back together and turning the page and recommitting and reuniting and starting again and starting afresh. The more Meg told me about this idea of how they were going to wrap the characters up, it made much more sense. And I’m really proud of it.”
He was then asked if he would have stayed on, had this decision not been made.
Kevin responded, “I’d been kind of toying with the idea of [leaving]. I’d been feeling like it was time for me to leave over the last couple of years, and not quite knowing how to do that. Not knowing how to leave a place that’s become my family. As an immigrant, this fresh British actor in America, this show, quite literally, has given me a home. So that’s definitely hard to walk away from.”
The great news is that Kevin will be back next season as a director in episode 2!
Posted To:Greys Anatomy Kevin McKidd
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