Grey’s Anatomy’s Patrick Dempsey ‘was terrorising the set’, Ellen Pompeo was ‘frustrated’ with him, new book claims

Actor Patrick Dempsey, who played Dr Derek ‘McDreamy’ Shepard in Grey’s Anatomy, was terrorising the set prior to his exit, the show’s executive producer James D Parriott has claimed in a new book. He also said that Patrick and show writer Shonda Rhimes ‘were at each other’s throats’.

Author Lynette Rice in her upcoming book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy wrote about Patrick Dempsey’s exit from the show. He appeared in the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy for the first 11 seasons. However, his exit from the show in 2015 left fans shocked.

The Hollywood Reporter quoted the EP as saying in the book, “Shonda needed an OG to come in as sort of a showrunner for fourteen episodes. There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorising the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him. He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people. The network and studio came down and we had sessions with them. I think he was just done with the show. He didn’t like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and Shonda were at each other’s throats.”

The report also quoted another executive producer, Jeannine Renshaw, as saying, “There were times where Ellen (Pompeo) was frustrated with Patrick and she would get angry that he wasn’t working as much. She was very big on having things be fair. She just didn’t like that Patrick would complain that ‘I’m here too late’ or ‘I’ve been here too long’, when she had twice as many scenes in the episode as he did. When I brought it up to Patrick, I would say, ‘Look around you. These people have been here since 6:30 am’. He would go, ‘Oh, yeah.’ He would get it.”

The report also quoted Patrick as saying, “It’s 10 months, 15 hours a day,” and never knowing one’s schedule. He said that when his kids asked him about what he would be doing on a particular day he couldn’t reply as he wouldn’t know.

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After his exit from the show, Patrick Dempsey briefly featured in season 17. In the episode, he appeared in a dream sequence, joining Ellen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey on a beach, moments after she collapsed in the parking lot of Grey Sloan Memorial.