Chyler Leigh has one regret about starring on Grey’s Anatomy with Eric Dane.
Leigh, 44, opened up to TV Insider in a video published May 31 about her memories from working on Grey’s and starring with Dane, who died at 53 on Feb. 19. Leigh joined Grey’s in the show’s third season, which began airing in 2006, as Lexie Grey, the half-sister of Meredith (Ellen Pompeo). Dane’s character, Mark Sloan, was introduced in season two to cause chaos between Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh); in season three, he relocated permanently to Seattle.
It took until season five for Mark and Lexie to be paired up on the series, and they continued to have an on-again, off-again relationship. Lexie admitted her long-standing feelings for Mark near the end of season eight, which aired from 2012 to 2013, while Mark was still torn up about his feelings. During the season eight finale, Mark and Lexie were both involved in a plane crash, and Mark admitted his feelings for her right before her death. In the season nine premiere, Mark died from his injuries from the crash.
Then, in season 17, Lexie and Mark both got the chance to return while Meredith was fighting COVID-19, as she kept seeing visions of people she loved who had died on a mysterious beach. The season was filmed between 2020 and 2021, when COVID protections were at their height. That led Leigh to make a choice she’s still “really bummed about.”
“We were filming all during COVID, actual COVID, and I was filming Supergirl in Vancouver, and I couldn’t go down to be there,” she said. Leigh starred on the series as Alex Danvers, Supergirl’s adopted human sister. The series ran from 2015 to 2021, and her filming commitments kept her from reuniting with Dane and Pompeo, 56, in person in California, where Grey’s is made.
“I would have had to quarantine two weeks coming back into Vancouver, and . . . we did not have the time for that,” she shared. Instead, she filmed her scene with her costars using a green screen. “If there’s anything that I regret, it would be not having been able to do that.”
Leigh said of Dane’s performance on the show, “I could pick a million. I really could. He was a wonderful, wonderful human being.”
Back in February, Leigh paid tribute to Dane. “The last 48 hours have been devastating. “I never thought I would be using the term ‘had or was,’ but here we are. And I hate it,” she wrote in a statement to E! News.
She continued, “Eric had a heart of gold. His humor and, especially, his laugh was infectious. He was a deeply intelligent man who could carry a philosophical conversation for hours even while we were on set.”
She wrote, “The Universe is undoubtedly holding Eric now just as I will continue to do within my heart forever.”
Dane was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease, less than a year before his death, and he spent some of his final days lobbying for ALS research.
One of his last roles was in the third season of Euphoria, where he played Cal Jacobs, the father of Jacob Elordi’s Nate.
Grey’s Anatomy season 23 will return this fall.