Imagine being a showrunner for Grey’s and deciding to fire one your show’s best actresses?? I truly don’t understand. April’s character has developed so much, and Sarah always kills it. Even in the earlier seasons when I thought April was annoying af, Sarah always managed to play her in a way where I still enjoyed watching the character’s story anyway.
And don’t even get me started on the pure gold that they struck when it comes to Sarah and Jesse. Regardless of the status of Japril (…I still think the show did them so dirty but whatever), as actors Sarah and Jesse are such a dynamite pair and I can’t believe the writers are just throwing that partnership out??
TheSarahDrew: First of all, Jesse knocked this scene completely out of the park. His performance destroyed me. Wow. Secondly, For me, this photo speaks volumes about our partnership. Jesse and I had some very trying stories to tell over the years and there were many moments when we really needed to lean on each other to get through them. And we did. To name a few: Samuel’s death, signing divorce papers, when Harriet was cut out of me (Jesse was on set to do the off camera phone call), when April tells Jackson she needs to move out because it’s just too hard. The scene right here where Jackson prays over April was one of those moments. It was agonizing for me, because I wanted so badly to reach out and offer him support in the scene- to let him lean on me - cuz that’s what we do for each other- but I had to just lie there unconscious letting him do his beautiful work alone. So, after he finished his coverage, I reached out to hug him and our makeup artist @loveeani caught it on film. Our partnership on this show has been so sweet, so collaborative, so challenging (in the absolute BEST way). We got to tell stories that really matter, that have reached out and provided a safe space for people to love, laugh, mourn and grow. I will be forever grateful to my co-captain for the 9 years of friendship and for the opportunity to tell such beautiful stories together. Thank you, Jesse ❤️❤️❤️. Photocred @lovveeani
TheSarahDrew: Here are some of my favorite people on the planet. While shooting this scene my heart was so full of joy and sadness at the same time that it was almost unbearable. As I was looking up at all of these beautiful faces, smiling down at me with so much love, happy to see April alive and well, I was overcome with sadness about the reality of not being with all of these people in the same place in the same way ever again. But, I was ALSO overcome with the joy of having had the opportunity in my life to know such gorgeous people whom I have loved, who have loved me so well for 9 years. During a break in the scene, I felt the tears coming and I looked over and made eye contact with Caterina and Chandra and they whisked me away and let me feel my feelings all over them. It was such a sweet moment of friendship. What I keep experiencing since the moment I was let go, is the tremendous joy that is present in the midst of my sorrow. It felt horrible to be asked to leave my family of 9 years, and I have experienced real, deep grief over it, BUT I have ALSO been so buoyed up by my cast, my crew, the fans, and my family in such extraordinary ways, that I wouldn’t trade any moment of it for the world. I keep describing my experience over the last two months as being “love-bombed” because between the conversations, the hugs, the letters, the tweets, the plane(!), that’s truly what I’ve felt. Love-bombed. In the wake of being let go, I’ve been overwhelmed with gratitude, and I’ve felt profoundly loved. I am so humbled and so thankful. Get ready for so many more pics and love notes next week. ❤️❤️❤️
TVLine asked Sarah Drew, who plays Kepner, exactly that and then some.
TVLINE | Is this a case where God has actually given April more than she can handle?
Yeah, she is kinda coming face to face with the bigger question about, if God is out there and He is good, how could He let all of this stuff happen? Why isn’t He intervening? Does He give a crap about anything? And if He does, why won’t He show up? This leads April into a multi-episode spiral of really questioning everything she grew up believing. It’s a pretty heartbreaking storyline. But I think it echoes a lot of questions people have now, people of faith, people who are notpeople of faith, just because of how much suffering we are witnessing in the world and in our country. It brings up a lot of big, deep questions, which I think is a good thing. I’m interested in telling a story about a faith that deals with doubt, and struggles with doubt and anger, and doesn’t just accept whatever is said at face value but really kind of fights to come to a kind of truth that makes sense.
TVLINE | And, of course, there’s nopressure on you, knowing that the audience is watching April go through this trial by fire and thinking, “Oh, please, help her out of this, so I know I don’t have to live in constant despair!”
[Laughs] No pressure at all! But I think the story’s honest, which is what I love about this show. It has always told hard stories because they echo what people are struggling with, and hopefully gives them a space to feel things and think about things and work through things. So there’s some pressure there, for sure, but there’s also a great privilege in getting to tell a story like this.
TVLINE | What was April’s reaction when she realized, “Oh, Karen’s husband is… Matthew”?
It’s a tender and complex situation. Back in Season 10 when she ran away with Jackson, there was an episode where she mentioned to him that she’d tried to reach out to Matthew, but he had basically moved shifts so that he never had to deal with the hospital again and wouldn’t return her calls. As far as the audience knows, there’s been absolutely no closure. So she had no idea how he was doing. I think, especially in the scene where they talk about how their lives went, and Matthew brings up, “Oh, you must have a 3-year-old, right? You found your soulmate with Jackson… Isn’t it great how it all worked out for both of us?”… In that moment, we played around a lot with whether that was a moment of despair for her, a moment of “Oh, maybe I made the wrong choice?” or whether it was a moment of, “I can let go of the guilt for running away with Jackson, because the suffering brought Matthew to a joyful place. I can cling to that!” By that point in the episode, she was really trying to cling to moments of joy and also really [remember] that if she hadn’t run away, she wouldn’t have Harriet. And Harriet is her great joy. So she wouldn’t want to change anything, but her life has turned out very differently than she thought it would in the moment in the barn when she ran off with Jackson. It’s bittersweet.
TVLINE | How does Vik fit into this? After this soul-crushing day, is he just like a pain reliever for April?
I think so. When April’s eyes go to camera right in that last moment in the shower, I kind of saw her joy fly out of her being. The moment with Vik is basically a “Screw it all” moment. “I’ve been following rules my whole life — for what? What was the point of doing all of this when people get screwed? Good people get screwed, left and right, and I got screwed, left and right. I’m tired of trying to do quote-unquote the right thing. It’s so hard. And I’m done with it.” And [the pain-relief aspect] isn’t specific to Vik, it could have been anyone. He just happened to be there, and she just wanted to do the quote-unquote wrong thing.
TVLINE | Do you think she can bounce back from this?
Absolutely. This is an exploration of a maturing woman engaging in a new way of looking at things that I don’t think diminishes her belief. She has the strength to find her way back, but it’ll take a little while.
“I remember showing up to the trailer and seeing him and just looking at him and saying, ‘Alright, buddy, you ready for this?’ I think there were a lot of things along the way, in playing the scenes that led up to that, that helped prepare us for the emotional reality of shooting that last scene. … I feel so lucky to have been given such an incredibly caring scene partner. I feel like we both really went through something when we played this story line. Because your body sort of goes through it, even if you’re not actually going through it. … I felt so just lifted up by him and supported, and I think he felt the same way with me. We have a great friendship anyway, but it was a really kind of special journey to take, I think, as acting partners.” Sarah Drew about Jesse Williams.
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