How ‘Grey’s Anatomy’s’ Sandra Oh Inspired Sarah Drew by Taking a Stance

Grey’s Anatomy alum Sarah Drew revealed that her former costar Sandra Oh is a huge inspiration to her.

The actress, who portrayed April Kepner for nine seasons on the long-running medical drama, said watching Oh go head-to-head with the show’s writers over her character, Christina Yang, was a sight to behold.

“She was my model. When I came on, I would watch Sandra passionately fight for something about her character or her story with our head writers. Passionately. ” Drew, 44, said on the Wednesday, October 14 episode of the “Call It What It Is” podcast.

However, Drew clarified Oh, 53, wasn’t just fighting with the writers to be difficult. In fact, Oh truly had strong feelings about how Yang’s character arc should be developed, according to Drew.

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“You could see there was real respect. She wasn’t just going, ‘This sucks, I hate this stupid sh–. I’m never going to learn any of these lines.’ You know, which we’ve seen other people do,” Drew told the podcast’s hosts, and her former Greys’ costars, Jessica Capshaw and Camilla Luddington. “But like, her passion, how much she cared about every single piece of the journey of Christina Yang was inspiring.”

Oh’s willingness to take a stand when it came to her character left so much of an impression on Drew that it motivated the actress to be outspoken when necessary, too.

“It actually allowed me to have a voice,” Drew added. “So, I would watch her and go, ‘Oh, you can have a beautiful collaborative relationship with the writer team, and you can be involved in the crafting of your character instead of just being a meat puppet, and like, ‘Go stand in your mark and say the things I told you to say.’ And I really took that to heart and they allowed me in to participate in the journey.”

Back in 2009, Drew joined the Grey’s cast during the sixth season and stayed with the show until producers unceremoniously decided to let her go, along with Capshaw, in March 2018. They were both written off following the season 14 conclusion.

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Drew later reprised her role as April for a season 17 and season 18 episode in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Meanwhile, Oh was one of the inaugural cast members when the long-running series first debuted in 2005. The popular cast member stayed with the show for a decade before exiting after the season 10 finale in 2014.