Isaiah Washington isn’t happy that he’s best remembered as the actor who was fired from “Grey’s Anatomy” for allegedly using a homophobic slur on set.
As Washington explains in a new, no-holds-barred interview, he was falsely accused of directing the slur at co-star T.R. Knight in 2006. Washington told Tavis Smiley on KBLA Talk 1580 radio that being portrayed as homophobic was one of the ways that people on the hit ABC medical drama tried to use him “as a scapegoat to cover up other problems on the set.”
Those problems included how Patrick Dempsey was a remorseless “tyrant” who got away with terrorizing others on the set because he was a White star, Washington, 58, said. In addition, series star Ellen Pompeo stayed quiet about Dempsey, with Washington alleging that she took $5 million “under the table” during the height of #MeToo to not tell the world “how toxic and nasty Patrick Dempsey really was.”
“I didn’t know that (the homophobic accusation) would stick to me so hard. But I found out why,” said Washington, who has denied being anti-gay. “It was an agenda to cover up for the toxic and bad behavior of many of my former castmates on that show. And the top of that would be Patrick Dempsey.”
Washington said he initially auditioned for the part Dempsey ultimately played, heroic neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd, aka “McDreamy,” but Pompeo, who plays Dr. Meredith Grey, was opposed to any Black actor playing her love interest, according to Washington.
The actress “made the executive decision” to not hire him for that role, Washington said. That’s because “she had a Black boyfriend, she didn’t feel comfortable.”
Pompeo acknowledged to the New York Post in 2013 that it would have been “too close to home” for her to be part of an interracial couple on TV. “I didn’t want him,” Pompeo said about the idea of Washington being her love interest.
Washington was instead cast as intense, brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Preston Burke, and his love interest was played by Sandra Oh. As for Pompeo’s relationship with Oh and other costars, she might not be so willing to acknowledge that she was “unnerved” by their success, Washington said.
Washington began his career collaborating with director Spike Lee on the films “Crooklyn,” “Clockers,” “Girl 6,” and “Get on the Bus.” In the latter, Washington played a gay Black man who travels on a bus to participate in the Million Man March.
Meanwhile, behind-the-scenes drama has long been a part of “Grey’s Anatomy” history. The blockbuster series has been on the air for 18 seasons and contributed to the rise of Pompeo and showrunner Shonda Rhimes as feminist icons and Hollywood power players.
Some of the behind-the-scenes drama, along with more sordid tales of co-star feuds and diva behavior, were elaborated upon in the recently released oral history book, “How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy.” In the book, executive and writer James D. Parriott confirms that there were “H.R.” issues with Dempsey, who was “terrorizing the set” and leaving cast members with “PTSD.” Dempsey left the show in 2015 after 11 seasons.
Last month, Pompeo also put herself in the middle of a major social media backlash, according to BuzzFeed News. On her eponymous podcast, the actress thought she was sharing a funny story as she described a heated exchange with Denzel Washington, when the Oscar winner guest-directed an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2016.
“This is a good Denzel story,” Pompeo began, before recalling how they had gone “at it” on set after she gave another actor direction without consulting Denzel Washington first. When Denzel Washington said, “I’m the director,” Pompeo said she called him an expletive and yelled: “This is my show. This is my set.”
To Isaiah Washington, Pompeo’s description of the fight with Washington was an example of how she “thinks she’s cool with Black people like that, but she’s not.”
As for his conflicts with Dempsey, Washington said, “He was not a nice guy from day one.” At one point, Washington claimed Dempsey told him, “Isaiah, do you know that White men are the masters of the universe?” “And I said, ‘You really believe that?’ And he said ‘Absolutely,'” Washington claimed.
The homophobic slur was uttered during a physical fight between Dempsey and Washington in October 2006. Dempsey had a habit of arriving late on the set, showing a “simmering of disrespect,” Washington said.
But one Monday, instead of apologizing for being late, Dempsey lashed out at Washington and assaulted him, Washington claimed.
“I did what I had to do as a man. And I cussed him out,” Washington said. He said he used the “F-word” slur in reference to himself, not to anyone else.
“‘You’re not going to punk me, you’re not going to treat me like a B-word and you’re not going to treat me like an F-word,” Washington said he told Dempsey at the time.
Washington said that news of the fight spread to the media, and it was said that he had directed the slur at Knight, who wasn’t even in the room. However, according “The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy,” Washington did refer to Knight with the slur when he told Dempsey he couldn’t “talk to me the way you talk to (Knight).”
Whatever Washington said during the fight, news reports about it prompted Knight to confirm to the media that was gay.
“We all felt horrible for T.R. because he had not come out to his family at that point,” former “Grey’s Anatomy writer and producer Harry Werksman said in the book.
In talking to Smiley, Washington admitted that he made things worse for himself when he and the rest of the cast appeared at the Golden Globes in January 2007. While being interviewed on the red carpet, Washington apparently tried to make light of the controversy by joking, “I love gay. I wanted to be gay. Please let me be gay.”
After the show won Best Drama, Washington responded to press queries about the controversy by using the slur to deny using it against Knight. Washington told Smiley he realized that the way he used the world so freely suggested to the media that he had used it in the way described.
