Chyler Leigh Says She's 'Down With'Grey's AnatomyCharacter Lexie Being Eaten by Wolves: 'Wolves Are One of My Spirit Animals'

Mar. 15, 2025

Chyler Leigh as ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ character Lexie Grey.Photo:Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Chyler Leighis looking back at some of her more memorable moments onGrey’s Anatomy, including her character’s shocking death and why she felt “ridiculous” filming her brief return to the long-running medical drama in 2021.

On the most recent episode of fellowGrey’sstarsJessica CapshawandCamilla Luddington’sCall It What It Ispodcast, Leigh, who also stars onThe Way Home, recalled initial backlash to her character, Dr. Lexie Grey, when she was first introduced at the end of the show’s third season.

“When I first came on the show, the very first episode, which then led into the second episode, I was hitting on [Patrick Dempsey’s] McDreamy at the bar after a funeral,” Leigh said. “I was like ‘McSlutty.’ Everybody – they hated me.”

“They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh….she’s a homewrecker trying to get in between, you know, Meredith and Derek.’ ” Leigh recalled. “And, and then the next episode was, ‘I’m Lexie. I’m your sister.’ And everybody’s like, ‘Woah!’ ”

Chyler Leigh attends Hallmark’s “The Way Home”: Screening and Conversation with Chyler Leigh, Evan Williams, and Sadie Laflamme-Snow at 92NY on March 20, 2024 in New York City.Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Leigh ultimately played Lexie, the half-sister ofEllen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey, for four more seasons, until the character died in a plane crash that left several of the show’s characters fighting for survival in the wilderness at the end of season 8. In a subsequent season 9 episode,Sandra Oh’s Cristina Yang struggles with the harrowing memory of hearing wolves fighting over Lexie’s body in the night while she and the other doctors were stranded.

OnCall It What It Is, Leigh, Capshaw and Luddington struggled to remember whether thatmuch-memedscene actually happened.

Chyler Leigh in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.ABC

ABC

Despite her character’s gruesome demise, Leigh said she still feels that “it was the right moment” for her to leave the show. “When I had the conversation with [series creatorShonda Rhimes] about leaving, we were just trying to figure out a really great way for it to happen and for Lexie to go,” she recalled.

Leigh added that she doesn’t regret her character dying and said she felt she got “redemption” in a 2021 episode. The season 17 episode was part of a multi-episode storyline that found Meredith dreaming of Lexie and other deceasedGrey’scharacterswhile suffering from COVID-19. As Leigh noted, the episodes were shot during the actual COVID-19 pandemic, making her guest appearance a challenge.

“I was filmingSupergirlin Vancouver,” she explained. “And it was legit COVID. And so, we had started filming on the show again, but no one could leave Canada.”

“It was really tough because I was filming nonstop, like, every day, but then the issue was if I went across the border and then came back, I would have to quarantine for two weeks,” she continued. “So everything that I filmed was on my own, in a totally different sound stage with, like, the blue screen behind me. So, I’m pushing Meredith on — like, an invisible Meredith, and I never felt so ridiculous in my whole life.”

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“And granted,” Leigh added, “I was working on a superhero show. So, I was like, you already can feel pretty ridiculous. This was right up there.”

Of course, Leigh recalled other ridiculous moments from her run onGrey’s. “Twas not my favorite,” she said of a season 5 storyline in whichEric Dane’s Mark Sloan suffers a penile fracture after a night with Lexie. “I remember having to read at the table read. I had no idea it was coming,” she said. “I remember shrinking in my chair and the script going up in front of my face. It was mortifying. Absolutely mortifying.”

Leigh said she also didn’t appreciate how the show’s writers explained away the weight she gained during her 2009 pregnancy. “I was pregnant, we had to explain why Lexie was gaining weight, so we all of a sudden made the storyline that she ate every time she got stressed,” Leigh recalled. “That was a little rough, but I understood. I got it. But I had to eat 17 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in a scene.”

source: people.com