‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Camilla Luddington Shares a Side Effect of Playing a Doctor on the Medical Drama: ‘A Lot of Us Feel That Way’
Camilla Luddington made her debut on Grey’s Anatomy in 2012. Now one of the show’s central characters playing Dr. Jo Karev, the British actress has come to know the ins and outs of working on the long-running ABC drama.
After years of her character operating on trauma patients and researching a myriad of illnesses, Luddington has previously shared on dealing with a distracting byproduct of portraying a television doctor.
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ star fumbles the medical lingo
The iconic medical drama is known for its intricate jargon from surgical procedures to diagnoses and prescription orders. In a 2016 interview, Luddington revealed that during her very first scene with show matriarch Ellen Pompeo, who plays Dr. Meredith Grey, she completely messed up on the tongue-twisting terminology.
“I had a whole monologue of just medical dialogue that I had to say to Meredith without her saying anything to me and I was just legitimately terrible,” Luddington recalled in the interview with BUILD. “I was so nervous cuz I was such a fan of the show too I could not remember the lines.”
The Grey’s star actually feared she would be let go after the complex dialogue fail. “They actually cut the scene, by the way, but I thought they were just going to cut my role by the end of the day,” she said. Clearly, show producers saw Luddington’s talent despite the loused up lines on kept her on the cast.
Camilla Luddington reveals a challenge to working on ‘Grey’s’
With eight seasons of Grey’s under her belt, Luddington has had her share of every type of health care talk imaginable. From terminal diseases to horrific accidents, the medical drama has covered scores of physical and mental ailments ranging in severity. The actress admitted that dealing with constant health-focused material can take its toll.
“I feel like a complete hypochondriac!” Luddington told the Chicago Tribune in April 2019. “I feel like something’s probably wrong all the time. I didn’t realize how many different ways there are to almost die, so I do feel like I’m constantly living in a possible season finale of my own life.”
‘Grey’s’ actress says it doubles in pregnancy
Now expecting her second child with husband Matthew Alan, Luddington revealed that several cast members share her fears especially during pregnancy. “A lot of us (on the show) feel that way, especially when we get pregnant,” she explained. “There are so many storylines about what can happen during pregnancy or during birth — so I think we’re all a little more heightened in our anxiety. We know the possibilities.”
When pregnant with her first child, daughter Hayden, Luddington commented on how portraying labor and delivery on the show and the complications that can accompany them can be troubling.
“Mimicking childbirth on Grey’s has taken the mystery out of it,” she told Parents Magazine, laughing. “Of course, we also deal with every worst-case scenario. I know everything that could go wrong, but I try to keep that separate.”
While there are some downsides to being subjected to such harsh healthcare realities, Luddington shared that there are some definite perks to being on the cast of a medical drama, including getting input from on-set consulting physicians.
“We have real doctors on the set, and I bug them so much about stuff,” she admitted when she was expecting Hayden. “The other day, my stomach was lopsided. I was like, ‘Look! Is this okay?’ They told me I probably slept tilted to one side. So that night, I slept on the other side, and sure enough, the baby centered herself.”
Luddington’s fans are awaiting news of the arrival of baby #2!
