“Grey’s Anatomy” Stars Talk Dating During COVID-19
If the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that Zoom is a seriously valuable tool.
Amid the show’s attempts to realistically deal with COVID-19 in a hospital setting, Grey’s Anatomy is also getting realistic with one of its newest romances and proving that you don’t even have to move to Seattle to be a main character.
Anthony Hill appeared in one episode of season 16 as Winston, a former student of Maggie’s (Kelly McCreary) when she was working in Boston. They both had crushes on each other back then and now they’ve rekindled those feelings to the point where Hill was promoted to series regular in season 17, but it sounds like he’s not making the move to Grey Sloan Memorial just yet.
“Things are ramping up from episode one where we kind of catch up with Maggie and Winston in the middle of COVID, in the middle of this pandemic. So, with that comes a long distance relationship,” Hill told E! News. “There’s a lot of FaceTime dates and a lot of Zooming and just trying to get to know each other and grow in progress virtually…I like that we kind of get to be that couple that shines the light on that aspect of this whole ordeal that we’re going through in the world.”
It’s about time for Maggie to find some good romance, even if it has to be virtual. She and Jackson (Jesse Williams) went through an ugly breakup over the past couple of seasons, but now we’re at the point where even Ellen Pompeo tweeted that Maggie and Winston are her new favorite couple.
“I think it’s gonna be really fun for the audience to watch as this relationship unfolds,” McCreary said. “Like Anthony said, this time is so challenging for singles—and not just for singles who are trying to date but, like, I know a lot of people who were just starting to connect with somebody and it’s been very hard to be disconnected. So in that context for them to have found each other and find it and find that even just digitally connecting, you know, by screens is such a healing balm for each of them wherever they are…I love that that’s how they’re sort of developing it.”
However it’s developing, it’s better than anything Maggie has had in a while.
“I think the change will be good for me,” McCreary said. “You know, the other way wasn’t working before so anything would be better, honestly.”
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McCreary promised that just because the show is jumping head-on into the pandemic (starting with the early days of it), that doesn’t mean we should fear any less relationship drama than we’ve become accustomed to.
“Grey’s has always been good at really toeing that fine line between the very serious and the very funny and the, you know, sexy but also the very restrained,” she said. “Our show is such a like tonal melange. That hasn’t stopped. We are dealing with COVID, but, you know, Maggie’s gonna be quirky and neurotic whether it’s COVID or not and Amelia and link are going to be sexy and adorable, no matter what, you know, so of course that’s all still there because these characters are still the characters.”
The pandemic has affected and changed everyone in a way, but “life actually isn’t just about the pandemic,” and that comes through on screen.
As for how tonight’s two-hour crossover premiere event will play out, McCreary said it will start in the early days of the pandemic and go back to revisit the cliffhangers and leftover stories from last season. In case you’ve forgotten what those were, allow us to catch you up real quick:
DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) was in the midst of a breakdown after losing sleep over trying to figure out what was wrong with Richard (James Pickens Jr.). He told Meredith (Pompeo) he needed help, and she turned down a dinner with Hayes (Richard Flood) to help her ex. Richard ended up being fine after DeLuca realized his cobalt hip replacement was poisoning him, but he dashed Catherine’s (Debbie Allen) hopes of reconciling.
Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and Link (Chris Carmack) had just had a baby, and in Worst Love Triangle Ever land, Owen (Kevin McKidd) found out Teddy was cheating on him with Tom (Greg Germann) via a really, really awkward voicemail.
Happy TGIT to us all! Scroll down to keep up with all the romances on both Grey’s and Station 19!
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.
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