A Work Of Art

Some Sandra praise in this official podcast for episode 5.21 of Grey's Anatomy with writer and executive producer, Krista Vernoff, and picture editor, Ed Ornelas. They talked about the scene below, how it changed from script to how it eventually ended up on screen and Sandra's involvement in the process.

Here is a transcript:

Krista Vernoff: There are these sliding door things and we live the sliding doors in the writers' room. "What if we do this? What if we go this way?" There are these moments when a lot in your day is really tortured and difficult, or you're tormented by the decisions that you make in the writers' room. "What is right? What is wrong?"

And then there are these moments of just utter victory. And then we came up with the three words thing. I don't know if it was me, I think it might have been one of the other writers. I wish I could remember. It all mixes together. They're all brilliant.

Ed Ornelas: I love the three word thing.

Krista: Somehow on that day we came up with this three word thing and it was like... We all sent up a cheer. We were so excited by this notion that he's saying these three words he can't say cause he's not allowing himself to say "I love you", which I think is a actually a true act of generosity which Cristina finally gets when she says it back to him.

Ed Ornelas: She says it though and then she walks away. I think that is so cold.

Krista Vernoff: But she's doing this for him-

Ed Ornelas: I know, I know.

Krista Vernoff: - what he's doing for her. She doesn't want to walk away. When she says "Take care now" she is saying "I love you". He has just established that "Take care now" means "I love you". And she says it back and then she walks away because that's what he's saying. He's saying "I'm no good for you. We need to protect each other. This is horrible for me."

Ed Ornelas: I'm really bitter about that by the way. That you wrote it that way. I mean I love it, it's just that it was a dagger in the heart. Well, I mean, I think she has to walk away but it just...

Krista Vernoff: You know, until the table read her line was "I love you too".

Ed Ornelas: Ahh...You see, that's such a huge difference.

Krista Vernoff: Such a huge difference.

Ed Ornelas: You can interpret it as, she's basically throwing it right back in his face and just storming off. If she says "I love you too" and walks away then at least it's more clearer about what her feelings are.

Krista Vernoff: Well, I was surprised by Sandra's performance.

Ed Ornelas: She's so hurt.

Krista Vernoff: She's so hurt and that is what's amazing when you write a thing. I never, not in a million years - and this is what I love about Sandra Oh - never did I expect Cristina to come into that scene basically crying. She is so hurt. She is so mad and when she is saying to him "What am I to you?"...

Ed Ornelas: And she's mad because she's hurt.

Krista Vernoff: Because she is hurt. And in my head she was mad because she had been thwarted medically all day. But what Sandra brings is always so much more than you picture or intend. She comes in and she is so hurt because she is so in love with him that he's been ignoring her all day. And to me, I didn't expect the tears so what they brought - what Sandra and Kevin brought - was art. It just broke my heart. I unexpectedly was in tears watching them shoot that scene.

So when you talk about that moment at the end, initially I thought that it was a much softer "take care now". I pictured her touching his face. I pictured an "I love you back". But her pain at the loss of him, I think that she played the truth, which is that the pain overwhelms everything.

Full podcast is available here.