ShareThisBy TERRY MORROW
Thursday, October 19, 2006
"I'm trying to fit this into a lunch break," "Grey's Anatomy" co-star T.R. Knight says at the beginning of a sit-down interview on the set. "So let's get going."
It sounds like the right moment to offer an apology for cutting into his eating time. "No, no, no," he says. "Hit me."
The interview is conducted near the hit soap's operating room doors. Knight, who plays lovable loser Dr. George O'Malley, is sitting in a waiting room chair, slightly impatient.
Dressed in his blue scrubs, he invokes the image of George, but he's more focused than the hapless character. On this day, when dozens of critics are swarming the set, Knight is one of the in-demand actors for interviews.
The same sort of chaos that sets the tone of the show's hospital has come to life in reality. Journalists are darting from room to room. Some are part of organized tours; others are wandering in and out on their own.
It's a rare day when "Grey's," one of ABC's crown jewels (airing 9 p.m., ET/PT, Thursdays, ABC), opens the door to reporters. Workdays for the cast and crew can turn into 18-hour stretches. The actors have little time to devote to anything but their scripts.
Even when the press comes calling in invited groups, the cast can only be available during a break from shooting.
On this day, Knight, 33, who started his stage career in his native Minneapolis before going to New York, is relishing George's growth. In a landscape of "McDreamys" and "McSteamys," the rather-plain George is a man all into himself.
The character's one-night stand with Meredith was a turning point, he says. She didn't want to continue the relationship, and it shattered him.
"When he apologized to Meredith at the end of the season, he realized what his responsibility was in all of it," says Knight, a bachelor. "After acting in a very childish way, he was growing up."
A stage actor before landing in primetime, Knight received a Drama Desk nomination for his performance in "Scattergood." Knight says his biggest adjustment was leaving New York's boards for Los Angeles' camera lights.
"George and I are different, but the stages of our lives are the same. Everybody has these stages unless you are shut up in a room somewhere," he says.
"Moving from theater to television performance, leaving my friends behind in New York, it was all experiences that changed me."
He says he tries not to pay attention to the phenomenal success of "Grey's." Internet message boards are totally devoted to George, who has emerged as an unlikely sex symbol on the show. But Knight says that in real life he has little time to relish the moment.
"I don't mean to say 'Oh, cry for me. I'm successful.' I don't mean that at all," he says. "There's just going to be some insecurities involved with it all. But, as far as I am concerned, life is fine right now.
"I'm just really busy."
