Patrick Dempsey Gets Emotional Reflecting on His 10-Year Grey's Anatomy Career

Patrick "Dr. McDreamy" Dempsey got emotional discussing the decade he spent on Grey's Anatomy with Entertainment Weekly.

Here are some highlights from his "exit interview" from Seattle Grace.

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The decision about his character was a sudden one.

"Things happened very quickly. We were like, 'Oh, this is where it's going to go,'" Dempsey said "with a blank stare." The decision took place sometime in the last couple months: "It just sort of unfolded in a very organic way. ... It happened very quickly."

He wasn't surprised to find out his character was dying.

"There wasn't a lot of discussion" about Derek's demise, saying he was "not really" surprised by it. "It was just a natural progression (for the show)," he continued. "And the way everything was unfolding in a very organic way, it was like, okay! This was obviously the right time."

He choked up discussing his on-screen relationship with Meredith.

What made his relationship on screen with Ellen Pompeo so compelling was "beautiful chemistry," he said in a whisper. His eyes filled with tears as he said, "It's magic. We're like a married couple. It's 10 years, and it was magic from the beginning."

He's not sure he'd take on another Grey's.

"I would commit to a show that is 10 to 12 episodes, but 24 again," he said. "I don't know if I would do that [again]. It's a very hard life. It's financially rewarding, but there comes a point where, how much is enough, really?"

His focus is on his family now.

Though he recently divorced his real-life wife of 15 years, Dempsey says he wants to spend a lot more time with his kids now: "What I would like to do is focus on not being spread so thin. Those days are over." Shooting for a show like Grey's is "10 months, 15 hours a day," he said, and that means a lot less family time. "You never know your schedule, so your kid asks you, 'What are you doing
 on Monday?' and you go, 'I don't know,' because I don't know my schedule. Doing that for 11 years is challenging," he admitted.

Read the whole interview here.

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