Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the famed Denny Duquette from Grey’s Anatomy, has made bombshell claim about his role in the hit medical drama.
The actor who is known for his role as Negan in The Walking Dead revealed that playing the heart transplant patient in season 2 and 3 of the ABC drama actually launched his career in Hollywood.
Morgan added that before his breakthrough performance as Dr. Izzie Steven’s eventual love interest, he had years of failed pilots and guest star spots attached to his name.
However, it all changed drastically, and he never had to audition after that – work just came to him.
“That show honestly gave me a career. I was doing that, Weeds and Supernatural simultaneously… I’ve auditioned zero times since playing Denny Duquette,” revealed the 59-year-old in an exclusive statement to People.
“I’d been kicking around Hollywood for a long time, but nobody certainly knew who I was,” he continued. “My whole career launched out of that character.”
Some notable opportunities which came his way he shared during the interview.
He got to act in 2007 rom-com P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. Then he got to play the 2009 comic book film character in Watchmen.
“[Director] Zack Snyder told me that he cast me in Watchmen because he saw me as Denny,”
Though he doesn’t understand what the director saw in Duquette that made him go like ‘Well, that’s the nihilistic comedian right there.’
For the unversed, the actor is now in to host NBC’s competition series Destination X, a gig his wife Hilarie Burton Morgan had to convince him to do.