Former
Grey’s Anatomy star T.R. Knight said he left the hit show for a myriad of reasons, one of which being that the show’s creator Shonda Rhimes encouraged the openly gay actor to keep his closet door closed, according to the
New York Daily News. Knight, who came out after his coworker Isaiah Washington hurled the “F” bomb at him, said in an interview with the
Daily News that Rhimes waited three months before speaking out about Washington’s homophobic slur. He called the situation with Rhimes “frustrating.” The actor claims that Rhimes also encouraged him to stay in the closet once that incident brought worldwide attention to his sexuality.
But in an
Entertainment Weekly article Rhimes denied she encouraged him to remain closeted and has since written in a lesbian / straight / maybe lesbian / bicurious / lesbian-by-night-screwing-McDreamy-in-the-storeroom-by-day storyline for Sara Ramirez’s character Callie.
After playing George for five seasons on the wildly popular show, Knight says he was also dismayed by the writing both for the odd choices his character made and for the eventual dearth of screen time he was given.
“My five-year experience proved to me that I could not trust any answer that was given [about his character, George],” Knight said, adding that he was dumbfounded by the writers’ decision for George to cheat on Callie with his best friend Izzie (Catherine Heigl).
On his character’s ever-disappearing screen time he said, “It didn’t seem like an ebb to me. No other series regular’s character had ever disappeared like mine did this past season.”
With George flatlining at the end of this past year’s season finale, there’s no chance of George making a speedy recovery. Knight won’t even be appearing in flashbacks as he turned down and offer to guest star on the show.
Knight walked away from a $14 million paycheck, but he’s keeping busy, first in a Los Angeles production of
Parade and next year in the Broadway retooling of
Lend Me a Tenor.
