Rob Lowe has a pitch for "Grey's Anatomy" that is out of this world.
While the ageless 58-year-old's sense of humor has made him that much more attractive than your average handsome Hollywood actor, he proved it again in a recent interview.
Lowe was having some fun about the "Grey's Anatomy" role he once passed on that might’ve only added to his stud status.
Circa 2005, the actor passed on playing Derek Shepherd, the character who Lowe’s contemporaneous heartthrob, Patrick Dempsey, turned into the show’s main loverboy brain surgeon, aka “McDreamy.”
As previously reported, Lowe harbors no great regret about the casting decision. Simply, Lowe just didn’t feel right for the part. But as a new Insider interview reveals, there’s a little corner of his heart somewhere that reflects back on the what-ifs. Enough so that he had a pretty funny idea of how he could reinvent the character as a guest star.
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As “Grey’s Anatomy” fans know, Dempsey’s character died on the show years ago, but Lowe offered an intriguingly silly way to bring him back.
“They should do a time-travel episode,” Lowe explained. “I should play the alternative universe McDreamy.... [or] McDreamy in the metaverse.”
Sounds wacky, but “Grey’s Anatomy” producers have delved into some strange situations before. Like, as Cinemablend recalled, remember when Izzie (Katherine Heigl) had sex with a ghost?
It sounds like Lowe’s left turn itches get scratched enough on his current gig, the Fox action drama, "9-1-1: Lone Star.”
"That's one of the things that keeps me excited,” said Lowe, “is of any given day on that show I could be doing something so spectacularly difficult or weird or physically demanding. I mean, yesterday I was in a zipped hazmat suit for 12 hours.”
But it was the simple blue scrubs of “Grey’s Anatomy” that still ping in the back of Lowe’s mind sometimes. And it wasn’t just further inflated heartthrob status that Lowe might think he missed out on. He turned down "Grey's" for the short-lived CBS medical drama, "Dr. Vegas." He claimed on the Marc Maron podcast that that whole decision drama cost him around $70 million bucks.
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Speculation aside, Lowe of course didn’t exactly drift off into acting oblivion after saying no to McDreamy – just ask “Parks and Recreation” fans who loved him as the peppy Chris Traeger for seven seasons starting in 2009 – a pretty wise decision that came just a few years after giving “Grey’s Anatomy” the thumbs down.
“9-1-1: Lone Star" airs at 9 p.m. ET on Mondays; and in case Lowe wants to ponder his past decision some more, "Grey’s Anatomy" airs at 9 p.m. ET Thursdays on ABC.
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