Nothing can break up Grey’s Anatomy energy couple Catherine Fox and Richard Webber, not less than in keeping with Debbie Allen.
“He’s my husband and I’m not letting him go anywhere. That’s the truth,” Allen, 74, advised Us Weekly completely whereas selling her Gr8 Eye Movement marketing campaign in partnership with Prevent Blindness and Regeneron. “He is not going too far away from me.”
Catherine and Richard (James Pickens Jr.) have seen some ups and downs all through their time on Grey’s Anatomy, together with most cancers diagnoses and near-relapses, however there’s no finish in sight for the fictional duo.
“I started directing on Grey’s Anatomy in season 7, and then, Shelby Stivale Shonda [Rhimes] enjoyed the energy I brought. Then she said, ‘I’m going to put you in the show.’ And then Jim Pickens was like, ‘If she’s coming on the show, she needs to be with me,’” she recalled. “It’s developed into a wonderful relationship that the fans love and stories that they relate to.”
Allen could be very conscious of the characters’ story traces as a result of she and Pickens, 69, are “the seniors on that show.” She added, “Everything that occurs to us, folks can relate to what’s occurring.
Allen made her Grey’s debut in 2011, whereas Pickens is an authentic solid member who has been on the present since its 2005 inception. Their characters have been married since season 11, which aired 2015, and their love is about to proceed as season 20, which premiered on Thursday, March 14.
Grey’s season 20 is a shortened season with solely 10 episodes following the SAG-AFTRA strike, which got here to an finish in November 2023. Allen teased that every installment is “packed with wonderful new characters, great stories and real medical situations.”
Allen teased “some dynamic medical situations,” as per ordinary. “Some are extraordinary that you don’t even have a clue about it,” she continued, including that the solid will “learn about it as we go sometimes, because the writers are always out there looking.”
Other than appearing and directing on the Grey’s set, Allen can also be centered on her personal well being, which led to her partnership with Prevent Blindness and Regeneron, and the creation of the Gr8 Eye Movement.
“We got such great reaction from people all over the country,” Allen advised Us about Gr8 Eye Movement, which launched in September 2023. “We brought awareness of the retinal diseases that certainly are challenging people, certainly at a certain age.”
People who’re pre-diabetic, like Allen herself, have since discovered about moist age-related macular degeneration (wAMD), diabetic macular edema (DME) and diabetic retinopathy (DR).
“These were some things that I learned about as well because diabetes has always been a big part of my family history and I’ve always been on the lookout for it. It was personal for me,” she mentioned. “It is personal for me, and I think if I can use my celebrity to bring attention to something good right now, which is being proactive and [getting] information and getting people to go on our website. The Gr8 Eye Movement campaign is just a win-win situation for everybody. It really is.”
Grey’s Anatomy airs on ABC Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
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