Kim Raver teased what fans can expect from the upcoming episode.
Kim Raver is teasing big things ahead on Grey’s Anatomy.
ET spoke to the actress amid the show’s 20th season, and she promised that even though the installment was shortened due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the drama is still as intense.
“This finale of season 20 just doesn’t disappoint. It’s another classic Grey’s Anatomy,” she said. “There’s so many things that come to a boiling point, that sort of explode, in the finale. Even us as actors, we’re like, ‘Wait.'”
“[They] did just an incredible job of, in such a short season, sort of weaving all of these storylines and carrying over from the premiere to what’s happening [now],” Raver added of the writers and producers. “… It’s very entangled and very exciting. It’s really a great finale.”
Throughout the season, Raver’s Dr. Teddy Altman has been recovering after a near-death experience, which the actress told ET has been “quintessential Grey’s Anatomy” in that “it puts all the best things in one.”
“The fact that, in her coming back [into the season] in recovery, which is very dramatic and painful, there’s also some very fun comedic moments… it’s a really great evolution to see and a great story to tell,” Raver said. “… She’s always been such a badass, so it’s really fun to see her working her way back.”
For Raver, it’s no surprise that her character’s storyline has been both layered and exciting, something she credits to the show’s writers.
“I absolutely love playing Teddy. I just think she’s such a multi-faceted character with such an incredible history. It’s so amazing to me that the writers are finding new stories to tell with her,” she said. “… I feel really lucky and grateful to be able to tell Teddy’s story. As people evolve, there’s stories to tell. What’s great is the patients are coming in and they illuminate stories that are going on for these characters.”
Given that the show’s storyline evolves as new patients come into Grey Sloan Memorial makes Raver believe that Grey’s could go on indefinitely. It will at least go on one more season, as Grey’s was recently renewed for season 21.
“I think there’s an incredible feeling of familiarity. With everything that’s going on in the world right now, to be able to have a somewhat… expanded family and to kind of live life with these other people, I think it could go on and on,” she said. “I think the core part of Grey’s Anatomy is about people’s lives and how these patients come in and interact with the lives of our surgeons.”
“We have our moments where we shine, and we have our moments where we really fail in a way that we’re all in that together, able to support one another and tell funny stories and heartbreaking stories simultaneously, is really quintessential Grey’s,” Raver added.
That magic speaks to fans across the globe, Raver revealed, as she told ET, “People love Grey’s Anatomy. Once I was in a teeny, tiny town in Italy… I couldn’t see a lamp post in front of me ’cause it was raining so hard. There were Grey’s Anatomy fans that were stopping me in the pouring rain.”
“I think people really get attached to the characters ’cause they’re living with them,” she said. “There’s a comfort in that.”
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays on ABC.