Isaiah Washington is making some shocking claims about his time on Grey’s Anatomy!
It’s no secret the 58-year-old actor parted ways with the hit medical drama series on not the best of terms. As we previously reported, Washington left the show in 2007 after using a homophobic slur to refer to former co-star T.R. Knight during an on-set physical altercation with Patrick Dempsey.
McDreamy himself was killed off several years later, with recent reports claiming the 55-year-old was ultimately fired due to his reign of terror on set throughout the series. Now, it sounds like Washington has decided to air out Dempsey’s dirty laundry and what was supposedly done to hide his behind-the-scenes toxicity.
In an interview with KBLA Talk 1580 last Thursday, per Us Weekly, The 100 alum claimed his former co-star Ellen Pompeo allegedly knew about the “terrorizing” behavior from Dempsey. And what’s even worse is that she allegedly “took $5 million dollars under the table” in the midst of the #MeToo movement “to not tell the world how toxic and nasty” he was for years. Wow.
Furthermore, Washington claimed that he was “used as a scapegoat” to help cover up the other alleged “toxic and bad behavior” from his castmates and that his firing was just part of the show’s “agenda.”
Washington went on to claim many of the issues between him and Dempsey came down to money, as they were the highest paid actors on the series at the time:
“I was the highest paid person on that show, next to Patrick Dempsey. Apparently, it got out, so there was a lot of resentment. I understand that, but it was based on my roles and my resume. I can’t help that. He was called Pilot Poison. No one wanted him on the show. They wanted Rob Lowe.”
But really from day one, he noted that the Enchanted star hadn’t been pleasant to work with and allegedly made some racist comments towards him:
“He was not a nice guy from day one. But he liked me and once I had a conversation with him, he said, ‘Isaiah, do you know that white men are the masters of the universe?’ And I said, ‘You really believe that?’ And he said ‘Absolutely.’
WTF?!?! The tension between the men eventually boiled over when Dempsey was late to filming in 2006, leading to the infamous on-set clash. Washington recalled:
“That Monday, he is late. Instead of apologizing for it, he got in my face and assaulted me three times. Physically. I did what I had to do as a man. And I cussed him out.”
In terms of the homophobic remark made during the scuffle, the Ghost Ship star copped to use of the slur — but claimed he was actually referring to himself at the moment. Washington said he told Dempsey at the time:
“You’re not going to punk me, you’re not going to treat me like a B-word and you’re not going to treat me like an F-word. I was speaking to myself as we refer to as a schoolyard taunt and weakness. Talking about myself. But I had already heard the abuse, that he threw Kate Walsh through a window out of anger. That he terrorized T. R. Knight.”
It still does not make it OK that he used the slur at all — and it also sounds like he still doesn’t plan on taking accountability for his actions — but that is a very different story. While Knight wasn’t in the room, Washington said he saw the situation get twisted around for Dempsey own benefit:
“It went from us having a brawl, which was never a brawl, to me saying something about T.R. And the day I left, the last day I shot, Patrick said, ‘Dude, you think you got it bad. You get to go down in history being a homophobe. I get to go down in history saving the gay guy.'”
Do y’all buy any of this from Isaiah? Was everyone else lying to cover up for Patrick Dempsey?? Hmm…
Grey’s Anatomy is never short of drama behind the scenes, that’s for sure. Reactions to the latest accusations about what went down between Isaiah and other cast members? Let us know in the comments (below).
[Image via Guillermo Proano/WENN, FayesVision/WENN, WENN/Avalon]
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