You’ll never believe who the actress who plays Arizona on “Grey’s Anatomy” originally auditioned to play
In our minds, Jessica Capshaw is Dr. Arizona Robbins from Grey’s Anatomy. She’s perfect for the role, and we can’t imagine things any other way. But when we heard that Capshaw originally auditioned for a different (and much smaller) role on Grey’s, we couldn’t believe it.
Executive Producer Betsy Beers spilled the story yesterday during a panel at the ATX Television Festival.
“Jessica Capshaw came in for Nurse Rose,” she revealed. “Nurse Rose was a nurse who Derek had a brief relationship with and it didn’t really end up going anywhere. Nurse Rose ended up going to probably another hospital. That’s my guess. She’s probably on like Chicago Med!”
In a way, we’re glad Capshaw didn’t get cast right away. It gave her the opportunity to take the role or Arizona and make her what she is today. Beers also revealed that the same thing happened with Kevin McKidd, aka Dr. Owen Hunt. He auditioned for a few different roles, and eventually Shonda created the Owen character for him.
“One of the things that happens a lot in Shondaland is that we meet actors and love them, but they’re just not perfect for the part,” Beers continued. “We fell in love with Jessica Capshaw.”
And so did we.