Linda Lowy talks casting ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘Scandal,’ and more

Looking back now, casting director Linda Lowy can say that “Grey’s Anatomy will always be the greatest thing I ever did, just because of the staying power and the generations that it’s affected.” But when she was first asked to take on the project, she had no interest in a doctor show — or in television, for that matter.

“I had not done any television casting. I had cast a handful of pilots,” Lowy recalls. “It was the first time I ever tried to do anything in episodic television.”

ABC sent her the pilot for a show called Surgeons (the working title). “I called them back and I said, ‘I’d be more likely to do something that was called Sturgeons about caviar fishermen or something. I’m not going to do a medical show. I’m not going to do television at all, but if I was ever going to do television, I’m not going to do a medical show and I’m not going to do anything about cops.'”

Cut to a meeting with then-new television writer Shonda Rhimes, and Lowy went from not casting television to handling some of Shondaland’s biggest shows, from Grey’s Anatomy to Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, Station 19, and more.

In honor of Grey’s Anatomy‘s 20th anniversary — and therefore, Shondaland’s 20th anniversary — Lowy is looking back on some of her most memorable moments in casting.

Sandra Oh

“Cristina Yang is one of the great characters ever, ever, ever on television,” Lowy says. And yet, Sandra Oh didn’t technically audition for the part. Instead, it was after Oh read for the part of Dr. Miranda Bailey (which Chandra Wilson would land), that they knew the role of the take-no-prisoners intern was hers. “My memory is that the network might’ve had a different idea about that character, and we wanted Sandra Oh,” Lowy says. “We didn’t really want to test other women. We just wanted to offer it to her.”

“I had to call Shonda and I was like, ‘When we’re on the phone with the network tomorrow, you have to say no to them and you have to say that you want Sandra Oh because otherwise you are going to get somebody that you won’t like,'” Lowy continues. “And Sandra was an offer.”

Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo

For the couple at the center of the Grey’s Anatomy pilot, Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), one role fell into place fairly easily. “Ellen had a deal at the network, and so they wanted her for the show. We were fine with that,” Lowy says. “We had to meet her and talk to her, and it was a wonderful meeting that we had with her, and that all was fine, and we wanted her for the show.”

As for Dempsey, fans know the story well: “The network wanted Rob Lowe,” Lowy says. “We weren’t going to get Rob Lowe. And they weren’t sure about Patrick Dempsey. He had to read, he had to do a test with Ellen.” Spoiler: He passed that test.

Chandra Wilson

Miranda Bailey was one character that surprised everyone involved. “When I met for my interview, Shonda just told me, ‘Linda, I love your casting. So I’m not going to give anybody a last name. It’s all ethnicities for every role. I don’t have anything. But the one thing that I do care about is that Bailey is white, blond, blond, blond, tiny, tiny, tiny cheerleader, cheerleader, cheerleader, and kind of seems like very perky and then is so frightening and scary and difficult that people respect her.”

So how’d they end up with Wilson? “I watch every single audition that comes in, and I try to look at all of the submissions, if possible,” Lowy says. “I was sitting in my office one day and a tape came in and it was Chandra Wilson reading the role of Bailey. And even though it was the complete opposite of what Shonda wanted, I looked at her audition. I was completely mesmerized. I took the tape out of the machine. I remember walking down the hall with the tape. I walked into Shonda’s office and I said, ‘You have to look at this right now.’ And as soon as it started, she looked at me and she said, ‘Well, this can’t be denied.'”

In the end, they tested both Wilson and Kristin Chenoweth, who was much more in line with the original thinking for the character. “Chandra was so nervous. She was like, ‘She’s one of my idols,'” Lowy says, referencing Chenoweth. However, it was Wilson who got the part.

Kerry Washington

Much like Olivia Pope, Kerry Washington came into her audition prepared to win. “Kerry Washington’s audition for Scandal was the best audition I have ever seen in my career for any role in any pilot, movie, short, whatever it is. She gave the best audition I have ever seen,” Lowy recalls. “Not just the words, it was everything. It was her physicality, it was her choice of outfit, it was her beauty, it was her emotion. It was her calmness. It was her. I just have never seen anything quite that spectacular.”

Surprisingly, Washington did not do a chemistry read with Tony Goldwyn, the Fitz to her Olivia. “We never did a chemistry read,” Lowy says. “I could see it in my head. I didn’t need to, and Shonda didn’t need to, and [executive producer] Betsy [Beers] didn’t need to. We were all in agreement that these two would work. And also, I’m not sure we had the time.”

Guillermo Díaz

Fun fact: Dan Bucatinsky, who’d later be cast as Cyrus’ (Jeff Perry) husband, James, read for the part of Huck. But according to Lowy, the part belonged to Guillermo Díaz as soon as he read a particular monologue.

“Guillermo Díaz gave a brilliant audition for Huck,” Lowy says. “We didn’t have very much in the first episode for him, so while we were casting the pilot, Shonda was able to write a monologue for Huck, and then the character started to come up to the surface. Guillermo came in once we had that monologue, and he was one of the first people to read that monologue, and it just tore us apart.”

Viola Davis

No, Viola Davis did not have to audition for Annalise Keating on How to Get Away With Murder. “That was an offer,” Lowy says. “That was something that we really wanted, and we had to push a little bit for that because the network was thinking something else. It was an amazing moment to get her. She was doing movies, and so it was a lot of finessing. And it is all about timing. You got to get the timing right to get the actors sometimes. First they say no, then you circle back a little, then you wait, then you really go in for the kill.” Annalise would be proud.

James Pickens Jr.

Figuring out who should play the great Richard Webber was much easier than George O’Malley’s (T.R. Knight) first surgery, we’ll say that much. “He’s somebody that I knew because of theater,” Lowy says of James Pickens Jr. “And I was like, ‘Why doesn’t that actor have a show?’ So I had him come in and audition, and I said to Shonda, ‘I really like him. He’s underused. Can I just see if we can only test him and not be bothered?’ It turned out that the head of casting back then at ABC knew Jim and he said, ‘I love Jim.’ And he let us do it.” 

The cast of Private Practice

In true spinoff fashion, Private Practice came together very quickly. “We cast that whole thing without a script,” Lowy says. “Shonda obviously had the seeds of the characters, but as she met people, they would check a certain amount of boxes and then the wheels started to turn in her head. So when someone like Tim Daly comes in, or Taye Diggs, then she could build out the character. I think we had most of that cast before we had the script. So that made it a little bit easier. It’s never easy, but it made it a little bit easier. Grey’s was such a hit so everybody wanted to meet for that show.” 

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