SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Episode 2107 of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, “If You Leave”
Popular longtime Grey’s Anatomy cast member Jake Borelli bid farewell to the venerable medical drama in the Nov. 14 episode as his character, Levi Schmitt, left Grey Sloan for a peds research position in Texas, joined by his hot Chaplain boyfriend, James.
In an interview with Deadline, Borelli recalled how he found out that his character’s time on the show was up after eight years. (Deadline broke the news of Borelli’s pending exit after a final Season 21 arc on his 33rd birthday in May.)
While Levi only got to have two meaningful scenes with fellow doctors after he made his decision to take the Texas job in a relatively low-key Grey’s exit, Borelli didn’t mind as they were with Levi’s closest friends on-screen, Taryn Helm and Jo Wilson, played by two of Borelli’s closest friends off-screen, Jaicy Elliot and Camilla Luddington, respectively. Still, he shared that there was one character he wanted to see Levi break the news to.
In the interview, Borelli discussed filming the emotional goodbyes with Elliot and Luddington and revealed the last scene he filmed as well as the significance of the fleeting encounter with the interns. He reacted to Grey’s adding “hot Chaplain” to the “hot Priest” and “hot Rabbi” TV lore and Levi’s happy ending with James.
While Borelli had not seen the moving Levi montage from the episode when he spoke with Deadline (You can watch it below), he recalled one theme throughout Levi’s journey of Grey’s that stood out to him.
He also spoke of his trepidations about being part of Season 15’s groundbreaking storyline of Levi and Nico’s romance, which prompted him to come out — revealing that it almost didn’t happen — and stressed how important highlighting Levi’s queerness on the show has been to him since.
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Addressing the fact that two queer characters, Levi and Mika, played by two queer actors, Borelli and Midori Francis, are leaving Grey’s at the same time in contrasting ways (Mika and her sister got in a car crash), Borelli also explained why, while he filmed his last episode as Levi weeks ago, he still is on the set of the show every day. He also referenced the “terrifying times” we live in again that may make it difficult for openly gay performers like him.
DEADLINE: How did you find out that that Levi’s story would be coming to an end?
BORELLI: Essentially, me and my team got a call from the showrunner [Meg Marinis], and she told us that this was the route that they were thinking about taking for Levi — to round out his growth and to give him a place to be outside of Grey Sloan, someplace that could see him for who he was, and for the audience, to be able to see him grow, finally, into the doctor we’ve all known he could be.
DEADLINE: So you knew from the get-go that they were not going to kill Levi off and there was going to be a brighter future ahead for him?
BORELLI: Look, I’m a fan of the show so I know, nothing is safe (laughs). So while I knew their intention wasn’t to kill him off, you get these scripts, I still scroll through them and I’m like, maybe they changed it, maybe they changed it. But, yeah, the intention was certainly laid out at the very beginning, and that was a good thing to know, too, because then I got to sit down with Meg and figure out what we wanted to say as we wrapped up this character and where we wanted this character to be. I certainly didn’t want him under a bus or anything like that, so I’m glad we moved to the way that we moved.
DEADLINE: That final arc had a lot going on for Levi: he regained his self-confidence, got to be a hero with the helicopter rescue, got a dream job while fulfilling a dream of being an attending at Grey Sloan for a day, and got a great love story too. What was your reaction to cramming all of that growth that you mentioned in the final arc and giving Levi a happy ending?
BORELLI: It was certainly important for me to see his growth wrapped up in his queerness, because I know when back in Season 15, when Krista Vernoff was the showrunner and she pitched me this idea of Levi coming out, her idea from the beginning had always been, his coming out will be the catalyst for him stepping into his own and stepping into himself.
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So throughout my part on the series, we really tried to track his growth and his confidence stemming from him finally stepping into his true self. And as he’s wrapping up his time for now at Grey Sloan, I really wanted that also to be wrapped up in his queerness. We finally see him in a relationship where their communication is good, where they truly do want to be with each other, even though they’re facing obstacles in terms of job and in terms of religion and in lots of different ways. So I think it’s perfectly paired to have him going after his dream career job while also going after his dream guy, I think it is really poetic, especially from where we started with Krista.
DEADLINE: Like Levi’s entire final arc, its ending was condensed: he literally made the decision at the end of the day and the next day was his last at Grey Sloan. Were you hoping for a longer goodbye to be able to have more final scenes with more cast members?
BORELLI: I certainly would have loved to have it stretched the whole season. I knew, in terms of the cast being so large and the storytelling that Meg wanted to do this season, it wasn’t going to span that long; we knew the time period that we had.
But honestly, if I had everything, I would have loved there to be a couple scenes with him and his mom. I’d be so curious what his mom felt about him leaving the state because so much of his neurosis and his co-dependence stems from that relationship. But I think in the future, there might be some some moments to speak on that.
We certainly had to cram it into these seven episodes, which I would have loved for it to be longer. I would have loved for it to keep going forever, but we’ll see. Time will tell.
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ – If You Leave – Camilla Luddington, Jake Borelli (Disney/Tina Thorpe)
Disney/Tina Thorpe
DEADLINE: We’ll talk about a potential return in a bit. Your final episode was surprisingly low-key. Levi got to save a baby but it was mostly him and Jo in the NICU. How did you approach that final episode and those scenes with Jo?
BORELLI: Camilla Luddington is truly a dream scene partner; she’s been my partner since the beginning of this. We started with that fateful night where Levi and Jo slept together, that bonded me and Camilla from the beginning, and she really showed me how to navigate through the world of Grey’s.
Eight years later, we’re playing best friends, and they’re honestly the most fun scenes that we have. They’re fun scenes for the writers to write too because it gives a little comic relief. So I’m glad that the last episode really focused on their relationship and them moving forward.
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You should have seen us at the table read. We were bawling, and we were right there with the characters. So honestly, it was not difficult to play these intense moments with Camilla, because that’s pretty much how we both felt in real life.
DEADLINE: By bawling you mean crying, right?
BORELLI: Oh, yeah, not laughing. I mean, there was certainly laughter, but it was a sad moment to be closing this friendship.
DEADLINE: What was the very last scene that you shot?
BORELLI: It was with Camilla and all the stuff in the NICU; we had the baby on the last day, we had all those surgeries in the NICU. My last moment was me giving that monologue to the baby, talking about, it’s time to leave the hospital, which was obviously a crazy thing to have to shoot for the last scene, but it was wonderful. And then I walked out, and the whole crew was there clapping, and I got to say goodbye to everyone. They made me a cake. It was nice.
DEADLINE: There was a little bit of a passing of the baton situation, with Levi stopping by some of the interns, as they awaited word on Mika and her sister, to bring them coffee. It was 10 seconds with no dialogue but was it intentional?
BORELLI: I think it was definitely intentional, because there certainly is a passing a baton. Grey’s is certainly known for that, for having new intern classes coming in and the old guard either turning into attendings or getting electrocuted or whatever. And there definitely was some of that. I think it was also a way to reconnect Levi and Jo to the storyline that’s going on with Midori and Mika, which is also a crazy, big moment. And so I think that they wanted some sort of connection there as well.
DEADLINE: How do you feel about the contrast, this picture perfect ending for Levi while Mika got into a horrible car crash, and now her sister is dead. What do you think about the juxtaposition of the two exits?
BORELLI: Gosh, there’s so many ways that characters have left the show, like so many ways characters have come back. I think both of these big things are catalysts for change in both of these characters’ lives. Certainly I would say Levi is having a happier exit but Mika is having this crazy, big Grey’s exit too, with this wonderful, crazy, horrible crash that audiences love to see. So honestly, I think it’s just a really great final two episodes to wrap up the first half of the season.
DEADLINE: Have you talked to Midori about you both being on the same track, how you are approaching your characters’ arcs coming to an end?
DEADLINE: Definitely, I’ve gotten super close with the interns over the last three years; we hang out all the time outside of work, we talk all the time. And I think it was an interesting moment for Midori and I, especially as two queer actors playing queer characters, which is massive for television in general, really big for Grey’s Anatomy. I think it was a tricky road to navigate, knowing that both of our characters were ending at the same time, and I’m glad that we had each other during that.
DEADLINE: Speaking of queer characters, the first person Levi told about his decision besides his bosses was Taryn Helm at the end of the previous episode. It was a really emotional scene between friends and the last of their group of interns. How was it filming it?
BORELLI: Jaicy is, literally, I can’t understate how much of my best friend she is. We’ve gone through so much together. We’ve lived right next to each other for years, we take care of each other’s families, we travel together. She’s my sister. So that was a really incredible scene for me to have with her: one, just because, on a personal level, it was her and I closing out this eight-year work relationship we’ve had, and this eight-year friendship that we’ve had.
And similarly to the Jo storylines, it was written really close to how we were feeling in real life. I know that Levi, in that moment, was trying to be the strong one and trying to be the one saying, this is going to be okay and this is what I want. But in reality, it was like, at the table read, I couldn’t keep it together, and we had to stop a couple times because we could not make it through there.
Filming it was more of a celebratory moment for her and I closing out this massive thing that we had been through and that we got to go through together. And I still see her every day, so that’s not going to change.
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ – Jake Borelli as Levi, Michael Thomas Grant as James
DEADLINE: At the end of that sixth episode, Levi is dreading the most telling his boyfriend about his decision but the show actually skipped over that moment. In Episode 7, we pick up after Levi already had told him. How do you feel about not showing the conversation and, in your mind, how did Levi break the news to him? James clearly took it pretty well from what we saw after.
BORELLI: In my opinion, the two of them, the reason why their relationship works is because they’re so good at communicating. It’s something that Levi and Nico never really had. So I would love to think that he told him, and then they tried to figure it out together. For me, that’s what the struggle and the drama for them was in the last episode, to know that they loved each other so much, but to know they’ve also only known each other for three weeks.
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Do they do this big leap for each other? Do they move across the country for one another? Do they go into a long distance relationship, which we all know is hard. That was the struggle that I thought was interesting because it’s a struggle that so many relationships have. So yeah, I think more than seeing the actual conversation on camera, we got to see them figure it out on camera and stumble through it a little bit, which I think was more important.
DEADLINE: A quick side note. Have you through about parallels between the hot Chaplain on Grey’s and the hot Rabbi on Netflix’s Nobody Wants This; two interfaith romances that played out at the same time?
BORELLI: I immediately went to hot Priest from the Phoebe Waller-Bridge show [Fleabag], that’s the one I went to. And I was like, this works for me. It was super fun to play.
DEADLINE: The montage in your last episode (below) featured many highlights from Levi’s eight years at Grey Sloan. For you, what are some of the scenes and storylines that felt most impactful over the years?
BORELLI: There has been a throughline with blood with Levi, we know this. He was nicknamed Blood Bank after being hooked up by Meredith Grey to one of the patients, and he actively had to give his blood throughout the surgery.
That shows up again with the Golden Blood storyline, which is one of my favorites, where he’s trying to find this golden blood, there’s only seven donors in the entire world, and it ends up being this massive, 200-car pileup on the freeway.
And then it jumps to realizing that queer people can’t donate blood, that gay men specifically can’t donate blood, which feels like such a hypocritical thing, knowing that he has a universal blood-donating type blood, he’s saved people’s lives, and here he’s now helpless because of this bigotry in the government and in the medical world.
So that has been one massive storyline that I’ve loved be a throughline for him. There’s also been some moments, like even in Episode 4 of this season, where we see Levi finding out that his Chaplain had been married before, and just seeing him standing there almost naked in his tighty whities, full body out, was such a huge moment that I wanted to be in the script because seeing queer people in a private moment like that, accepting their bodies for how they are, was something that I really wanted to show. It was not in the script. So choices like that, little choices that I got to make outside of the scripts that highlighted his queerness, have been really important for me.
DEADLINE: The Season 15 storyline, which has become part of Grey’s — and your –legacy because you came out at the same time. Was it scary for you at the time when it was pitched to you?
BORELLI: Oh yeah, it was terrifying. I almost didn’t do it. I almost told Krista, I actually did tell Krista that I didn’t know if I wanted the character to come out, I didn’t know if I wanted to come out publicly like that, because I knew they would be hand in hand on a show this massive.
She told me to take some time to think about it, and I did, I talked to my family about it and ultimately decided to do it. But I only wanted to do it if we were not going to be focusing on shame and not going to be focusing on the turmoils around coming out, but we wanted to make it a hopeful and empowering coming-out story. And that’s what we did for the last seven years. So yes, it was terrifying. I almost didn’t do that. I’m so glad that I did it.
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We’re sort of in terrifying times again, and so it’s going to be interesting being out so publicly, not on the show, but we’ll see. We’ll take it as it comes.
DEADLINE: In your final scenes, Jo talked about Levi’s big heart. Everybody loved him. What would you miss the most playing him?
BORELLI: I’m just going to miss knowing what he’s doing. For eight years, I got to pretty much weekly read more about this human that I love so much, and that is very close to me. We know he’s off in Texas, and I don’t know what he’s up to, and that’s kind of sad.
DEADLINE: You mentioned earlier potentially coming back, and there was the reassuring for fans moment when Jo asked Levi to be the twins’ godfather and he agreed. Earlier this fall, I asked Meg about the two exits and she was clear that you and Midori will always be part of the Grey’s Anatomy family and as such, you could possibly come and go. Are you hopeful that Levi will come back?
BORELLI: I’m very hopeful that Levi will come back. I think the audience is interested to see what Levi is up to, I certainly am. He has so many connections to people still at the hospital, like you said, Jo, so I couldn’t imagine the birth of those babies without Levi bending the world to get there.
We’ll see what Meg does. I think we also have this wonderful opportunity to have him grow off camera, and then to have him come back at some point and really be this boss that we know he can be. We’ll see what’s in store for the future of the show.
What’s kind of crazy is it feels like I haven’t left because I’m still on set right now. I’ve been shadowing Debbie Allen, our executive producer and director, for several years, and I’m still there. I’m shadowing Allison Liddi-Brown right now, our current director, so I still very much feel part of the world. These are relationships that I’ve cherished for so long and that I still have. I would love to hop back on camera, but maybe it’ll also be behind the scenes.
DEADLINE: What is next for you beyond Grey’s. You mentioned that we may be living in scary times again; what are your plans?
BORELLI: I hope to continue telling queer stories on platforms like Grey’s, if not Grey’s. I’m also very, very excited to start directing my own films. We’re in the process of doing that, me and a producing partner of mine are starting to develop one of her plays into a film.
