Normally, I’m a little suspect of people who have initials for a first name, but I make an exception in the case of T.R. Knight. He just seems to be a nice, normal human being — doesn’t belong in Hollywood at all — who tells it like it is.
In this week’s Entertainment Weekly, Knight reveals that his role on Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t just slowly phased out, but cut suddenly and drastically.
“There just comes a time when it’s so clear that moving on is the best decision,” Knight says in this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands tomorrow. The actor cites a “breakdown in communication” with Rhimes and says he asked to be let out of his $14 million contract three years early.
“My five-year experience proved to me that I could not trust any answer that was given [about his character, George],” states Knight, who says George evolved into someone he didn’t understand or even respect (the character slept with his best friend, Izzie — played by Katherine Heigl — while he was married to Sara Ramirez’s character, Callie). Knight also resented his noticeable lack of screen time. “It didn’t seem like an ebb to me,” he says. “No other series regular’s character had ever disappeared like mine did this past season.”
In addition to being cut, he also said that series creator Shonda Rhimes wasn’t supportive of his decision to come out of the closet after the Isaiah Washington “faggot” incident.
However, Knight says complications arose between him and Rhimes immediately after the incident, when he decided to respond to the sticky situation by outing himself. The actor says Rhimes was among those who wanted him to remain in the closet — though in the EW article, the creator herself denies this.
I guess I just give a lot of credit to an actor who makes a decision to walk based on principles. As opposed to some people coughKatherineHeiglcough who abandon the role that make them a star strictly for monetary advancement. Knight will now be a starving stage actor as he gears up for his September appearance in Parade and then will star in Lend Me A Tenor on Broadway next winter.
Miss Thing gets under my skin. Seriously.
One, why are we not discussing that he is PAINFUL to watch? He always has this constipated look on his face. His character was uninteresting. I love that he says that “Gorge evolved into someone he didn’t understand or even respect..”. He’s an actor. He doesn’t have to understand why a character does something or respect the character, he has to play a role. End of story.
There really doesnt need to be all that much drama involved.
Heigl and he make the perfect best friends. Both whiny bitches.
Seems totally understandable to me. I also started to dislike and not respect the character of George. He became really bizarre and annoying. Granted I didn’t watch last season (since all the characters became too unbearable to watch), but I can see why he would want to get out of there. Are they going to continue the show? It seems like they should probably end it soon as things are going downhill fast…
I don’t care if you say 2 lines in a season, nobody should walk away from 14 million especially because he hasn’t done movies or stage work during hiatus. He has no idea if he is going to have a career or what his career will be now that he is out. That was his walking away money and he left it on the table. Also, he broke his contract early, that’s another ding against him. No sure what the strategy is but very few actors would have done that with out a fall back plan, so it will be interesting to see if he’s got something else lined up because he’s got almost no resume, and nothing in the works. His IMDB page has 7 one episode parts and and Grey’s. Not good.
Principles are great but sometimes you get one shot at big money, and I think he just walked away from it.
Believe me, there are enough Gay folks in the entertainment industry who will hire T.R.