‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Kim Raver Previews ‘High-Stakes’ & ‘Personal’ Episode About Richard

Grey’s Anatomy has a well-established history of having its screen stars step behind the lens and take on directing duties, and this week, the tradition continues with Kim Raver helming “Fortunate Son.”

Raver, who of course portrays Teddy Altman in the long-lived medical drama, directs the series’ newest segment for the third time.

“I’m just loving directing,” Raver told TV Insider of the opportunity. She credits Debbie Allen, who’s also a star and executive producer on the series, as a “mentor” and also points to Kevin McKidd and Chandra Wilson as inspiration for her leap to behind-the-scenes action.

Raver previously directed Season 19’s “Training Day” and Season 21’s “Don’t You Forget About Me,” but unlike this week’s edition, those two episodes involved her pulling double duty both off- and on-screen.

“The first one, I had such a big storyline as Teddy in front of the camera, and then also there were just so many events of the car crash and the brick coming through the glass. And I’m really happy, actually, that I started out also being in front of the camera, because I think when you have to juggle all the 20 different plates at one time, then it allowed me to go, ‘Oh, OK, I can totally do that,'” she told TV Insider. For the second, “I also had that love scene that I was in with the amazing Sophia Bush.”

This week’s episode, however, focuses on Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) going under the knife as treatment for his prostate cancer diagnosis, as well as the arrival of Nick’s (Scott Speedman) sister to his and Meredith’s (Ellen Pompeo) house in Boston.

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“This one, it’s just visually different because I’m not imagining myself as Teddy in front of the camera. I’m just back at video village watching it all happening before me,” she explained. “The great thing is, I didn’t have to memorize my lines… I could just show up as the director with that hat on.”

It’s a good thing, too, that Raver’s focus could be exclusively on the creative elements of the storytelling because the storyline is intensely “personal” for the Grey’s family, considering Richard’s prostate cancer journey echoes the real-life medical experience of the actor portraying him. The weight of getting that right was felt by all, Raver admitted.

“I have to say, Mr. Jim Pickens in this episode, I mean, as always, he’s extraordinary, but he is absolutely incredible in this episode. It was such a pleasure to work so deeply with him,” she said. “I definitely felt very high stakes because I wanted to be able to be very mindful to tell the story in the most accurate and most sensitive way. Jim is the OG of the OGs, with Chandra Wilson, so they know the show so well. But yes, there’s definitely a personal aspect of it, and he’s just a real collaborator, but I definitely felt very protective of the storyline, especially.”

Raver teased that Pickens Jr.’s performance is “extraordinary,” as he shares the screen with guest star Dorian Harewood (who’d previously played another role in the Grey’s spinoff Private Practice). “I was just in awe, just sort of watching the monitors and watching them perform. It was a really special episode.”

The episode is written by Julie Wong, and Raver said she felt “protective” of the script story and bringing it to screen life because it also serves as moment of messaging about the very real-to-life healthcare journey that so many face.

“It’s just such a special episode,” Raver said. “I felt very protective of it and just wanted to make sure that I got all the nuances and we were telling the story correctly, also to get the word out because I think that that’s also really important. What a great opportunity that we have at Grey’s to actually, hopefully, help people navigate something like this, which one of our actors had to actually do. So, yes, it was very personal.”

Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC