Sandra Oh Shares Rare ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Exit Details

Amanda Bell July 29, 2026, 2:23 pm

Sandra Oh in 'Grey's Anatomy' Season 10 — Kelsey McNeal/Everett Collection

GREY'S ANATOMY, (from left): Sandra Oh, Ellen Pompeo, 'Somebody That I Used To Know', (Season 10, ep. 1010, airs Nov. 21, 2013). photo: Kelsey McNeal / ©ABC / courtesy Everett Collection

What To Know

During a new podcast appearance, Sandra Oh reflected on her time as a Grey’s Anatomy original.
The actress discussed behind-the-scenes details of her entry and exit from the medical drama.

Sandra Oh is the featured guest on the latest podcast episode of Dinner’s On Me With Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and during the conversation, the actress dove deep into behind-the-scenes details of both the start and end of her time as Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy.

First, Oh revealed that she initially read for a very different role: that of Miranda Bailey (the role that would eventually, and still, belong to Chandra Wilson).

“When I auditioned for Grey’s, I had taken off a couple of years to just do film. Didn’t work,” Oh remembered. “I did four films and maybe worked three weeks. And that was just like, ‘That’s not enough for me. I need to be working.'” After her experience in television work on Arlis$$, she knew it was time to return to the medium.

“So then this pilot came along,” Oh continued. “I actually was auditioning for Chandra Wilson’s part for Bailey…. Then I was like, ‘I know what that character is about… Are there any other characters?’ And they say, ‘Oh, the character of Cristina has not yet been cast,’ and for me, I was like, ‘That’s it. That’s the antagonist’… at least in the pilot. ‘I want to do that.'”

Oh revealed that she then went on to do a work session with Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, as well as director Peter Horton, but her manager told her to leave because the contract wouldn’t work out. Still, she was ultimately cast in the role. “It was because I had that work session, they could see what I could do,” she guessed.

Later, Oh then detailed what went into the decision to leave the show during Season 10.

Grey’s Anatomy: Sandra Oh Talks Possible Cristina Return

“I was really very fortunate to, one, you build the relationships, hopefully for the circumstances to happen where, when it came time [leave you can do so on good terms]. I think end of Season 8 or 9, [Rhimes] took me aside because we were all renegotiating, and she goes, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Let me think about it.‘ And I really, really, really thought about it.”

Oh then decided, “I felt very much like I did my job. I really did my job. I feel like I created a whole character. I feel I grew the character, 10 years time, where it’s a believable growth. People do grow in 10 years, and I think she really did grow.”

The actress then reflected on the way Cristina Yang went out — getting the dream job of running her own hospital in Switzerland and still remaining in contact with Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo). “The privilege was to actually plan an exit, and all the writers to be able to plan to support that, and I know that it is extremely rare to have. So that was a real, real gift.”