Grey's Anatomy's Best Casting Decision Was Almost an Accident
It's hard to imagine Sandra Oh playing anyone other than Cristina now, but it could have been different.
Grey's Anatomy was established as a true-to-life show, with characters you could easily meet in any medical center.
But what was even more important to the show's creator, Shonda Rhimes, was creating a strong group of female characters, each of whom was multifaceted.
And one of the first female characters she wrote was actually Cristina Yang, who ended up being portrayed by Sandra Oh. In the show, Yang is represented as a real woman with a lot of sides to explore.
"She's the kind of woman I know really well, and I like her. There's something interesting about a person who is that driven, a little bit emotionally disconnected but still a caring, sweet, and smart individual," Rhimes said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Sandra Oh played Cristina for 10 seasons. However, it turned out that she had originally auditioned for another role. During the casting she read for the role of Dr. Miranda Bailey.
But apparently she was happy that she didn't end up playing her. Later in the interview with Oprah, she said that she couldn't imagine anyone but Chandra Wilson playing Bailey in the end.
But there's more. It was revealed that Oh never had a real desire to play Bailey.
When the writers offered her the role, she simply asked what else she could choose at the time and if there were any characters left that were not cast. And then she found out that she could audition for Cristina Yang's role.
As Sandra later explained in Lynette Rice's tell-all book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy, what she really wanted was to play a person who is still in a learning process, the person who is eager to find out something.
Oh also revealed that she was interested in playing someone controversial. And indeed, her character was initially shown as an antagonist, and a rather feisty intern.
But thanks to Oh's performance, her character evolves into a complex one with a lot to offer viewers, and her departure in season 11 was received with regret by fans.