What a difference a week makes! After making headlines for being let go from Grey’s Anatomy, Sarah Drew has landed a new role in a CBS pilot, and has the full support of her Grey Sloan Memorial coworkers.
“Well, it’s been quite a week,” Drew wrote on Tuesday, March 13, sharing the news with fans that she will play Cagney in CBS’ Cagney & Lacey pilot, a reboot of the police procedural from the 1980s. “So excited!!!!”
Later that day, the 37-year-old actress, who plays Dr. April Kepner on Grey’s, revealed she already started filming the new show: “Day 1 on #cagneyandlacey done! I’m SO incredibly grateful to my @GreysABC family for bending over backwards to make it work for me to go and shoot this awesome pilot!! So grateful !!”
In another tweet on Wednesday, March 14, Drew told fans she is “gonna go on silent for a few weeks” to “focus.”
Ellen Pompeo was quick to send support to her costar, tweeting, “Leave it 2 @sarahdrew our hearts we’re breaking for her one minute & the next she’s making us smile as wide as the ocean. #warriorprincess.”
Other members of the Grey’s Anatomy cast congratulated Drew on her new pilot.
“I am SOOOOOOOOO excited for this and cannot WAIT to watch!!!!!!!” Camilla Luddington tweeted.
“Congrats @sarahdrew ! Gonna go from seeing your face every day at #GreysAnatomy to watching your work once week on #cagneyandlacey #MuchLove,” Jason Winston George wrote, also sending congrats to Drew’s new costar, Michelle Hurd. “Working with another great actor and friend @ItsMichelleHurd Congrats to you, too, Michelle!”
Grey’s Anatomy show runner Krista Vernoff added, “This is thrilling. We are so happy for you @sarahdrew and can’t wait to watch!!!”
As previously reported, it was revealed on March 8 that Drew and fellow Grey’s vet Jessica Capshaw (Dr. Arizona Robbins) are exiting the longtime ABC medical drama after season 14. Both women took to social media to react to their departures and admitted they were “sad.”
A source exclusively told Us Weekly that Drew and Capshaw’s respective story lines had “just run their course.
A few days after news of the casting change broke, Pompeo, 48, addressed backlash from fans who were angry over the upcoming exits of the fan-favorite characters.
“We R grateful all of you are so passionate but if you knew these two women the way I know them they would not approve of all this nastiness,” Pompeo, who also squashed rumors that her castmates’ departures had something to do with her salary renegotiation, wrote. “They both are super shiny happy people. I know you’re angry but you’re representation couldn’t be further from who these women actually are.”
Grey’s Anatomy airs on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.
