‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Alum Announces Retirement from Acting

Isaiah Washington is throwing in the towel. The actor has announced he’s retiring in a detailed social media post. “It is with a heavy heart and a sense of relief that I am announcing my early retirement from the entertainment industry today,” the 59-year-old began in a tweet. He added: “Those who have been Following/Witnessing my journey here on Twatter since 2011 all know that I have fought the good fight, but it seems that the haters, provocateurs and the Useful Idiots have won. I’m no longer interested in the back and forth regarding a ‘color construct’ that keeps us human beings divided nor am I interested in politics or anything vitriolic. I will be traveling this great country before it falls into Socialism and then Communism.” It appears he will teach acting, as opposed to living as a working actor moving forward.

Washington’s fall from grace has been well documented. An original cast member of the Shonda Rhimes-produced ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, he he was fired in 2007 after three seasons upon using a homophobic slur against his co-star T.R. Knight, who was openly gay. Initially, he denied such before apologizing, but it wasn’t enough to save his job. Later, Washington said, “I did everything that the producers and the network asked me to do,” while speaking for the show’s tell-all book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy.

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Regarding what led to the argument between the two co-stars, a staffer on the set detailed his account in the book. “It was my episode,” writer Mark Wilding recalls in the book. “I think one of them had been late to set one day and the other one then decided to pay him back by being late himself. Then it sort of exploded. They got into an arguing match, and then before you know it they were physically fighting. I was standing there in video village. I’m, like, six feet four inches. I’m bigger than both of them. But I didn’t really jump in right away because I’m like, I don’t know if I want to get involved.”

Harry Werksman, another writer from the show who was there that day, added: “And Isaiah, for whatever reason that day, just took that the wrong way and he went after Patrick. I guess he felt disrespected that he and the crew had been waiting. He went after Patrick, pushed him up against the wall, and said, ‘You can’t talk to me the way you talk to that little f—– T.R.’”

Despite the backlash from that project, the Love Jones star continued acting. Since his exit from the show, he appeared more recently in projects like The 100, P-Valley, even returning for a season 10 episode of Grey’s Anatomy. He also starred as Bass Reeves in the film Corsicana, which he says will be his final project.