‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Alum Praises Patrick Dempsey’s Return While Revealing Their Own Cameo Difficulty

Grey’s Anatomy alum Kate Walsh reveals she’s also enjoyed the various cameos in Season 17 of the long-running hospital drama. “I was actually thrilled and thought it was incredibly clever the way they brought people back during [Meredith’s coma],” she tells Us Weekly while promoting her new collaboration with Sheba Brand to launch the world’s largest coral reef restoration project.

Walsh, who used to portray Dr. Addison Montgomery on the series before leading her own spinoff Private Practice, continued to commend the writers’ choice to use her character’s former nemesis Meredith Grey‘s (Ellen Pompeo) coma as a tool to bring in multiple blasts from the past. “What a great device that was,” she added. “Honestly, I thought it was just awesome and chilling and hugely moving and really cool to take a very kind of, I would say cliché device of, you know, ‘coma in the hospital drama,’ but then make it this amazing thing where you’ve got Pat and T.R. [Knight], and did Eric [Dane] come back too? It’s just so cool.”

Now that she’s an Australian resident, it might be too much of a stretch for the Private Practice star to make a return of her own to Seattle’s Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital, but she still enjoys watching the cast. “I guess they’d have to have me Zoom in at this point,” she joked. “I would have loved to do it, but you know, I’m in a different hemisphere.”

She also revisited her first introduction to Grey’s fans. The infamous episode which aired in 2005, in which Walsh’s Montgomery sassily greets a visibly shocked Meredith Grey saying, “You must be the woman who’s been screwing my husband.” “That 30 seconds got a lot of notoriety,” the Umbrella Academy actress said, “That’s part of the fun fantasy of Shondaland … being double board-certified and, you know, wearing Jimmy Choos and Prada. What couldn’t Addison do?”

Keeping the notorious moment in mind, Walsh admits the scene was probably her biggest attention-grabber at that point in her career. Over time, though, people came to love her character as well as the star off the screen. Now, she plans to use her platform as a way to promote causes that will make a difference. “[Grey’s] really brought me to where I am now,” she continued. “A place to be able to use my name and my energy to help bring awareness to campaigns like this one with Sheba … especially in my place in life now too, I just want to help wherever I can.”