Grey’s Anatomy’s Chyler Leigh Talks Lexie’s ‘Epic’ Death

Chyler Leigh is effectively conscious that Gray’s Anatomy followers nonetheless mourn her character Lexie Gray’s premature demise practically 12 years later, however she tells Us Weekly that she wouldn’t change Lexie’s destiny.

“That’s a fairly epic method to go,” Leigh, 41, advised Us completely whereas selling her Hallmark Channel sequence, The Manner Residence.

Gray’s followers will bear in mind Lexie’s tragic demise within the season 8 finale, titled “Flight,” the place a gaggle of Seattle Grace’s most interesting have been concerned in a aircraft crash, leaving Lexie trapped beneath the wreckage. The tragic episode aired in April 2012, and later episodes revealed that the surviving medical doctors watched animals devour her useless physique.

“You get crushed beneath the fuselage of a aircraft after which apparently eaten by wolves?” Leigh recalled. “However then — give it some thought — then if I used to be pooped out, what if Lexie was a tree?”

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Leigh elaborated on her constructive spin of Lexie’s demise: “Have you learnt what I imply? Now I’m endlessly a part of oxygenating the world.”

She has a pleasing tackle a demise that also makes followers emotional, however Leigh stays grateful that viewers nonetheless care concerning the physician greater than a decade later. “I’ll all the time be extremely grateful for that character and for that storyline,” Leigh advised Us. “I can’t let you know what number of occasions I’ve heard from individuals which might be going into the medication area and which might be like, ‘I began identical to this and I get to observe Lexi’s journey.’ … I respect the way it impacts followers.”

Lexie was launched as a whip-smart intern at Seattle Grace throughout season 3, seeking to get to know Meredith Gray (Ellen Pompeo), her older half-sister. Her character noticed many ups and downs all through her six-season run, together with romances with Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) and Mark (Eric Dane).

“Lexie was nice. Her glow-ups have been very obvious, sans the blonde hair — that was rather a lot,” she stated, referring to her Gray’s Anatomy season 6 sudden hair coloration change. “However the people who I labored with have been nice, and I discovered rather a lot.”

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Leigh added that whereas she thought her onscreen medical abilities could apply in actual life, they most undoubtedly don’t.

“I actually thought, ‘ what? I believe perhaps if somebody did get damage round me, I might repair it,’” she stated. “And I undoubtedly couldn’t repair it.”

Since she left the ABC medical drama in 2012, Leigh has remained a small display screen staple. She spent six seasons on The CW’s Supergirl earlier than making her method to Hallmark Channel in 2023. Leigh presently stars on the community’s The Manner Residence, which follows three generations of girls who reunite after twenty years of estrangement and discover their household’s historical past by newfound time-travel talents. The second season premiered in January and has already been renewed for a 3rd season. Leigh shared with Us that she feels linked to her character as a mom herself. (She and husband Nathan West, who married in 2002, share three kids.)

“I’ve two daughters, 15 and 17,” she stated. “It undoubtedly lends itself to creating issues a bit extra relatable, a bit simpler to form of dredge up an emotion that I can connect with. Although circumstances are wildly totally different, that emotion is similar.”

The Manner Residence airs on Hallmark Channel Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.