Grey's Anatomy has axed actress Brooke Smith,
successfully putting the nail in the coffin in what could
have been a thoughtful blossoming lesbian relationship
between her character, Erica, and Sara
Ramirez's Callie.
While
Grey's writers have teased and taunted
audiences while amassing a devoted lesbian following in
anticipation of what was purportedly going to be a
well-written love story between two women, producers
curtailed the story line in a fell swoop, firing Smith.
Shonda Rhimes,
the show's executive producer, issued a statement
regarding Smith's release, but according to EW's Michael Ausiello, it
appears the show intends to straighten out a few
upcoming episodes that originally boasted more
lesbian-themed content.
"Brooke Smith was
obviously not fired for playing a lesbian. Clearly
it's not an issue as we have a lesbian character on the show
-- Calliope Torres," Rhimes said in a statement
released Tuesday. "Sara Ramirez is an incredible
comedic and dramatic actress, and we wanted to be able
to play up her magic. Unfortunately, we did not find that
the magic and chemistry with Brooke's character would
sustain in the long run.
"The impact of
the Callie/Erica relationship will be felt and played
out in a story for Callie. I believe it belittles the
relationship to simply replace Erica with 'another
lesbian.' If you'll remember, Cristina mourned the
loss of Burke for a full season."
In an interview
with (in which the pointedly asked "What the
hell happened?!") said, "I was very
excited when they told me that Erica and Callie were
going to have this relationship. And I really hoped we were
going to show what happens when two women fall in love and
that they were going to treat it like any heterosexual
couple on TV. And so I was surprised and disappointed
when they just suddenly told me that they couldn't
write for my character anymore." (The
Advocate)
Joining the
Grey's cast will be Melissa George,
whose character was initially intended to be bisexual and a
challenge to Callie's evolving sexual identity, but
even that could be played down, according to
Aussiello.
Smith,
who's starred in Weeds, Iron Jawed
Angels and The Silence of the Lambs,
told Aussiello she was completely blindsided when
producers kicked her and her newly out character to
the curb.
"I was so naive.
I'm like, 'It's 2008,' " Smith said about believing
that ABC
would have followed through and not shied away from
the lesbian story line. "But I'm starting to realize that
not everyone feels the way I do."
