‘Grey’s Anatomy’s Jake Borelli on Returning as Director, the Real Endgame of the Show & More

Jake Borelli is back on Grey’s Anatomy — this time, returning behind the lens as the director for Thursday’s (April 2) new episode, “Feel It Still.”

For seven seasons of the medical drama, Borelli memorably portrayed Dr. Levi Schmitt, an intern turned resident at Grey Sloan, but midway through Season 21, the character moved to Texas with his love interest, James Morgan (Michael Thomas Grant), to pursue a pediatrics fellowship. Borelli soon after returned for a guest stint during Schmitt’s best friend Jo’s (Camilla Luddington) wedding to Link (Chris Carmack), and this time, he got to participate in a very intimate moment for the couple from the edit bay. Warning: The following post contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Episode 16.

In the episode, Jo returns to work for her first full day since giving birth to the twins, and she has a very close call with a patient. She then reveals the postpartum stresses she’s been grappling with as a result of the trauma in her delivery — during which she had an emergency C-section and a heart operation simultaneously. For Borelli, directing that emotional scene was a major highlight that transported him back into character as he witnessed the tearful exchange.

Also prominent for the actor-turned-director was the inclusion of a Levi-coded Easter egg during one of the big elevator scenes in the romance-filled installment.

Here, the actor reveals all about how he came to helm the episode in the first place, what it was like to work with his former costars (and the newcomers) in such a new capacity, how he related to the impending exits of Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver, and so much more.

How did this come about? This is your first time directing, and it’s for such a big show, and it’s your show.

Jake Borelli: I know. It’s honestly been a wild journey. It started back around the pandemic, when we were all in this big social bubble, and it was pretty much going to set and coming home. And at that point, I was like, “I want to spend as much time on set as possible and learn as much as possible while we’re here.” And Debbie Allen is our executive producer and also our producing director. And so I called her up one day, and I asked if I could come in shadow, because I had seen, as an actor on the show, tons of shadows come through and learn from her, and I craved that so much. And so she allowed me to start shadowing, and that was the beginning of it.

So I shadowed her. I shadowed one of our other directors, Allison Liddi-Brown, a few times, who’s incredible, and Billy Woodruff. And then my character left the show, and so I was like, “Ah, no, I really want to keep this directing train moving.” And so I had a meeting with Debbie about my future and what I wanted for my career, and that directing was a huge part of that. And so over the next year, year and a half after I left the show, I continued to shadow, and then this opportunity came up to direct, and she invited me back. Nice.

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The show has this history of the stars getting behind the camera. I mean, you have Debbie, as you mentioned, but then Kevin, Chandra Wilson, and Kim Raver recently…

Yes, and Jesse Williams…

Yes! So what is it, do you think, about Grey’s that foster this environment where you guys can stretch into new territories? 

I mean, as an actor, what I loved about actor-directors, and specifically actors from the show, is that this show is a goliath of a thing, right? It’s like 460 episodes. And so usually, when you come in as a guest director, you have a couple seasons, you watch as much as possible to get the tone, to get the idea of the characters, where they’re coming from, and where they’re going. But with a show like Grey’s, it’s almost impossible to onboard someone for 460 episodes. And you do have characters like Bailey, who’s been on for 22 seasons, or like Kim, who’s been on for almost 15, things like that. And so I think, for our show specifically, there’s this shorthand that comes from being a part of the show to begin with, and the family to begin with. We know all the history. And so I feel like it’s a bit of a cheat code, jumping on as a guest director to already know the past 20 years of history of the show.

Your character had an interesting journey and a happy ending. And then also, you got to come back for Jo’s wedding. What’s it like for you to return as a guest star?… And now that the show’s been renewed for Season 23, do you think you might get a chance to come back again? 

Coming back in Season 21 was honestly super unexpected, because once Levi went to Texas, I thought that was dunzo for me and for Levi, and so when I got the call to come back, I was so, so, so excited. And what was cool about it, too is, I had eight years doing all this medical stuff and dealing with medical burnout and all of this, and then I got to come back and not go to the hospital at all. It was purely this wedding. And so it almost felt like a little movie that we were doing. And it was cool to get to see the cast again and to get to play with all of them in a happy moment. It couldn’t have been a funeral, and luckily, it was a wedding.

[For Season] 23, I would love to come back. I would also come back as a director, so maybe we could figure out a way to do both.

Diving into the direction element, I wondered if you’ve learned anything new about your costars in that experience of taking the other role?

Oh, totally. Because now we’re working in a much different way. And what’s also crazy about this show, because it’s such a huge ensemble cast, is if you’re not in a scene or a couple episodes with somebody, you might not see them for like, three months at a time, right? And so this was a wonderful opportunity to get to work with every single member of the cast and to get to work with them for two weeks straight, which is pretty rare as an actor on that show.

Then also there’s characters that Levi didn’t really get to interact with much. I was on that show for eight years. But then you think, Amelia Shepherd and I didn’t really have a relationship, and so getting to direct Caterina [Scorsone] in this was such a joy and an incredible opportunity to get to work with her even more closely because we’re buddies in real life and stuff. And then Alexis Floyd is one of my all time best friends, who plays Simone, and Levi and Simone, we joke about it all the time. I think we said, like, two words to each other directly. This was such a great opportunity to get to play with her character, too.

The other big one that I will say also is getting to direct Camilla Luddington because I’m so used to acting with her, and we have such a great rapport and this great flow together that we jump right into. And so getting to direct her and Chris Carmack in a scene at their home where Levi wouldn’t be was shocking to me because it’s the moment where she finally works up the courage to get to tell him about her feelings around their children, and her postpartum, and all of that. And I remember we got to this moment where I was like, “OK, Camilla, at this line, look at him,” and it was like the hardest look possible because it was the moment she was bearing all this vulnerability. And she looks at him and starts crying, and then I’m over here in this private rehearsal, crying, too. And it was so emotional. One, because it was such a beautiful moment, but two, because I was also seeing Levi’s best friend in this moment of vulnerability and pain, and all of this Levi energy came back up in me that I hadn’t used in like a year and a half. And it was both crazy and inspiring to me to see that our characters still lived on, even after what was gone, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does. It really does. This episode features a lot of love scenes, and you get two elevator scenes. There were four different relationships to play with … Can you talk about just navigating all of these complex relationships in these romance scenes? 

It was perfectly structured by our writer, Sandra [Hamada]. I remember on the first day after I got the script, I did this whole thing at home where I put every scene on a Post-It note and laid it out on my dining room table and tried to figure out the exact structure of this thing. And it was gorgeous once it was all laid out because just like you’re saying, it was, it was like five scenes straight of character relationships, mainly outside of the hospital. Then we go into the hospital, and we have four main patient storylines, and then we end with some sort of resolution of all five of those character relationships.

It’s a very medical-heavy episode this one, we pretty much stay in the hospital for most of it, but it had this framework of relationships, which was such an awesome in for me to really figure out how each one of these patient storylines affects the trajectory of not only our characters, but our relationships. So that was wonderful when that unlocked in me, once I had laid out all the scenes, and then I just gushed to Sandra the whole episode, I was like, “This is perfect.”

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Did you develop any opinions about the characters in this experience? For example, are you rooting for Lucas and Dani, or is Bryant right that it’s not real? Also, the Dani and Simone moment was peak drama. 

Dani, I have to say, is one of my new favorite characters. Truly, I’m obsessed with her. Jade, the actress, is incredible. I literally have a picture of her [that] I’m waiting to post on Instagram because we had so much fun. I feel like she’s giving some Levi, she’s giving some, like, April Kepner. Some of my favorite characters in the show have this quality that she has, and so yes, I’m totally rooting for her. And the make-out scene with her and Lucas in Amelia’s apartment was so endearing and fun to shoot.

Also, Niko Terho and I have a past. We did a rom-com together, so it was also like directing Niko in an intimate scene after I had already done like a full movie of intimate scenes. I think it was a great experience for all three of us. I think it instantly made all three of us very comfortable in that space. And I just loved her performance in the episode. I’m so happy to have gotten to direct her, and yes, that moment with her and Simone, it’s honestly one of my favorite shots in the whole episode, because they have this connection, but their backs are to one another, and Simone never really fully turns around. But because of the way it’s shot, where they both essentially have half of the screen together, it shows this connection, but it’s not like any indication that they’re going to be best friends.

Disney / Anne Marie Fox

We’ve learned that Owen and Teddy are leaving the show. You had scenes with them as well. Did you know about that at the time? Or how this is kind of moving in that direction? Or was the Owen storyline with his mother and everything just fresh at the time?

At that point, I was really locked into our story, and it was such a big story with Evelyn coming back… As a fan of the show. I’ve seen the show three times all the way through, when I was reading the script, and I found out Evelyn, Debra [Mooney], who plays Evelyn, was coming back, I was so freaking excited. And I was also a little scared, because her character is a very brash woman. And I was a little like, “Oh my god, how am I going to direct this powerhouse actress who’s playing this intense Army nurse?” And after meeting her, the second I met her, I was like, “Oh my god, we’re gonna be best friends.” She was so incredible, so generous. She literally knocked her monologue out of the park every single time. We didn’t even need to cut away if we didn’t want to, that type of thing. So at that point, I was just so locked into that story that I didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes, but around the time that we were filming was when it was starting to get announced to the rest of us.

And I had been through something similar, so I think I was able to empathize and talk with them in a way that some other people maybe weren’t able to. And then also, just Kevin and Kim both as directors, it was such a special moment that I got to direct them, and that they got to see me direct after having learned from them for so long. Kim Raver and I shadowed Debbie at the same time. We called ourselves “Little Debbie Ducklings” because we would just waddle and follow Debbie around everywhere. And so getting to see her direct the past couple of seasons has been such a joy, and I think it was a very wonderful full-circle moment to get to have her in my episode.

There was a similar thing with Chandra, since we get Miranda and what she’s dealing with in this episode, her own guilt or admission that she’s made mistakes, too, that Blue has made. So I loved the way that you handled that. But then also talk about the confrontation with Richard [James Pickens Jr.] and Miranda, and setting the tone for that, because it’s a little ominous.

Yeah, that was a big, important scene for me, too, because originally, for production constraints and stuff, we were gonna shoot that whole moment in the hallway. So, essentially, Blue and Bailey’s conversation and then into Richard’s. And having seen the show so many times, I really felt strongly that Richard would have at least a small sense of giving Bailey the benefit of the doubt and to have this meeting in the office. So we ended up changing some things around. We had to end in the office. I ended up building a longer hallway, which was kind of crazy because I didn’t even know that was something I could do. I was like, “I need more hallway.” And they made it happen overnight. It was crazy, and I’m so proud of how that scene turned out, and I think it is very ominous. It’s a huge cliffhanger. I don’t know exactly how Richard is going to deal with this, but it was an intense moment in the episode for sure, and it was also our last scene that we shot. So it was a crazy happening to sort of end the episode and end the story at the same time.

Disney / Anne Marie Fox

This episode is so couple-coded. People are really happy about Winston and Jules getting together, and then there’s a lot of other couples in play. Which ones do you think you know are endgame?

I love Jules and Winston, and a little behind-the-scenes info for you, I chose to shoot them in the same elevator that Levi and Nico had their first kiss in. And I even mirrored some of the outside lobby situation, too, with the deeper lobby. So that was a cool Easter egg for me to have that moment in there, because that moment was so endearing to me. And so there was, at this moment of levity, with the fear of the security cameras, which, oh my God, if that elevator security cam footage ever came out, there would be so much to unpack.

But yeah, I mean, I think a lot of us fans of the show are rooting for and know that Bailey and Ben are hardcore endgame. It’s a bit of a scuffle in this episode. So I’m hoping my episode didn’t ruin this endgame. But I would say them for sure.

Since you’re a fan and you’ve watched the show over and over again, what’s it like for you seeing it continue, and how long do you think this thing can go?

I was so excited to see the Season 23 pickup. I hope it goes on forever. I mean, it’s such a great show. There’s so much more story to mine out of it. This hospital has gone through so much and has become a character in and of itself. So I feel like the structure of that is very, very sustainable as cast members come and go. I don’t want to see a year where there isn’t Grey’s Anatomy on the TV or or anything like that. I would love to see it keep going all the way up ’til maybe Zola [Aniela Gumbs] becomes chief resident.

I love that. There is a fan theory that that’s what’s gonna happen, that she’ll become the third Grey there.

That would be a great show. What do we have? She’s got to be like 13.

I think she’s in high school by now. And she’s a prodigy. She can skip through college.

Yeah! She can follow her aunt Maggie [Kelly McCreary].

Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC

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