You know you’ve made it in Hollywood when one role turns your entire career around, and apparently, you don’t even have to survive the role to do it. Just ask Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the man who turned dying in a hospital bed into a full-time job.
In a recent interview, Morgan credited his turn as Denny Duquette on Grey’s Anatomy for his thriving career where he didn’t even need to audition for roles post Grey’s. “I’ve auditioned zero times since playing Denny,” he revealed. The man died on screen, left everyone sobbing into their wine, and then walked straight into job offers without breaking a sweat.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: “I’ve Auditioned Zero Times Since Playing Denny”
In a recent interview with People, Morgan said of his “life-changing” role in the medical drama, “That show honestly gave me a career. I was doing that, Weeds and Supernatural simultaneously… I’ve auditioned zero times since playing Denny Duquette.”
Morgan appeared in seasons 2 and 3 as a heart transplant patient who proposed to Katherine Heigl’s character. He said, “I’d been kicking around Hollywood for a long time, but nobody certainly knew who I was. My whole career launched out of that character.”
He revealed that he got roles because of the shows including P.S. I Love You, the 2007 rom-com with Hilary Swank. “[Director] Zack Snyder told me that he cast me in Watchmen because he saw me as Denny.” Morgan says. “How you watch Denny and go, ‘Well, that’s the nihilistic comedian right there,’ is beyond me.”
Morgan on The Walking Dead
Even his role on The Walking Dead was offered to him. In 2015, he shared on PasCon that he accepted the role even though he had not received the full details of the role yet. “My agent and manager called. They said, ‘You’ve been offered this thing on The Walking Dead. It’s to play a big bad. At that time, they didn’t know the character’s name because I think it was supposed to be a secret.” But Morgan knew it immediately. “And I’m like, ‘Is it f—ing Negan?’ And they’re like, ‘I don’t know, we’re going to have to call you back.’ And I’m like, ‘No, it’s f—ing Negan. And I’m f—ing doing it.’”
Morgan is still grateful to Denny. “I think about him a lot. Every now and again, I’ll see something on social media, a scene or something, and I’m just like, ‘F—k.’ I still wake up every day, and I say my little thank you to [creator] Shonda Rhimes. It was lightning in a bottle, and it gave me the opportunity to have a career.”
