Brooke Smith News

This spring, Grey's Anatomy introduced a lesbian story line with a romance between the confident, sexually voracious Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and the professionally ambitious yet personally restrained Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith).

The plot line, culminating in the season finale, "Freedom," offered both the drama Grey's Anatomy has become known for and a groundbreaking truthfulness network television has rarely achieved when it comes to lesbian relationships.

For Callie and Erica, the season ended with a passionate kiss...

With that kiss, Callie and Erica became the only regular lesbian or bi-sexual female characters currently on network television.

This is also the first time that two regular stars on a network show have begun a lesbian romance, as opposed to one becoming involved with a new lesbian character introduced expressly for that relationship.

To prepare for the story line, which will continue next season, the Grey's Anatomy producers consulted with GLAAD, which worked with the series on a previous story line about a transgender character with breast cancer.

To read more about how the Callie-Erica story line was developed on Grey's Anatomy, and for hints at what's to come, follow the link here ...

For Grey's Anatomy fans who began the season wondering if Dr. ­Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) was gay, last week's season finale offered an answer â€" she might just be, after Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) made her move.

The two-hour episode â€" which culminated with Callie planting a kiss on Erica outside of Seattle Grace â€" had people asking: For the love of The L Word, could EriCal eclipse MerDer as the Grey's Anatomy "It" couple?

Creator Shonda Rhimes tells Entertainment Weekly that we may not have seen the last of this budding (and much buzzed-about) Seattle Grace romance.

Is there a future for Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Erica (Brooke Smith)?

"Callie and Erica have an undeniable chemistry," says Shonda Rhimes.

"Watching the story unfold is something the writers are looking forward to. I wanted to illuminate their relationship in the same way we try to do all relationships on the show â€" ­funny, sweet, honest, and a little bit dirty."

As for Brooke Smith, she doesn't think Dr. Hahn was coming out of the closet in the last few weeks leading up to the finale.

Continue Reading...

Grey's Anatomy actress Brooke Smith has adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia, her rep confirmed to People magazine.

It is the second daughter for Smith, 40, who plays Dr. Erica Hahn on the hit medical drama, and who already has a five-year-old daughter, Fanny, with her cinematographer husband Stephen Lubensky.

Brooke Smith, who is best known for her role in Silence of the Lambs before Grey's Anatomy, had been considering adopting since October.

"You know, why not?" Smith said, adding that she and Lubensky have traveled to Africa several times, and filmed a documentary on conservationists in Zimbabwe together.

"We still might end up there some time," she said.

During Season 3 of Grey's Anatomy, Dr. Preston Burke, played by Isaiah Washington, suffered a gun shot wound that left him bedridden and out of commission.

In came Brooke Smith's Dr. Erica Hahn, an old rival and cardiothoracic surgeon at neighboring Mercy West, who substituted for Burke at Seattle Grace. While Smith loved the role as Hahn, she was never expecting it to become a permanent gig.

"I didn't really think it was going to work out," Smith said.

However, things took a different turn when ABC decided not to renew Washington's contract. With the actor off the show and his character out of Seattle Grace, Brooke Smith was called back to not only to reprise her role as Erica Hahn, but to act as the hospital's new head of cardiothoracic surgery.

Apart from it being a full-time job, Brooke Smith decided to give Grey's Anatomy a go because it gives her the chance to explore a character for a longer period of time.

"When I work on something that has a beginning, middle and end, I can create an arc. With Dr. Hahn, I need to figure out who she is," Smith said.

Brooke Smith, the newest full-time Grey's Anatomy cast member.

That said, the 40-year-old has been busy doing research for her role, including watching heart surgery at a Los Angeles hospital and enlisting the help of the real surgical nurses who are assigned to the operating room on the show.

"It really stressed me out a lot," she said. "I didn't go to medical school. I have no idea what it really is to be a surgeon and yet I have to act like I'm really good at it."

Fans, however, will have to wait a little longer before seeing Brooke Smith and the rest of the Grey's Anatomy cast at work, as the WGA strike has caused production to shut down on the show for an indefinite period of time.

"I am sort of out of work," Smith said, noting her ironic situation. "I thought for the first time, I am going to have stability. That lasted for almost two months."

On the upside, Smith believes the strike will end soon.

"I am ready to go back, already," she said.

Change is hard, as Meredith Grey has observed more than once in her narrating Grey's Anatomy quotes. After the show's strange slide late last season, the Los Angeles Times notes, everyone, including Shonda Rhimes and Patrick Dempsey, said a certain creative downturn, an earnestness, would be rectified.

"We're bringing the fun back," Shonda Rhimes said.

Indeed, the first episode of Season 4 was entitled "A Change Is Gonna Come." And millions of fans breathlessly waited ... and waited.

Eight episodes in, things have happened, of course. George (T.R. Knight) told wife Callie (Sara Ramirez) that he cheated on her, so the marriage is over and George is officially in love with former best friend Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl).

Single Callie moved in with jilted Cristina (Sandra Oh). Derek (Dempsey) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) continue their dance of longing and leaving.

But the only real change so far is that Isaiah Washington is gone, and the fabulous Brooke Smith, playing the dynamic Dr. Erica Hahn, has taken his place.

Dr. Erica Hahn is a terrific character, sassy and professional, with an appropriately acerbic view of the various romantic shenanigans at Seattle Grace. She also seems to be a carefully considered stand-in for viewers choking on the soapy silt of last season, a way to move forward without messing with the brand.

Don't get too nervous now, Brooke Smith, but the future of what was once TV's highest-rated drama may be resting increasingly in your hands.

Changing a big hit TV show is a tricky business. It's easier to tinker, if often not as effective. And while Grey's Anatomy remains a big hit, its ratings continue to slide; a few weeks ago, they hit an all-time low.

A major concern? While viewers like the romance and character development, they need to have their medical shows rooted in, well, medicine.

Continue reading in the Los Angeles Times ...

As Dr. Erica Hahn, the heart surgeon who used to serve as a rival to Dr. Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington), Brooke Smith has now joined the fray full time. Here are excerpts from the actress' conversation with the Los Angeles Times ...

Question: So how did this come about - did you hatch some scheme with [Grey's Anatomy creator and executive producer] Shonda Rhimes?

Brooke Smith: No! I've been dabbling over there in Season 2 and Season 3. After every time I would hope they would call and also hope not too, kind of like when I used to be single. And they finally actually called!

Question: OK! So how's it going? Everyone is so unpleasant!

Brooke Smith: They are? You mean the characters.

Question: Indeed! A little gritty, a little narcissistic. . . .

Brooke Smith: Oh yeah. That.

Question: And your own is a little abrasive.

Brooke Smith: Yes. I've heard that word used before. What's the question?

Question: You're the first person to ever confront me on not asking questions. You must have been to a lot of therapy or something.

Brooke Smith: Oh, that was years ago, but I need to go back.

Question: Oh, we'll circle back to that. So?

Brooke Smith: [Erica Hahn] is a professional! She's a workaholic! She has little rules in her head about how you're supposed to act at work. That doesn't mean she can't break the rules. But everyone else is supposed to follow them.

Continue Reading...

After several strong guest appearances over two years-plus, Brooke Smith is set to join the Grey's Anatomy cast as renowned heart surgeon Erica Hahn.

With her role cemented after last night, Brooke Smith talked with Michael Ausiello of TV Guide to discuss her character, what it's like to join such a talented ensemble, and whether or not Erica Hahn will be portrayed as a lesbian ...

TV Guide: Congratulations!
Brooke Smith: Thanks!

TV Guide: You must've had an idea this was coming.
Brooke Smith: Honestly, I wasn't expecting it, [probably] because I didn't want to be disappointed if it didn't end up happening. I thought it was really cool when TV Guide [floated the idea], because I thought, "Wow, I didn't even think of that!" And literally a couple days after we spoke, they called.

TV Guide: Did they come right out and offer a full-time gig? Or were they just offering another guest spot?
Brooke Smith: No, it was, "Hey, can you come full-time?" Thank God. I couldn't handle any more dabbling. It's too much. [Mock anguish] I feel like I want someone to commit to me already!

TV Guide: What was your first reaction?
Brooke Smith: You know, we were kind of excited. [Laughs] I say "we" because my husband and I were like, "Wow, OK." We had just finished [renovating our apartment] in New York, and put down a deposit on school for our little girl. But, aside from that, we just said, "All right, I guess we're moving to L.A. for a little while." But we're going back to New York at the end of this.

TV Guide: Do you like that Dr. Hahn is a little bit of an antagonist?
Brooke Smith: Yeah. I've heard people say [Dr. Hahn] is abrasive. [Laughs] Dr. Hahn is a workaholic and she's very professional and, you know, I think she feels that there should be professionalism at work, and when other people do things that aren't professional she gets a little upset.

Continue Reading...

Our collection of Grey's Anatomy quotes is so extensive, it would be hard for us to pick our favorite - even if we were limited to just one episode.

Entertainment Weekly doesn't have that problem. In fact, they are holding a poll of funniest lines uttered on TV between the dates of November 20-27, and a memorable one-liner from a recent episode of Grey's Anatomy is in the running.

Fans certainly recall when, on Thanksgiving's "From a Whisper to a Scream," Dr. Burke was first greeted by visiting Seattle Presbyterian surgeon - and medical school rival - Dr. Erica Hahn:

"So how have you been, Preston? Last time I saw you, you stole my patient's heart. Then you got shot. Karma rocks."

Dr. Hahn (played by Brooke Smith) definitely got Burke good with that one. Though his reply about enjoying her visits, but not as much as when she leaves was pretty good, too. Really, Grey's Anatomy could occupy all the spots on this list - not to take away from the other shows, of course.

Others lines in the competition came from Medium, Studio 60, The Soup, Ugly Betty, The Simpsons and House. You can VOTE HERE.

In reprising the character of Erica Hahn, a no-fills, abrasive and brilliant heart surgeon seen at the end of Season 2, Brooke Smith was one of the many highlights of last Thursday's thrilling episode, "From a Whisper to a Scream."

We're not sure how long she'll be sticking around - although we do know she will appear in this week's "Don't Stand So Close to Me" - we thought you might like to know a little about this talented actress.

Growing up in New York, in the shadow of show business as the daughter of powerful publicist Lois Smith, Brooke's big break came as Catherine Martin, the abducted young girl in The Silence of the Lambs.

Other key roles included Sonya in Louis Malle's Vanya on 42nd Street, as well as Dawn in Daniel Minahan's Series 7: The Contenders. Her TV credits include Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Heist and Crossing Jordan. Smith, 39, has more than three dozen movie and TV credits to her name.

Whether she is humming a Tom Petty tune, like her character does in Silence of the Lambs, or showing a different side of pregnancy as she did in Series 7, Smith is known for giving brooding, intense performances - as Grey's Anatomy fans have seen from the four episodes she's appeared in.

In addition to acting, she also enjoys filmmaking. She has directed a short film and a feature length documentary, and published interviews with actors Steve Buscemi, Ed Harris and Fred Ward (who also guest starred on Grey's Anatomy this year as Denny, Sr.), among others.

A medical school rival and frequent adversary (but nonetheless, respected colleague) of Preston Burke, Dr. Hahn adds yet another dynamic presence to Seattle Grace Hospital. Hopefully we get to see more of her.