Kate Walsh on Grey’s Anatomy Return, Addison’s Marriage Trouble With Jake

Having played Addison now for nearly 180 episodes across “Grey’s” and “Practice Practice,” reprising the character feels “like putting on an old dress, but very sparkly still. It’s got a little sparkle, literally and figuratively,” Walsh tells Variety with a glint in her eye. “But, yeah, there’s a part of my psyche that will always be reserved space for Addison. It’s just in me. It’s so nice. It’s more like putting on a worn but comfortable glove that I could just go right into. All the metaphors are just so cheesy, but it’s like going home.”

“It’s such a delight not just to work with Caterina, but to work with the entire crew that have been there, many of them since the very beginning,” she adds. “The last couple of times I’ve been back, I worked with Kim Raver as a director, and now we had Kevin McKidd again. I’ve worked with him a couple times, and he’s such a delight. It’s so fun just to work with friends.”

In the Jan. 29 episode, Addison returns to Seattle to convince Amelia — who has been on a sabbatical since the death of her colleague and friend, Monica Beltran (Natalie Morales) — to consult on a pregnant mother with neurological issues. But Addison’s return turns out to be as personal as it is professional. Following years of running the mobile clinic, Addison needs to confide in someone about the strain her work has put on her marriage to Jake Reilly (played by Benjamin Bratt on “Private Practice”), who is now threatening to leave her for not being a present partner and parent to their child, Henry.

“Jake used to be in it with me. He used to call me every morning when I was on the road, and give me these pep talks — tell me how brave I was for doing work no one else would do. He’d send me these care packages with birth control pills and talk through difficult cases with me. He was on my side,” Addison tells Amelia, shortly after apologizing to her for pressuring her into taking their case of the week. “But now he hardly calls. And when he does, he complains about traffic on the 405, or Henry’s school, or me.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Walsh quietly moved to Australia for a project, and stayed there. And while she still travels to North America and Europe for work, she logged on to our video call from her home in Perth, where she now lives with her Australian farmer fiancé, Andrew Nixon. “I’m about to go back to New York for a big fat stint in April. I’ve always kept my apartment, so I’ve gone back and forth. The Northern Hemisphere is my office, and then I just come home here, so it’s a little half and half. I’m very lucky,” she says, adding that she remains “hopeful” that the political climate in the U.S. will change in the near future.

In her only interview about her highly anticipated return to “Grey’s,” Walsh opens up below about the new but not entirely unsurprising development in Addison’s personal life; how she wanted to explore the emotional cost of laws and policies restricting abortion access on physicians; and whether she has been in touch with her former co-star Eric Dane, who played Addison’s late ex Mark Sloan, as he battles ALS. Walsh also confirms that the door is “always” open for her to reprise Addison, and she even has an idea for her next appearance.

You made your long-awaited return to Grey Sloan in Season 18, but you haven’t been back to visit since Season 19. What kinds of conversations did you have with showrunner Meg Marinis about what you wanted to accomplish with Addison’s return this time around?

We had been chatting, and I really wanted to have Addison come back a little shaken too, and she had pitched this idea. Amelia and Addison are always confidants, and Addison’s always obviously been there for Amelia, historically, whenever she’s in trouble — whether it’s with her addiction struggles or what have you — in the past. And I was like, “Yeah, but I think it would be cool to see Addison kind of messed up from everything that’s happening in the world, and how it’s affecting her.” So the last time we saw Addison, she was with Bailey and doing the mobile clinic for women. I was like, “I want to see some kind of wear and tear on her, or some kind of stress.” We hadn’t really seen Addison vulnerable in a while, like freaking out. So I thought that might be a little more interesting, a bit of a role reversal, and I think you see that in this episode.

You and Caterina have worked together for so long as Addison and Amelia, who are obviously family members — but your roles were a bit reversed this time, as you just described, since it’s Addison who’s the “dumpster fire” for once in that dynamic. Can you talk about what your dynamic is like now as scene partners?

This was her first episode back, so I think it was really fun just to be back for her on set. She and I always just jive so well and have great chemistry. She does feel like family to me. I just love going back. I put on my little scrubs or a fabulous pair of shoes and clothes, as the scene requires, and I’m Addison again. So it was really comforting, in a way. I kind of felt like a homing pigeon being called in, or like a spy coming in from the cold. I’m always happy to go work with her and everyone on the show, but it was really special to have just scenes with her in a way. It was very intimate.

I’m personally curious about how you actually arrange these special guest-star appearances on “Grey’s,” given that you now live halfway across the world in Australia and the show still shoots in Los Angeles. Do you get personally approached about returning to “Grey’s,” or does your agent field that call? Does the creative team pitch you storylines for Addison and tell you where they see the character now, or is it more of a collaboration between all of you?

Well, in recent years, whether it was Meg or [former showrunner] Krista Vernoff, we just reach out directly to each other because for Addison to come back, it’s always a creative beginning. And then it’s like, “OK, how can we do our schedules?” And then the agents usually get involved with just scheduling and all the minutiae of contract stuff, and travel, obviously. But it always starts creatively. So after all these years, that’s one of the nice things. It’s not always that way, but I am very fortunate that happens with most of the stuff that I work on.

I just did a comedy [called “What the F*ck Is My Password?”] with Steve Pink, Alexander Ludwig, Stephen Dorff and all these people. That was a creative conversation, too, that started with my agent and manager, and they’re like, “Hey, there is this really fun, crazy thing that I think you’ll love.” We just shot that, but that started with them. I read it, and I was like, “Really? I don’t know.” And they’re like, “Just have a conversation with Steve,” who I’d known for years and years. He did “Hot Tub Time Machine” and “Grosse Pointe Blank,” and we came up together in Chicago. And then you’re like, “OK, let’s talk about it and see what we can do, what I can do.” So it’s always been creative for me.

But how exactly do you navigate those conversations about how Addison will come back and in what capacity? Does it always come down to your schedule, or do you have to be excited creatively about what the character is up to now?

It’s both. It’s scheduling and it’s also like, “Well, let’s just make this something that’s interesting and viable and relevant.” Obviously, it has to work within the context of not just my schedule, but the show and their storylines that they have going on already. But I always want it to be of value, and that it’s not just like, “Oh, hi! I’m here!” I want it to be important and meaningful.

I think one of the things that “Grey’s” has always done — and Meg, of course, continues that, and she’s been there since the very beginning; she’s an OG “Grey’s” writer. They’ve always been able to deal with what’s happening in culture and in the world and run it through the filter of Grey Sloan or Seattle Grace, as it were back in the day, or Oceanside Wellness [on “Private Practice”], or whatever they’ve got. That’s how they sort of take the macro and bring it into the micro of that container, and I love it. The writing is so strong, and the relationships are so great. I think it’s very, very special not only that “Grey’s” is in its 22nd season — it’s like baseball at this point — but people have grown up and come along with these characters for all these 20-odd years. It’s really meaningful and special and intimate in a way that we don’t really have in any other aspect of storytelling.

There are some “Private Practice” fans who will have a lot of feelings about the “Grey’s” writers choosing to put Addison and Jake’s marriage in jeopardy — that union was supposed to be her happy ending, after all! — and the way this week’s episode ends suggests that they could be headed toward a divorce. Do you think there is any hope left for Addison and Jake?

There’s always hope! But I think, look, what she’s doing is so radically different, and everything’s changed so much. I think it’d be really interesting to actually see that transpire or see what comes of it. But I really loved [the storyline]. I was like, “She should be in jeopardy.” My thing is, I love that she’s doing all these things and coming back. There’s this sort of desperation, but how does that manifest in her life for real? How does it manifest at work? What does the clinic look like? Is Oceanside still [around]? What’s happening? So [I want] to have a little catch up and to actually see the ramifications of the choices she’s making and the sacrifices she’s making. I think a lot of people can relate to that.

You mentioned checking in with Addison, and now I can’t help but imagine seeing Jake appear onscreen again, but this time on “Grey’s” for the first time. Someone needs to give Benjamin Bratt a call and ask him to join Addison in Seattle next time.

That would be great. I would love that too. He’s such a delight.

In this week’s episode, Addison tells Amelia, “I don’t even recognize science anymore. All I know is that I can’t stomach sitting on the sidelines and watching people die, so I’m gonna choose work.” The helplessness that Addison feels as a world-class neonatal surgeon and OB/GYN in the current sociopolitical climate, following the fall of Roe v. Wade, is obvious, but what do you think is the long-term emotional cost of the work she is doing?

I don’t think that she knows. Again, what’s so great about “Grey’s” is everyone’s kind of forced to take things a day at a time. But one of the things that Meg and the writers and everyone feels really passionately about — and I do too — is not just, of course, women’s health, but really the challenges in the macro with medicine. The episode, as you said, gets into what’s happening and how quickly things have changed for doctors and nurses and the whole medical community, and, of course, for patients as well — and access to good healthcare. It has just kind of all turned upside down beyond women’s health. I mean, it’s everybody. So I think that they do a great job of addressing it and dealing with it.

Again, I was interested in the personal aspect of it for the character of Addison and how it feels for her as an expert doctor with all these degrees and adjectives behind her name — how it feels to be an expert in your field and have it all turned upside down and shaken around like a snow globe. That’s what we were really interested in trying to embody. Like anybody, I think that you can hyperfocus on one thing — or one case in this episode — of, “I just have to try to help this person.” I think that for Addison, her emotions and her frustration and anxieties always get filtered through her cases and her patients, and that’s the same in this episode.

A lot has been said and written about Addison’s evolution in the last two decades, but how have you personally seen her growth over the years?

Well, [she went] from being the bitch in black — albeit in Fendi! But I think one of the things that Shonda is so great about is she would give you one character, and it’s such an archetype and you think, “Oh, this is the villain.” But she always would turn every character kind of like a bug on their back and show you the tender underbelly, or show you the humanity. I think for Addison, you saw her become more and more vulnerable and human and fallible, but still funny and all those things that define the multifaceted characters of Shondaland. But I think the thing I’m interested in, like anybody as we age, is just the vulnerability that comes through and the fragility a little more. There’s so many different places to go, still, with her.

A lot of other “Grey’s” actors — both past and present — have mentioned being in contact with Eric Dane ever since he disclosed his battle with ALS last year. Have you been in touch with him at all? What has it been like for you to watch someone with whom you worked so closely battle this devastating disease?

[Her face drops a little bit.] It’s so painful. It’s really sad. I haven’t been in touch with him, but I’ve reached out and sent my love and support and strength. It’s so heartbreaking. He’s such a beautiful person and such an incredible man, and I’ve had other friends that have battled with this disease, and it’s just horrific. So my heart goes out to him. I keep him, his family, his girls, in my prayers.

Your characters, Addison and Mark, will forever be intertwined not only in the “Grey’s” universe, but in TV history.

I know. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking to me, so emotional.

Looking back, is there a particular storyline of Addison’s that you still find people wanting to talk to you about when they meet you, or on the street?

What I’m always struck by is the people who tell me their personal stories, like, “Oh my God, I went to med school,” or “I became a nurse,” or “I watched this when I was in med school,” or “My mom and I watched this every week growing up.” And that’s really meaningful to me that this is a part of their life, and the power of storytelling and art is that it connects and unites people. But I’m trying to think… I mean, there’s always the very first moment of her entrance, which is like, “Oh my God!” That was the cliffhanger. Those 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, whatever it was, on television — I got probably the most notice for that than anything I’d done, ever. Talk about entrances. That was an iconic entrance.

This interview has been edited and condensed.