‘One Tree Hill’ star shuts down Sophia Bushs's ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ casting pitch: 'There's no way...'
'One Tree Hill' alum James Lafferty has hilariously shut down his former co-star Sophia Bush’s public pitch for him to join her on ABC's medical drama 'Grey's Anatomy,' jokingly blaming his memory and an inability to match Patrick Dempsey's legendary hair. Bush made her debut on the iconic show in 2024, shaking up Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital as trauma surgeon Dr. Cass Beckman. While discussing the Season 22 finale with Entertainment Weekly, she nominated Lafferty to be the next 'One Tree Hill' co-star to join 'Grey's Anatomy.' She said, "So many of us girls have been on the show. Honestly, who gives you more McDreamy vibes than James Lafferty? Nobody!" She also expressed a desire to see Stephen Colletti alongside Lafferty, calling them her best friends. "He would be so good in that world. He would crush it—and so would Stephen. Those two, just the most tender humans, the best guys, the best friends from 20 years of all growing up together. It's really special."
Lafferty played basketball star Nathan Scott, and Bush starred as the fierce Brooke Davis throughout all nine seasons of 'One Tree Hill.' Colletti joined the show in Season 4, playing Brooke's love interest. Brooke's co-cheerleaders, Bethany Joy Lenz and Hilarie Burton Morgan, have both already appeared on 'Grey's Anatomy.' She also shared that she recently spent time with Lafferty and Colletti in North Carolina, where the iconic young adult show was filmed. "I had this sort of out-of-body experience as we all were huddled up talking about our families and talking about our lives and talking about production, the things that we're developing," she said. "I sort of zoomed out, and I was like, 'Oh my God, guys, do you remember when we were all 22 and going to bars and look at us now?' It's crazy to have just had that experience specifically with those two guys and then to be thinking about this, I'm like, 'Yeah, put them on Grey's!' They'd crush."
Reacting to her comments with the same outlet, Lafferty playfully dismissed the proposal, stating, "I can't memorize more than three sentences in a row, so there's no way I'm playing a doctor," joking that he wouldn’t survive the show’s demanding medical dialogue. Before joking about his inability to handle medical dialogue, he expressed his admiration for Patrick Dempsey's hair, calling Dempsey’s signature hairstyle iconic. "That wave? That Dempsey wave, that's iconic. I can't fill those shoes." Between the intense medical jargon and competing with TV legends, the actor is sticking to what he knows. Lafferty and Colletti currently work together on the meta-comedy 'Everyone Is Doing Great,' available on Netflix, while Bush is set to return for the next season of 'Grey's Anatomy.'
