In 2005, Sandra Oh was cast in the career-changing role of Cristina Yang in the ABC medical series Grey’s Anatomy, which, as you may know, became a pretty huge hit.
Sandra remained on the show until 2014, and in that time, she earned a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, and several Emmy nominations.
And the star has opened up about just how dedicated she was to her onscreen character of Cristina while speaking to Dartmouth College’s graduating class of 2025 on Sunday.
Sandra received an honorary doctorate of the arts from the college, and took the opportunity to try and inspire the students.
“Nothing has taught me more than being with discomfort,” Sandra said in her commencement speech. “It can be our greatest learning opportunity, and it is also inevitable. So if you can train yourself not to turn away but to learn how to be with your discomfort and trust that it might be telling you something you don’t yet know, it can help you develop an inner strength that will enable you to face the challenges life presents you without losing your values or your sense of self along the way.”
She went on to say that being cast in Grey’s in her early 30s brought her “financial stability, fame, and privilege,” but despite this, her time on the show was “one of the most challenging decades” of her life. Sandra admitted to being demanding of both herself and the show’s writers, which “caused grief” for everybody and led to calls with the “big boss,” Shonda Rhimes, who tried to encourage the star to let the staff do their job.
“I learned profound lessons during this time because so much of it was so uncomfortable,” Sandra told the graduates. “When I started Grey’s, I was in my early 30s, so I had an idea of who I was and what the work entailed, but I had no idea what was coming.”
“I demanded a lot from myself and from the writers,” she confessed. “If something bothered me in a script, I would fight for what I believed what was right for the character of Cristina because I felt responsible for her. And while this contributed to the creation of a memorable character, my desire to make the dialogue fit and my belief that I knew what was best for the character also caused grief for the writers and for me.”
Sandra said that she ended up becoming so notorious for her demands that production had a “dedicated Sandra whisperer on staff,” whose sole task was to come to the Grey’s set and “deal with” her.
“That doesn’t happen anymore. I am my own whisperer,” she said. “One time…the writers and I were at an impasse about something in this script, and I had to have a call with the big boss. And Shonda, I’ll never forget, she said to me: ‘Sandra, we have been here before. You got to trust me. Something will come through if you just say the damn words.’ … It has stayed with me. I heard her.”
Cristina has remained present on Grey’s since Sandra left the show more than a decade ago, with the character being included via text messages and other written correspondence.
The star has long maintained that she has no interest in ever returning to the character, but recently told Entertainment Weekly that she is starting to question this stance.
“For the longest time, it has always been a hard no. And it’s just… I don’t know. I just don’t know,” she said. “When you finish something, it’s a deep process… I just cannot tell you… I can’t stress to you enough how consciously I tried to fully process leaving. I don’t feel the need to revisit, but I also profoundly understand the audience’s love for this character, because I’ve seen it for the past 10 years. That’s the part that makes me just go, hmmm.”
