She’s recently landed a starring role on the new Netflix series, The Chair, a show that was already garnering rave reviews prior to the release of its first episode. That Sandra Oh has gone from strength to strength in her professional career is without question, her name is now one that is universally known in households around the world. It’s hard to believe then, that when she first appeared on our screens in the scrubs that would come to be associated with her character, Cristina Yang, in the hit show Grey’s Anatomy, she had yet to receive the worldwide acclaim she has today. With her trademark wit and loyalty that made the character a beloved one, Yang quickly became a fan favourite on the drama. Now, Oh has opened up about what filming such a popular show was like and the impact it had on her mental health.
In a recent interview with Sunday Today with Willie Geist, Oh reflected on her rise to fame after Grey’s Anatomy. The 50-year-old actress spoke about the “traumatic” experience of becoming a household name after the success of the ABC medical drama, and the role that saw her win her first Golden Globe, along with five Emmy nominations.
“To be perfectly honest, it was traumatic,” Oh said of the sudden rise to fame. “The reason why I’m saying that is the circumstances you need to do your work is with a lot of privacy. So when one loses one’s anonymity, you have to build skills to still try and be real. I went from not being able to go out, like hiding in restaurants, to then being able to manage attention, manage expectation, while not losing the sense of self.”
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It was thanks to a good therapist that Oh was able to make the adjustment and better handle her newfound fame. “I’m not joking. It’s very, very important,” she said about dealing with her mental health. “You just have to work at finding your way to stay grounded. And a lot of times that’s by saying no.”
Oh departed Grey’s Anatomy seven years ago, and while fans have been clambering for the star to making a return ever since, Oh seems to be standing by her decision. Now in its seventeenth season, the medical drama has welcomed back familiar faces in the likes of Patrick Dempsey, T.R. Knight, Eric Dane and even Chyler Leigh. Oh shut down any such possibility in an interview with Los Angeles Times, saying she has “moved on.”
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“It’s very rare, I would say, to be able to see in such a way the impact of a character. In some ways, you do your work as a bubble and you let it go,” she described. “I left that show, my god, seven years ago almost. So in my mind, it’s gone. But for a lot of people, it’s still very much alive. And while I understand and I love it, I have moved on.”
Now, Oh encourages fans to get behind her new projects and is continuing to advocate for more representation of the Asian American community on screen and in the creative industries. “Please come with me to Killing Eve and on to The Chair and on to the other projects,” Oh said on an episode of Asian Enough. “Come see the characters that I’m playing that are much more deeply integrated in…the Asian American experience.”
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