Grey's Anatomy wanted the Meredith-DeLuca relationship to flip the McDreamy age-difference script

The Hollywood Reporter

Showrunner Krista Vernoff is excited that the 49-year-old Ellen Pompeo and the 29-year-old Giacomo Gianniotti are in an on-screen romance. "All the time on television you see older men with younger women and it is so common that it isn't even a thing that people notice," Vernoff tells The Hollywood Reporter. "It was not a conversation that Derek was so much older than Meredith. It was just that he was the senior surgeon. The age difference wasn't a conversation. I find it delightful to have the opportunity to flip that script. And when people buck against their age difference, my response is to say, 'So? Let's not fall into weird stereotypes.' People are people — and people fall in love." Gianniotti, whose fiancée is nine years his senior, says of the romance: "The age difference between Meredith and Andrew is something that we're trying not to talk about because we've been preaching that love is love — and that includes age. It doesn't make sense for people to say, 'Love is not love because he's too young' and compartmentalize love." Pompeo adds: "I have a hard time even seeing myself as an older woman! I still feel like I'm 25 — although I'm so much better now! It's like, 'Wait, I'm the older woman?! When did that happen?! But it's so true. And there's still plenty of older guys that are with much younger women and no one says anything. But hopefully we're past people saying that about an older woman with a younger man. Hopefully people don't even clock that because men have been doing it forever and continue to do it and no one bats an eye." ALSO: Killing off McDreamy was the best thing to happen to Grey's Anatomy.