Operating at a higher level

Grey's Anatomy fans tune in to ShowTime every Tuesday at 9pm for their favourite hospital drama. GulfWeekly's Hot Potato Marie-Claire finds out all there is to know about life on set and juggling work with family life.

KATHERINE HEIGL

Now that you're a fully paid-up movie star after last summer's hit Knocked Up and your new romantic comedy 27 Dresses, are you finished with TV?

Do you know something I don't? I'll stay as long as they'll have me. I'm grateful to have a job, just like everybody else. I remember when it was a real struggle to pay the rent or pay the mortgage - I lived from pay cheque to pay cheque and did a lot of TV movies and whatever to just pay the bills. So I'm pretty psyched to have a steady job. For me, the ideal is that I would be here nine months out of the year and then I'd get to do a movie (during the break) and do something different. I love to travel, so I'd love to do a film on location somewhere and play a different character.

Does it get boring playing the same character year after year?

It's really hard. To be honest, I'm kind of going off Izzie. She's making weird choices I don't understand. I used to be really protective of her. Now I just want to slap her.

But she got you a best supporting actress Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild award. Add that to the success of Knocked Up and you're on a bit of a roll.

It's been amazing. I've worked my whole life to get to this place where it isn't so hard to get to play roles that I'm passionate or excited about. I keep thinking back to three or four years ago when every script that came my way would mean an audition with casting directors and then maybe I'd get to go back and meet the director and then maybe I'd get to go back and meet the lead - and then I still wouldn't get it.

Are you a style icon or a T-shirt kind of girl?

I am so not a style icon! I had to ask my best friend for help. I was getting really paranoid about it, because I felt like every time I just put on jeans and a T-shirt, I'd go out and then I'd be that girl in the back page of the gossip mags, like, 'What was she thinking?' and I thought, this is embarrassing, I need to pull it together. So I had her come over with her sister, they're both fabulously stylish, and they put together clothes for me. Now I just take the hanger and there's a picture attached to it of what I'm supposed to wear and I do everything exactly the way they tell me to.

ERIC DANE

Okay, McDreamy vs McSteamy - who wins the hotness contest?

I don't feel any competition with Patrick. But he keeps asking me when my calendar is coming out.

We first saw you at the end of season two; did you realise that you were here to stay?

No, I was originally only supposed to be in the show for one episode, the response to the character was really positive and people really liked the character and they invited me back to stay so it's brilliant.

Besides the six-pack abs, how are you similar to McSteamy?

We both shower daily! There are a lot of things in common but, just so your mind doesn't go in the wrong direction, it's not the infidelity and deceitful, backstabbing side of him.

How do you maintain those abs?

Weightlifting - it gets the aggression out. No yoga! I'm competitive and you can't score points in yoga.

The Grey's team like to have you flashing your chest, no chance for an off day?

I am pretty vigilant about staying in shape. However, I recently saw a picture from the episode when I came out of the shower with a tiny towel. They had to have had some kind of lights or something. I don't look like that.

Your wife, Rebecca Gayheart is also an actress?

Yes, life with her has been wonderful. On a whim, we ran to Vegas and got married (in October '04). We'd been together nine months and we just knew.

With all the hours you both work how do you make time to see each other?

We have actually been pretty fortunate. We see enough of each other. She sees as much of me as she wants to. We are on like a nine or ten-day shooting schedule here, right, so the workload gets spread pretty thin. I think most dramas are eight days and we have the luxury of being able to do it in 10. So if I work three or four days out of the episode that's a lot.

JUSTIN CHAMBERS

How has Grey's Anatomy changed your life?

Grey's Anatomy is the most success I've had. A television show like that really reaches a lot of people. We live in a small place outside of Manhattan, I've always been the guy from such and such film, but it was never like people would come up. Now, with the impact of Grey's, that's changed. But, it was kind of cool that way because my kids lived a pretty normal life and I made enough to pay my bills and go to work. I guess it's changed, in that way. The popularity of the show has made me more visible and made people more aware of who I am.

Have you had any weird fan encounters?

Nothing too weird. Those are questions for Patrick Dempsey. I'm sure he's had some crazy things happen. We went to a convention recently, and there were a few women that I sort of felt like were elbowing to get past me to get to Dempsey. But, it was as if they really believed I was the character, which is great.

What's the goriest thing you've witnessed on the set so far?

I would say the pig intestines are pretty gross. I mean, they'll always put an animal heart or liver - they're usually clean and sterilized when they come in, but they put the blood on it and your mind starts creating its own ... it all starts to look the same after a while, the blood and the guts. You kind of get desensitised to it.

You have five children and a punishing work schedule you should look exhausted?

I'm not the daddy that does the nine-to-five job, but it's never been bad. I have been a parent most of my adult life so I don't know any different. I know a lot more about raising kids than some fathers who don't see their kids except on Sundays.

You're a young dad; most actors your age are hanging out at clubs, not raising a large family?

Well, our house is sort of like a nightclub. We've got loud music and chaos and crowds. But really, we're pretty laid-back. Our kids are in a little band, and they like to play video games, and my wife and I do our best to live a low-key, non-Hollywood kind of life.

You started your career as a model, did you enjoy those days?

I didn't take it too seriously. I don't look like a model in real life. I'd go in for shoots and they thought I was the delivery boy - but I pulled it off for a while.

So what is next?

I am looking at some cool stuff, if it's possible. But I want to stay on this show for a while; I will juggle whatever comes my way.