Jake Borelli Talks Levi Schmitt’s Final “Grey’s Anatomy” Episode And Shares His Favorite Memories

3.

Do you remember what the audition process was like for Grey’s Anatomy?

Let me tell you, I almost didn’t even read for it because I had been in LA for eight years, and the Grey’s Anatomy office was the hardest office to get into because everybody wanted to be on that show. And I was never seen. Never. I never had an audition. And then I moved to New York, and I get a taped audition for it. And, back then, I’m like, No one watches tapes. And I didn’t know anyone in New York. I called the one girl that I knew. I was like, “Girl, if you can film this by 9 a.m. tomorrow, I can send it in; if not, like, I’m just not gonna do it.” Luckily, she was available. We threw it on tape and then forgot about it. 

Then, two weeks later, they called me in and asked me to come in to play Levi. And at that point, it was just a one-episode guest spot thing. And then it turned into eight years of, you know, some of the most impactful storytelling we could have done. But I almost didn’t do it. I was like, There’s no way they’re gonna hire this awkward, skinny kid for Grey’s Anatomy, where it’s all, like, hot men. No way!

It’s wild to remember that Levi didn’t even come in as an intern at first, too. 

I was a med student. I wasn’t even attached to the thing. Also Jeanine Mason, who played Sam Bello, back in my intern class, she and I have been really good friends for, like, five years before that, in acting class, everything. She ends up booking an intern. And I have just done my one/two episodes. So, I was back in New York, and I was like, “Oh my God, you’re gonna love it. That set’s so fun.” And then I got pinned for the same episode, and I was like, Wait…am I an intern?! This is crazy! So that’s how I found out because I happened to know another girl who booked it.