17 "Grey's Anatomy" Behind-The-Scenes Facts That Camilla Luddington Just Revealed

"Jessica Capshaw is one of my best friends and she'll always be a part of Grey's."

To celebrate Grey's Anatomy Season 17, Camilla Luddington chatted with BuzzFeed and answered all of our burning questions about the show and her character.

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Here's everything we learned:

🚨There are MASSIVE spoilers for Grey's Anatomy, including Season 17! And this post includes mentions of sexual assault.🚨

1. First, Camilla was a massive fan of Grey's Anatomy before getting the role of Jo Wilson — she would "rush home" every Thursday night to watch it.

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She said, "I had recently moved to Los Angeles when the show aired. And it was like the show that I ran home to every night to watch live. I was a massive fan of the show."

2. In fact, when Camilla arrived on set for the first time, she "geeked out" and visited all of the iconic sets, namely Meredith's house.

Mitch Haaseth / ABC / Getty Images

Camilla explained, "I geeked out actually when I first got to set and, like, ran around Meredith's house and did things I probably shouldn't have done, like sitting on the couch when I shouldn't have been sitting there."

3. Camilla's audition for Jo consisted of reading two scenes. One was a "big medical scene" and the other was a "flirty scene" with another doctor.

Kelsey Mcneal / ABC / Getty Images

4. Camilla's dream Grey's Anatomy guest star is Taylor Swift.

Kevin Mazur / Getty Images, Jessica Brooks / ABC / Getty Images

"I know she loves the show. I feel like she should just do one episode," she said. "I don't know how it would happen, as a patient or she's a doctor. I think that she deserves to come on."

5. Camilla revealed which Grey's Anatomy cast member she talks to the most, saying, "Jessica Capshaw, who plays Arizona, is one of my best friends, and she'll always be a part of Grey's."

Richard Cartwright / ABC / Getty Images

And out of the current cast members, she's really close with Jake Borelli, who plays Levi.

6. Camilla said filming the moment when Jo ushers a sexual assault survivor to surgery was "really emotional" because the scene actually featured all of the women who work on Grey's Anatomy, not just actors.

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"The women lining our hallway were not just background actors or any actors that we had on the show. We had a lot of people in all different kinds of departments on the show [in the scene]," Camilla explained. "A lot of women that wanted to be part of the hallway of women. So there are people that were in editing, some of our producers. It was an incredible scene. It was very emotional for everybody that day. So it turned out to be a fantastic, very powerful scene that I think spoke to a lot of people."

7. To this day, Camilla's favorite Jo and Alex moment is when they get drunk together at Bailey and Ben's wedding and steal a hotel room key.

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She elaborated, saying, "That is still one of my favorite scenes with Jo and Alex, all the way back in the day."

8. Camilla's favorite Jo scene is when she sneaks out of Levi's basement after having sex with him and crushes his glasses.

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Camilla explained, "It's like this really short scene, but it was something I'd actually pitched to Krista Vernoff in the summer. To see [it] come to fruition and with [Jake], and he was so funny, and the whole thing was hysterical. That is actually my favorite moment that I can think of."

9. Unlike some of the Grey's cast and crew, Camilla did know that Patrick Dempsey was returning in Season 17.

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"I found out right before we started work," she said. "I actually thought that everyone knew, and then I read an interview that Krista said that not everyone knew and I don't know who didn't know."

10. In fact, Camilla was certain that Patrick's return was going to leak, so she was so happy that fans got to see the surprise without it being spoiled.

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She said, "I remember thinking it's absolutely going to get out. There's no way that it won't be spoiled. And I'm shocked that it didn't and I'm so happy because the fans went crazy."

11. Season 17 features Jo and Jackson getting together, and Camilla said she and Jesse Williams "could not stop laughing" at the table read when they read the script for the premiere when Jo starts crying while kissing Jackson.

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12. And then, when they went to film the scene, Camilla and Jesse also couldn't stop laughing and ended up "improvising a little bit."

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Camilla explained, "There was a moment where, like, little things happen that made us laugh. Like, he hands me back the vodka bottle that [Jo] had and it kind of hit my hand in a way and it went all over my face, and then they yelled cut, and we were like, 'No, keep it in! It's already so awkward. Just keep it in.' So we had a lot of fun filming that scene."

13. Since Jo arrived in Season 9 — which was well into Grey's Anatomy's run — she wishes she could've interacted with Kyle Chandler's character in the iconic bomb episode.

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"Okay, my husband knows this, so it's okay for me to say this. I have a huge crush on Kyle Chandler," she said. "I know he was pink mist in the bomb episode, so it ended badly for him, but I wish I'd had one scene. Just one scene with him."

14. Jo's backstory has slowly been revealed to viewers throughout the years, and Camilla didn't know any of it before she started.

Kelsey Mcneal / ABC / Getty Images

"The episode where I was helping a homeless man, that's when I was told that she had been homeless," she said. "They were like, 'Oh, by the way, you were homeless.' And I was like, 'Oh, good to know.'"

15. She said the "crazy thing" about working on Grey's Anatomy is that you are constantly finding out new stuff about your character "as the show goes on."

Eric Mccandless / ABC / Getty Images

Camilla explained, "I didn't know that I'd been married before. I didn't know the abusive relationship. There's so much that got revealed over the seasons. So I did not know anything going into it, really."

16. Camilla didn't find out Jo's real name beforehand; she found out when she read the script for that episode.

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17. And finally, Camilla said the coronavirus pandemic storyline on Grey's Anatomy has been wild because there's no "separation" between their real lives and the lives of their characters — they are always in the pandemic, it's just on the show they are playing frontline healthcare workers.

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She said, "I think it's really important. And I can tell from the fan reaction that people are really happy actually that we're giving this storyline this season."

Check out our full video with Camilla below!

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And be sure to catch Camilla on Grey's Anatomy, which airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.