'Grey's Anatomy' star Jerrika Hinton took Polaroids on set without Ellen Pompeo's permission. A new book says it's why she abruptly left the show.
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- A former makeup artist on the hit ABC series said Ellen Pompeo may have pushed Jerrika Hinton off the show.
- "She ... didn't quite understand the power Ellen had," Norman Leavitt said of Hinton.
- In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly however, Hinton called leaving the show "my own" choice.
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A new tell-all book about "Grey's Anatomy" says that actress Jerrika Hinton's difficult relationship with star Ellen Pompeo "hastened her departure from the show."
"How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy" details that a "rumor persisted" after Hinton's sudden departure in 2017. The rumor swirling on set claimed that she was asked to leave the show for not asking Ellen Pompeo's permission to take Polaroids on set.
Hinton played Dr. Stephanie Edwards on "Grey's Anatomy" from 2012 to 2017. Her character, who was a surgical intern at the fictional Seattle, Washington hospital in which the show is based, quit the hospital to travel after an explosion left her with burns.
"Jerrika was always laughing, but maybe she was a little naive," Norman Leavitt, the head of the makeup department on "Grey's" until 2018, said in "How to Save a Life."
"She hadn't been around a lot, so maybe she didn't quite understand the power Ellen had," he added. "If she'd gone and said, 'Is it okay if I take these Polaroids?' Ellen probably would have gone, 'Okay.' But by just doing it and not including her, you're setting yourself up for disaster."
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Although Hinton didn't speak to author Lynette Rice, Entertainment Weekly's editor at large, for the new tell-all book, the actress called the decision to leave the ABC medical drama "my own" in a 2017 exit interview with Entertainment Weekly.
The actress added that her choice was "supported in a very deep way that I could never communicate, by my boss," presumably referring to the show's creator, Shonda Rhimes.
In Hinton's exit interview, Rhimes added a statment that "actors evolve differently and when an actor like Jerrika comes to me and says she wants to try something new creatively, I like to honor that."
"While I'm sad to see Stephanie leave Grey Sloan Memorial, I'm excited to see what's next for Jerrika," she said.
"How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy," out now, gives readers new details about life on the set of the mega-hit drama.