The Word: Kevin McKidd tackles scotch, Leibovitz and Season 9 of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
“I can’t believe I had to come all the way to New York to get a glass of Macallan,” proclaimed actor Kevin McKidd’s extremely Scottish father Neil on Wednesday night. He was sipping the single malt scotch at a party celebrating a new creative campaign between his son, photographer Annie Leibovitz and Macallan.
It was a good crack by the elder McKidd. He and his wife, Kathleen, raised Kevin in Elgin, — just a few miles from the Macallan distillery, where the actor worked as a teenager. “I was literally the guy who swept up all the crap and did all the crap jobs,” recounted Kevin, who is probably most famous for portraying Dr. Owen Hunt (aka: McRugged) on “Grey’s Anatomy.” “I was the hired hand holding all the rubbish.”
And now he’s being photographed by Leibovitz for The Macallan Masters of Photography campaign, which is comprised of 1,000 limited-edition bottles featuring portraits of McKidd. “It’s extremely surreal,” he professes.
It was apt that we were having this conversation over a glass of scotch, considering I (along with many “Grey’s” fans) have been drinking heavily since the long-running show killed off fan fave Dr. Mark “McSteamy” Sloan (Eric Dane) on the Season 9 premiere.
“People are really sad,” McKidd confessed, with a slight furrow of his hunky brow (not many brows can be described as “hunky,” but his most definitely is). “It’s such a weird thing that he’s gone. We’re like a family. So suddenly for him not to be there. … There is a hole in the show,” the actor added. “But things have to move on, and what I like about the season is that people are grieving the loss of all these people. But they are grieving properly.”
So now that McSteamy has gone to that great hospital in the sky, will McKidd step into the role of appearing shirtless with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist?
“Oh, no,” he laughed. “There are some people who are much younger than me on the show who will be taking on that role.”
Christina and Owen: ‘Gluttons for punishment’
“Christina and Owen are so messed up they can’t figure out which way is up,” McKidd said about his onscreen relationship with Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh). “We are this ‘little engine that could’ type of thing. I’m not even sure the writers knew they would have this type of amazing relationship,” McKidd added.
Fans agree: There are whole blogs and message boards dedicated to the fictional couple. “The way the writers keep putting us through these rings of fire — most couples would never be able to survive,” McKidd said. “Somehow Christina and Owen keep pushing through it. They are gluttons for punishment.”
