Camilla Luddington turned to an iconic Taylor Swift song while filming an intense story on Grey’s Anatomy.
The 40-year-old actress — who has starred as Jo Wilson on the hit ABC medical drama since 2012 — revealed on her and Jessica Capshaw’s podcast Call It What It Is that she listened to Swift’s song “Clean” while filming her character’s domestic abuse storyline in season 14.
“I listened to ‘Clean’ while I was doing [the] episode with Paul, her husband,” Luddington told her former costar Capshaw while answering a fan’s question about filming ritual. “It was like this song that just got me in this place.”
“Clean,” which was featured on Swift’s 2014 album 1989, includes the lyrics, “The rain came pouring down/When I was drownin’, that’s when I could finally breathe/And by mornin’/Gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean.”
As fans may recall, Jo came face-to-face with her estranged husband Paul (Matthew Morrison), who returned to Grey Sloan Memorial after it came to light that he had abused Jo. At the hospital, Jo tried to help his fiancée Jenny (Bethany Joy Lenz) escape from Paul.
“I was anticipating shooting this episode for so long — it’s been over a full season since Jo and viewers found out that she had an abusive ex-husband,” Luddington told The Hollywood Reporter in January 2018. “I was nervous about the material because I felt the weight of it. [In preparing for the role], I was amazed at how many people have had this experience.”
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The same month, the actress recalled to Bustle her initial reaction at seeing the storyline, saying, “It was very painful and uncomfortable to read and then to play, but I definitely felt the weight of you know, potentially fans of the show watching who had experienced this before.”
She added wanted the storyline to “help educate people who have misconceptions about what domestic violence is or looks like.”
This is not the first time that the cast of Grey’s Anatomy has shown their appreciation for Swift’s music.
In a much more lighthearted moment, Luddington teamed up with Chris Carmack as their respective characters to express their “love” for one another in epic singalong videos to some of Taylor Swift’s hits on Valentine’s Day in 2023.
Friends-turned-lovers Luddington and Atticus “Link” Lincoln (Carmack) sang along to Swift’s “You’re On Your Own, Kid.”
“Summer went away, still, the yearning stays, I play it cool with the best of them,” Carmack, 43, sang.
The camera then panned to Luddington, who sang, “I wait patiently, he’s gonna notice me, it’s okay, we’re the best of friends.” The duo then stood and looked at each other awkwardly as they sang, “Anyway…”
“‘Happy’ Valentine’s Day #greysanatomy,” Luddington wrote on Instagram, alongside their lip-syncing video.
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Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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