April Kepner used to bite her tongue and hold her breath, but Sarah Drew assures us, we’re about to hear her roar.
April has been a divisive figure in the Grey’s Anatomy fandom from the moment she first arrived. On top of the fact that she was one of the rival Mercy-Westers, she was also unbearably naïve and occasionally irritating. She drooled over Dr. Shepherd’s giant brain and ridiculously well-conditioned hair. She got herself fired. And then she saved her own life by watching Oprah.
Though, as the seasons have gone by, we’ve gotten the chance to pull back April’s layers and watch her grow into a confident trauma surgeon with blossoming friendships and complicated romances. She’s more than that insecure girl who just stepped off the farm; April Kepner is finally coming into her own.
Hypable got the chance to chat with Sarah Drew this week about tonight’s Grey’s Anatomy winter finale featuring the highly-anticipated April/Matthew wedding. So which handsome hunk does she think April should end up with: the faith-filled fiancé, or the faithful best friend? Read on to find out which team she’s rooting for, what friendships she’s looking forward to, and her opinion on a certain very special guest star.
I’m loving that April is finally getting her chance to shine this season. How do you think she’s developed since she was first introduced in season 6?
Sarah: Oh my gosh, she’s like a completely different person. I think she started off super insecure with her little red notebook; she was constantly trying to pump herself up to give herself some confidence because she didn’t have any confidence. And she could be really grating in those first couple seasons, and it’s really been so cool to see her come into her own up until this amazing moment in the last episode where she had her Katy Perry ‘Roar’ moment with her sisters. She’s standing up for herself, and she’s owning who she is and she is basically saying, “I don’t need to meet all of your expectations. I don’t need to be who you want me to be. I am who I am and deal with it!” And I love that! I love that she’s kind of come out of hiding.
It almost seems like she thrives under pressure, and maybe that’s why she does so well in trauma.
Sarah: I absolutely agree. I think that in some ways she can spin out of control under pressure, but in other ways it sort of energizes her. I think it creates an environment for her to just go to a heightened reality and let herself be heard. So yeah, I think that that’s why she’s such a great trauma surgeon.
It’s been so great to watch her develop through her blossoming gal pal friendship with Arizona. They haven’t really interacted much before this season, but after watching April and Arizona together it just seemed so natural that they would hit it off. Why has it taken so long for the two of them to become friends?
Sarah: You know, I don’t know! I think it was kind of a wonderful surprise. None of us really saw that friendship coming, and then once we were in the closet shooting it, we were like, “Of course these two should be friends! Why have they not been friends yet?” They both have these sunny attitudes, but then they’ve both obviously been in dark places as well. But there’s something about the two of them: they’re positive, they can get excited about fun stuff, and so many of the doctors on our show are so dark and twisty, that it makes sense that these two would gravitate towards one another. Arizona would not roll her eyes at something peppy and fun that April would say, and vice versa. So it was a really fun discovery to kind of go, “Hey, let’s explore this friendship.”
And speaking of besties, April’s relationship with Jackson is pretty unique to most Grey’s relationships in that they didn’t just throw themselves together the first time they met. It’s been such a slow burn, and they were best friends for years. How do you think that’s affected their relationship?
Sarah: I think it’s given them an incredibly strong foundation that can last in and out of their romantic relationship because they already have this depth. They are so deeply known by one another; they spent five seasons ribbing on each other, and making fun of each other, and then supporting one another and having each other’s back. And so they went through a crazy rollercoaster when they slept together, and then April was feeling guilty, and then they almost thought they were pregnant, and then they broke up, and all of these things – but their friendship can still sustain because it’s based on a very deep, known friendship.
Back when you were filming season 7, did you ever expect this relationship to happen with April and Jackson?
Sarah: No. When we had the table read and April and Jackson slept together for the first time, we were all completely shocked. I had been told that maybe a soldier was going to come and I would be training him, and then I was going fall in love with him. And then I had a couple moments with Karev, but then that didn’t pan out. So we didn’t see it coming at all, and in fact we spent the first couple seasons just really developing that brother/sister relationship and loving that brother/sister relationship. It was a really fun surprise though because it ended up becoming an immediately deep relationship because of their history, and because this wasn’t even on their radar, and then BAM, here they are and WOW, their chemistry. It became this thing that was very easy to play. So yeah, it was fun, but it was also completely shocking.
We’ve seen a lot of weddings on this show; what does an April-inspired wedding look like?
Sarah: Well in that episode where she thought she was pregnant she described a few things, such as: butterflies being released when they say “I do,” and mints that say “Mint to be,” and I think that she would kind of go all-out to create this dream atmosphere. And you know, she’s a small-town girl and she grew up on a farm, so that kind of a feel is sort of worked into the theme of her wedding, and it’s beautiful! I mean, we walked onto the set when we were shooting that episode and our breath was taken away. It’s really, really beautiful.
And I saw on twitter that your dad got to walk you down the aisle for this episode. What was that like?
Sarah: It was so fun! My producer was talking to me about trying to find a redhead to play my father to walk me down the aisle, and I was like, “You know that my actual father is a redhead, right?” And they were like, “Oh!” So yeah, my dad flew out and shot for two days and it was such a ball. What dad gets to do that twice?
Taking everything into consideration, why do you think that Matthew and Jackson are each good for April? Are you rooting for anyone?
Sarah: I think that they’re both kind of amazing choices for her in different ways. I think Matthew makes a lot of sense in that they share the same faith, so when you’re thinking about like, “How do we raise our children?” and “What do we teach them about essential truths of the universe, and life, and choices?” I think it makes sense to be with someone who shares that. He also happens to be incredibly loving, and supportive, and romantic, and all of these things that make him just a wonderful fit for April. And in a lot of ways, I think he was sort of the first person to see her for all of the qualities that a lot of the doctors at the hospital never noticed or never appreciated, and so there’s something about that that’s beautiful.
Sarah: I think with Jackson, they have such a deep friendship because they know each other so well. No one on the planet knows April as well as Jackson does, and vice versa. They have spent seasons ribbing on each other, and teasing each other, and supporting each other. So to be so known and to be so completely safe in a relationship and also walking into those big decisions I was talking about before with different perspectives can force people to climb out of their comfort zone and think about things in a new way that can be really challenging. So Jackson’s a really good choice for her, for that reason. So, I don’t know! They’re both really, really great for her for different reasons.
The winter finale of Grey’s Anatomy airs tonight at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.