Kevin McKidd and Caterina Scorsone preview the complicated new love triangle with ET.
Just when Amelia and Owen seemed to be back on good terms, Grey's Anatomy threw a wrench in their reconciliation -- in the form of Teddy's surprise pregnancy. It's an impending bombshell that will complicate everything for the work-in-progress couple, though when season 15 kicks off on Thursday, Amelia and Owen still aren't aware that Teddy has a bun in the oven and that the baby is Owen's.
"It’s [a] very different [love triangle]," Kevin McKidd told ET of the complex Owen-Amelia-Teddy dynamic this season. "Owen has only been involved with one triangle before with Teddy and Cristina, and that was more of 'Who does he love? Who is he going to choose?' This one has children involved."
"We all, as adults, have feelings but when there’s children and responsibility in that sense, it adds a lot more pressure, a lot more heat, a lot more stakes to the situation. That’s the big difference," he noted. "It’s not just about 'I love you,' 'No, I love you,' 'Do you love me? Do you love him?' We all have to be adults here and figure this out somehow. It’s going to be really interesting. I’m excited to see Owen’s reaction when he finds out what’s going on."
Whether McKidd was playing coy about if and when Owen learns Teddy's secret, he acknowledged that their tangled web puts the trio in a bind that none of them have quite experienced before. "We've created an almost impossible problem," McKidd put it simply.
"It’s not only a bombshell to be dropped, but it’s also a bombshell because he’s just adopted a baby. He’s raising a teenager with Amelia and he’s falling back in love with her again. With that being the way things are and to have this bit of news, I have no clue how he’s going to react," the 45-year-old actor shared. "And I can say, in 10 years, this is the first time I can say that I, Kevin McKidd, have no clue how my character’s going to react when he finds out. That makes me really excited to play it."
On the other side of the coin, Amelia may have a better-than-expected reaction to the whole Teddy bombshell -- at least that's what Caterina Scorsone hopes is the case.
"She’s so tender and vulnerable on the inside and that is often why she puts up armor, because when she’s hurt, she’s really hurt, and she has lost so many people she’s loved. I think, knowing her, I think the tendency would be -- or at least her default setting -- would be to distance herself to protect herself," Scorsone told ET. "I don’t know if that’s how the writers are going to do it. We also are talking about Amelia post-brain tumor, so who knows? Maybe there will be a different kind of behavior than she’s had in the last several seasons."
With Amelia and Owen beginning the season on good terms, Scorsone addressed whether she viewed the couple as endgame.
"I feel like I can’t make that decision because I can’t handle the emotional roller coaster," the 36-year-old actress said with a laugh. "Literally from 15x01 to 15x06, which is where we are now, the writers -- who I’ve tried to get information out of -- have changed their minds three different times! I feel like I cannot invest or I will be really upset about whatever it is. We’ll see how it goes!"
For fans of the pair, you're in luck for now; Scorsone revealed that Amelia and Owen are "doing great" for the early part of the season. But on Grey's, any type of relationship bliss usually doesn't last long. "You never know what the next script is going to be. Like, you’re doing great! But then if they throw in a script where you both burn down each other’s houses, then I don’t know if they’re good for each other," she said.
But Amelia will also be managing her sobriety this season and Scorsone -- who described her character's arc so far as being "of service" -- noted that it's a "great" journey for the neurosurgeon.
"One of the main parts of the program is being of service and when you’re of service to other people, you can get out of your own head. If anything, Amelia is in her own head and she’s stuck in all of these tragedies that she’s suffered and they form a loop for her. When she’s in service to other people, that allows her to escape the psychic prison that she sometimes finds herself in," Scorsone explained. "The baby and the teenager are exactly what Amelia needs to come out of herself and and come out of her own tragic story and be present in the world."
And if you were ever curious if the Grey's cast were just as invested in their characters' romantic entanglements as you are, rest assured, they 100 percent are.
"We get invested because we fall in love with our characters. It’s like being a parent," Scorsone said. "You know these characters better than they know themselves, really. You’ve seen all of the development and you know all of the traumas that caused the scars and the reactions that they have. You get it in such an intimate way that [they're] like your kid; sometimes they’re not behaving the way that you’d like but you get why they’re doing that and you love them."
"We’re invested for our characters but also, it’s our real life. Whoever you’re in a relationship with [on the show] ends up being your scene partner, so you’re spending day after day after day. That’s your person, and all of your professional life is spent with them. The stuff that’s happening in your real life, you’re chatting [about] at the chairs, so if you break up, you gotta go make another friend. We get invested on all levels."
Grey's Anatomy returns with a two-hour premiere on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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