Grey’s Anatomy's Jake Borelli Says He Didn’t Want to 'Leave' Grey Sloan but Levi Had the Sendoff He ‘Deserves’ (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jake Borelli on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.Photo:Disney/Tina Thorpe

Disney/Tina Thorpe

Warning: this story contains spoilers from the Nov. 14 episode ofGrey’s Anatomy.

On the Nov. 14 episode ofGrey’s Anatomy, Schmitt moved forward with the decision to accept a pediatric research position in the Lone Star State, but in a surprising leap of faith, he asked his new boyfriend James (Michael Thomas Grant) to come with him.

Borelli — who has played Schmitt since 2014 — tells PEOPLE that he is experiencing “all of the emotions” as he departs the series.

While he is feeling mixed emotions about his exit, Borelli, 33, admits that the storyline that showrunner Meg Marinis and the series’ writers created has “really given Levi this arc that he deserves.”

“I think it’s so beautiful to see two gay men in a loving relationship like this, where they are willing to take huge leaps of faith for one another,” he explains. “And I think it’s beautiful to know that that’s how Levi ends up, especially after a pretty tumultuous relationship with Nico and a couple of other failed attempts. And I think it’s really heartwarming to know that he’s going to be around someone who gets him and who can really communicate with him.”

From left: Jake Borelli and Michael Thomas Grant on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.Disney/Ser Baffo

Disney/Ser Baffo

He hopes the arc will allow the character to continue his journey off-screen, saying, “I think it also sets him up for some big changes in learning off camera that hopefully one day he can bring back and we can see how these big vulnerable choices have really changed this character that we really love. So I’m hopeful. It’s open-ended, and we’ll see.”

“I think we’ve come to a point in Levi’s story where his residency is ending, and that asks a lot of big questions to these characters about whether they stay at Grey Sloan where it’s comfortable, whether they make a decision to move on and grow as a human,” he says. “And I think we’ve all been really yearning to see Levi grow past where he’s at.”

He continues: “I’m not sure exactly all the moving parts behind this as to why the decision was made for certain characters to move on, but I think it’s really great that there’s this open door to come back.”

The actor adds that he would “love to come back,” sharing, “To be honest, I didn’t even want to leave and I haven’t left yet.”

Jake Borelli attends the 2024 People’s Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on February 18, 2024 in Santa Monica, California.Monica Schipper/Getty Images

Monica Schipper/Getty Images

Borelli notes that he has been shadowing Debbie Allen, who in addition to playing Catherine Fox also serves as a director and executive producer of the show. He hopes that while “Levi’s off in Texas, maybe [he’ll] haunt a Grey Sloan from behind the camera.”

“We’ve all become really close over the years,” he shares. “They’re my family. We went through the pandemic together, we did a lot of stuff together, and it’s never easy to see people leaving, but we did have these seven episodes to really cherish what we built and to really continue putting our shoulder behind queer representation for these last seven episodes.”

From left: Jake Borelli, Harry Shum Jr. and Chandra Wilson on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.Disney/Anne Marie Fox

Disney/Anne Marie Fox

The actor — who came out as gay in anInstagram postin November 2018 — recalls it being “terrifying” at first to portray the first openly gay male character on the long-running series.

“And while we had a lot of representation with Calzona, there wasn’t any gay male representation really,” he says, referring to Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) and Callie Torres (Sara Ramírez). “And so when [former showrunner] Krista [Vernoff] came to me with the idea of him coming out of the closet, I knew how big it would be.”

“And so therefore it brought all these old feelings of fear and ideas that queerness is like a death sentence for success in this world and stuff. And a lot of that came back to me,” he continues. “And thankfully, I talked to my family and we had a moment of courage where we said yes to it and it ended up changing my life, and it changed it for the better, and it opened up myself to a world I wouldn’t have been able to enter fully into had I stayed in the closet in the way that I was.”

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Grey’s Anatomyairs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

source: people.com