Yahoo Finance Sarah Drew Imagined a Different Ending for Her Grey's Anatomy Character — and Wrote a Letter to the EP
Sarah Drew had a different ending in mind for her Grey's Anatomy character.
Drew, 40, played Dr. April Kepner on the medical drama from 2009 until she was written off the show in 2018.
The character ultimately married paramedic Matthew Taylor (Justin Bruening), the former fiancé she'd left at the altar to run away with Jesse Williams' Jackson Avery. Throughout the series, Jackson and April's relationship was affectionately dubbed "Japril," and many fans lamented that they didn't end up together.
In Lynette Rice's new tell-all book about the series, How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey's Anatomy, Drew says that she felt the same way.
"I always, always wanted her to end up with Jackson, especially after they had their baby," Drew tells Rice, according to Insider.
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Eric McCandless/ABC
The actress says April's marriage to Matthew, in the end, felt "rushed" and adds that she and Williams, who left Grey's last season, had "great chemistry."
"I just didn't believe it, because we hadn't seen anything on-screen between [April and] Matthew in that final season," Drew says in the book.
She also reveals she went so far as to pen a letter to showrunner Krista Vernoff asking her to change the ending.
"I even wrote a very passionate letter to Krista after I read that final episode saying 'Can she just walk off? Like maybe kiss him and walk off into the distance doing something as an independent woman? Like, why does she need a man?' " Drew recalls, though she notes that she eventually saw April's marriage to Matthew as a "lovely redemption story."
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Her plan to change April's ending didn't quite work, but Drew did get to reprise her role and reunite with Williams on an episode of the most recent season.
During the season 17 episode, Jackson headed to April's house and asked her and their 3-year-old daughter Harriet to move to Boston with him so he can take over his family's medical foundation.
After April revealed that she and her husband Matthew had actually split, the romantic tension between the pair reignited, and viewers were left wondering whether or not they would end up back together.
After the episode aired, Drew told a panel with reporters that she thought Japril would.
"They run off into the sunset!" she said of the TV couple at the time. "I have such hope, I have such tremendous hope that these two people will come back together."
