Grey’s Anatomy costars and self-proclaimed BFFs Jessica Capshaw and Camilla Luddington weren’t fast friends — and it has a lot to do with a burger truck.
“When I first met you, I did not like you,” Capshaw, 47, said on the debut episode of their “Call It What It Is” podcast, which aired on Monday, June 3. (Capshaw plays Arizona Robbins on Grey’s, while Luddington, 40, portrays Josephine Wilson.)
“What happened was that, when I first met you, I had maybe just had a baby and was coming back to work and I was feeling very insecure about pretty much everything,” Capshaw explained. “When you are insecure you’re sort of just not receptive to the world and you sort of doubt everyone and everything around you but mostly yourself. I think maybe that was why when I first met you I couldn’t see all of your inner glory. I was just focused on my own insecure feelings.”
Capshaw, who shares four children with husband Christopher Gavigan, noted that she had not taken a very long maternity leave, returning to set relatively quickly. Luddington interjected, “You left the hospital and you, like, Ubered to set.” Capshaw laughed, saying, “I Ubered to the table read!”
Capshaw joined Grey’s Anatomy in 2009 for the show’s fifth season, while Luddington boarded the cast in 2012 for season 9.
“I might have shown up to set and people were atwitter about some beautiful new woman coming to the show,” Capshaw recalled of Luddington’s arrival. “Maybe I wasn’t feeling my sharpest and bestest ever and I think that these things can happen where, all of a sudden, I was looking across at this, again, beautiful young woman and not feeling myself. I was like, ‘I don’t know that I’m gonna like her.’”
Luddington, meanwhile, shared that she had no idea Capshaw had a problem with her. “I just came in looking gorgeous, minding my own business,” she said. “And then I realized kind of quickly that you didn’t like me. Let’s call it the burger truck incident of 2012.”
“Burger Gate,” Capshaw clarified. “That’s where this story should start.”
Luddington explained that Grey’s creator Shonda Rhimes is known to pay for food trucks for the cast and crew to celebrate milestones like “a Friday [or] the 200th episode,” and one day brought a burger truck to set.
“There was a lovely burger truck and I thought, ‘I hadn’t seen a food truck yet on set,’” Luddington recalled, saying she “snapped a picture of the truck” to post on Twitter thanking Rhimes, 54, for the gesture.
Capshaw, however, did not appreciate Luddington’s attempt at politeness.
“I’m sitting, minding my own business, the picture has been posted,” Luddington explained. “Jessica comes in and she’s like, ‘Who posted the picture?’” (Capshaw described her demeanor as “fire breathing” with a laugh.) It turns out that Luddington’s photo had included an unflattering look at Capshaw “inhaling” a burger.
“I was new and terrified and this was Jessica Capshaw and I was like, ‘OK she full-on hates me,’” Luddington said, to which Capshaw replied, “I didn’t hate you, I don’t hate. I disliked what you did.”
While it was a burger that caused the rift, it was sushi that brought them together. While the “vibes weren’t good” for a while, the pair became close thanks to their mutual friends on the Grey’s set. One night, the group planned to go to the restaurant Katsuya, but Capshaw and Luddington were the only cast members who showed up.
“Jessica and I were stuck on a date together at Katsuya, and then we just fell in love,” Luddington said. “And that was our first year working together.” After that, Capshaw says she and Luddington became friends “immediately” and have been besties ever since.
Their podcast centers on their friendship as they aim to share their support system with listeners who are dealing with everything from “in-laws in-lawing” to “cheating” partners.
Grey’s Anatomy aired the season 20 finale on May 30 and has since been renewed for a 21st season. Capshaw and Luddington’s podcast, “Call It What It Is,” airs new episodes every Monday.
