How ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ is implementing ‘massive’ COVID-19 requirements amid shoots

With social distancing now a top priority, Hollywood productions have mandated a number of requirements and it appears the cast of Grey’s Anatomy is finding it difficult to navigate through, mostly because “it’s just shocking how slowly we’re having to move.”

The cast and crew of Grey’s Anatomy have been swamped with “massive” COVID-19 protocols and in light of these new adjustments, they are just shocked at “how slowly we’re having to move.”

With October 1st marking the cast’s return to the small screen, the showrunner for the series Krista Vernoff sat with Variety and opened up about new COVID-19 protocols that have been set in place for the cast’s protection and safety.

“It’s social distancing, it’s masks, it’s visors — it’s masks on the actors between takes and during rehearsals,” the showrunner explained.

The safety protocols begin from as far back as the writing process, all due to the time slot cut from the previous 10-10 to a newly established 9 -12 hour per day, allotment.

Anyone who comes in contact with the actors will have to maintain a six-foot distance at all times. Particular instructions specific to the hair and makeup department have also been put forth and as a result of them, artists will have to remain quiet as the actor’s bare faces will be exposed during that time.

Lens off of the cameras have also been replaced with those that make actor appear closer together, even though scenes are shot further apart.

All of this “changes the feeling of the show. It changes the pacing of the show. It is what it is.”

The show’s screenwriter also claimed, “Everyone was willing to scale the mountain. I keep saying to people, ‘No, no really, we’ve actually reinvented the wheel. We are changing everything everyone has ever understood about how you make television.’ Everything is changing. And I’m proud of what we’re doing.”

Back in August Vernoff disappointed fans when she told the Hollywood Reporter her plans of not including COVID-19 related episodes into the mix. However, it appears, time helped her writing team change their mind. “[The writers] really convinced me that it would be irresponsible to not. To be kind of the biggest medical show and ignore the biggest medical story of the century felt irresponsible to them to the medical community. These doctors are traumatized. They are not trained or wired to hold the hands of dying people all day who are alone without their families.”