Jessica Capshaw and Camilla Luddington. Pierre Suu/WireImage
Camilla Luddington and Jessica Capshaw broke their silence on disgraced Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch during an episode of their podcast, “Call It What It Is.”
Finch was the subject of Peacock’s tell-all docuseries Anatomy of Lies, which detailed her many deceptions, including how she faked having cancer. The doc features interviews with her family, friends and former coworkers.
“It is scary when someone can lie so easily, so confidently, that you really cannot tell,” Luddington, 40, said on the Monday, October 28, episode of her and Capshaw’s podcast. Luddington plays Jo Wilson on Grey’s, a character Finch became obsessed with over the course of her time writing for the long-running medical drama.
“That’s where it gets very creepy, if I’m being honest,” Luddington shared. “It’s hard because you do watch these documentaries on Dateline and you’re always — I’m like this, where I’m like, ‘I would’ve known. I would know that person’s lying.’ Then you have experience where it basically feels like you’re in a Dateline documentary and you realize, ‘I did not know.’ I truly did not know.”
Disney/Ser Baffo Disgraced writer Elisabeth Finch made headlines for lying about her medical and personal history, which started with fabrications that traced back to her time working on The Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy and more popular TV shows. Peacock’s Anatomy of Lies, which is currently streaming, chronicles the ups and downs leading up to Finch’s […]
She added that it “throws you for a loop because you feel like your own instinct on stuff is way off.”
Elisabeth Finch Courtesy of Elisabeth Finch/Instagram
“I don’t like having felt like someone like that was in our orbit, and not feeling like I sensed any of that, the truth, myself. It just is uncomfortable, and you know, none of it feels good,” Luddington said. “It just sucks to be part of the story. It’s uncomfortable to be part of the story.”
For her part, Capshaw, 48, admitted that “it never occurred to me to not believe [Finch],” adding that “the things that she lied about, you could never in a million years imagine questioning.” Capshaw also noted that she saw Finch “all the time on set” and had “completely believed everything she said,” insisting, “There was never a moment of suspicion.”
Luddington added that she “personally [didn’t] want to talk about [her] experience on set” with Finch, instead sharing a story from her personal life that did not make it into the Peacock documentary.
“I remember going to Hawaii for the first time, and I was so excited that I could afford going to Hawaii. I was never able to afford something so tropical and glamorous,” Luddington explained, adding that she had told many people about her trip.
“I think it was about three days into that trip and Finch was sat at the bar in the hotel,” she revealed. “The hotel where I was in Kawai, sat in the bar three days into my trip. She was with somebody else, and I just remember thinking it was the most random coincidence.”
Camilla Luddington as Josephine Wilson on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ Disney/Nino Muñoz
Finch built a career writing about her experience living with a rare form of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma, including having an abortion while getting chemotherapy and losing a kidney, among other claims. She wrote for television shows like True Blood, No Ordinary Family and The Vampire Diaries before becoming a producer on Grey’s Anatomy from 2014 to 2022. In 2022, an exposé from Vanity Fair called her work into question with allegations that she had fabricated both her medical and personal history. She resigned from Grey’s that same year.
Finch addressed the allegations leveled against her in an October 15 statement made via Instagram. “I’ve given no one any reason to believe a word I say. I lied about so much that so many people have been devastated by in real life. ‘I’m sorry’ feels like the smallest words compared to what I’ve done, yet they are the truest,” she wrote. “I trapped myself in the addiction of lies, betraying and traumatizing my closest family, friends, and colleagues.”
Making the Anatomy of Lies docuseries about disgraced former Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch came with a set of challenges — namely her lack of participation. Executive producers Sarah Amos and Melanie Archer exclusively broke down for Us Weekly how their three-part special, which is currently streaming on Peacock, was made without speaking to Finch […]
She added, “I’m making amends and expressing my genuine remorse as best I can when people are ready. And I’ve accepted the fact that some may never be,” and noted, “I’ve been receiving mental health treatment for nearly three years, and I work hard every day to sustain a life where the truth matters more than anything.”
Finch told The Ankler ahead of the release of Anatomy of Lies, which she did not participate in, “I wish I had a grid that would show who’s not talking to me because they can’t [legally]. Who’s not talking to me because they don’t know what to say. Who’s not talking to me because they’re pissed off.”
Anatomy of Lies executive producers Sarah Amos and Melanie Archer exclusively told Us Weekly in October that they had attempted to contact Finch for comment, “both in the reporting of the article and also in the documentary.”
They said, “We also talked to a couple of different sources who were close to her, who we were hopeful would either get us to her or get us other content that could help tell her side of the story. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make that happen.”
