Maine Squeeze

Dial M for McDreamy: How Patrick Dempsey juggles Hollywood, Harpswell, and his hopes for a healthy Maine.

February/March 2009

You’re not a real doctor, but you play one on TV. As a real actor, tell us about a time when your Derek Shepherd character from Grey’s Anatomy has intruded upon real life. For instance, when you visit the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing in Lewiston, have there ever been flashes when you’ve wondered, ‘Is this me or Derek’?
It’s funny. I never used to feel comfortable at all in hospitals, and now I feel very much at home. I see people on sets in scrubs dressed up as doctors and it’s just another day. On top of that, I enjoy meeting with doctors because I admire their profession. But yes, there are funny situations. We were vacationing in Texas, and my daughter slipped on a chair and cut her chin. She was bleeding profusely, so I stopped the bleeding and when we got to the hospital, the [emergency-room] doctor said, ‘This has gone quite deep; we’re going to need some stitches…”

And here you were, as McDreamy, trying to hold your tongue.
The thing was, just a few weeks earlier, I’d done an episode where there was this great glue that had
solved the problem, with no stitches needed. I didn’t want to intrude, but I didn’t feel comfortable with what was happening, so I finally said, “Isn’t there this great glue…”

No doubt his eyes opened wide at the advice from the informative movie star. ‘What the hell right do you have–‘
He was great about it. He said, you know, that’s a good idea, we could try that in this case. Another time, I was en route to an event and a voice came on the loudspeaker, “Is there a doctor on the plane?” Everybody turned to me. Of course I said, “No, I have no business getting into this.”

What does your charitable work at the Patrick Dempsey Center mean to you? How does it hit home?
I was back in Maine a couple of weeks ago and met people there and talked with them, and I found it inspiring, moving. It’s always a surprise when things hit home. I started talking with one woman and it turned out she and her husband had owned the little pizzeria that my friends and I from St. Dom’s [St. Dominic’s Regional High School] used to pile into after school. To see her again after so many years was really quite special. I loved that place—it was affordable and close to school. I can still taste the pepperoni pizza. [Pause] Maybe, it’s not the healthiest of dishes.”

Aha! Right there! Derek Shepherd said that. You live around creative people, and in Harpswell, creative Mainers. So there’s no way they haven’t taken your tabloid nickname of McDreamy and changed it to McSomething else. What are some of the alternative McWhatevers you’ve been called recently, and what was the occasion?
There’s a lot. I don’t think I’ll ever escape this. It’s my cross to bear. I will always be McDreamy.

Until you McDie and they put you in a McCoffin six feet into the McGround? Okay, tell me what your goals are with the Patrick Dempsey Center, a wonderful addition to our culture here.
The Patrick Dempsey Center was created because we asked and then listened to what people in the
area wanted, and what they were saying was there wasn’t any sense of being welcomed into a community of support, education, and wellness services. We want to give people and their families going through treatment someone to talk to–a human being who will help them navigate through the obstacles and give what can be a terribly frightening experience some humanity. We’re in a very small place right now. After listening to what people needed, our goal with CMMC is to raise the money to one day have the cancer treatment center all in one location so that you’re truly welcomed into a warm, supportive, and caring environment. Beyond the physical center, we’re working toward personal contact and integrated services: support groups, massage therapy, all sorts of ways to treat the entire person. In the future, Reiki and acupuncture. It’s all developed out of listening.

The L word again. Has your sensitivity to listening developed because of your growth as an actor, particularly in an ensemble cast?
As an actor I love watching actors who are the best listeners. Acting is reacting. You have to listen not only with your ears but with your heart. What is that person giving to you, and you have to give that back to him or her. I like playing a doctor. I’ve never wanted to play, say, a detective or a policeman. Carrying a gun would be too easy. We all need healing right now. Plus, I think we’re coming out of a time of complete indulgence, and it is time for actors to give to community, to give back and take care of
each other. Really, that’s the essence of what a small town is. Whenever something happens like an ice storm, we rally together, not only the elders but all of us, taking care of each other.

Wheels within wheels. Tell us about The Dempsey Challenge, the big bicycle race you’re sponsoring in Maine this October 3-4.
I just want the Dempsey Challenge to be a good experience. I want to have an event that people really enjoy, and promote the idea of health and wellness as preventive medicine. I’m getting a lot of support from the cycling clubs in Maine, and I hope this will promote them, too, and help them grow. I do cycle a lot and I enjoy it. I just turned 43, and I did 43 miles on my birthday. I want to do all 100 miles of the Dempsey Challenge. Of course, we’ll have some pro cyclists, and I want to keep up with them. It’s a great way to really take care of your body.

How about cycling as a creative inspiration? What do you think of when you get that endorphin rush as you glide along?
It makes me feel better on a long ride; it gives me time to think. I think you think of everything. You feel your body, what’s it’s telling you to do, how you push it–it’s a meditation in motion, a quiet time to gather your thoughts, out in the fresh air. It’s going to be exciting to be doing this in Maine with all its beauty. Eight hundred competitors have already signed up, even though the challenge was only announced a month ago. We want to take care of the fanatical cyclists as well as people new to the sport. We’re certainly reaching out to everyone, including Lance Armstrong. The course will take riders west of Lewiston and treat them to incredible views of the White Mountains.

Speaking of a tour, take us on one of your Harpswell house. Tell us something you wouldn’t tell Oprah.
It’s a traditional New England farmhouse, built in 1834. I think my favorite experience there is looking at the right-hand corner of the house, the simplicity, everything coming to a sharp edge. I could stand there and look at it for hours. I love the shadow of the barn. There’s always something to do if you have an old farmhouse. I’m a caretaker. I really love the style of architecture, the sense of history, the soul of the building. On a full moon in the summer, there’s nothing better than just to look at the land. My mom and her husband Howard do a beautiful job of trimming the beautiful old apple trees. I love the mornings on the coast with the fog rolling in.

You sound like an Andrew Wyeth painting.
Losing Wyeth is a great tragedy. I love his family, what they capture. It is the quintessential feeling of Maine. If you look at Wyeth’s studies of the house in Christina’s World, you see how he really captures them–the kind of magic places that made me fall in love with my house. You say, “Oh, there it is, there’s that moment.” I went to visit the real-life location of Christina’s World and walked around the house, beautifully melancholic on the inside.

Speaking of inside, we heard an inside story that you bought appliances at Agren in Brunswick from a sales associate from Germany who couldn’t call you McDreamy–because she may be the one person in the world who didn’t know who you were. How’s the rest of that always humbling house-remodeling adventure going?
The goal was to strip away some 1960s remodeling and find what was true to the old home, to see if we could try to make it look like it hasn’t been touched. One exception is, I put a sun room in the back and converted it into a big family room, but that’s where the carriage room would have been anyway. We turned the dining room into the kitchen; now, one of the parlors has become our dining room. Actually, there are two kitchens; the second is what would have been called the summer kitchen. We have the slate sink, and then an AGA stove, which is really practical in the winter. For colors, we did the traditional colors for the time period– milk paint–and then wallpaper in the parlor, hallway, some of the bedrooms.

So you can go home again? Lewiston must certainly resonate with memories.
I really love the state of Maine and really love and care about what people think here. I think Lewiston/Auburn is ripe for a renaissance. I think it has diversity, and the old mills that would be costly to be restored but need to be restored, there’s the fantastic river, and with a major employer like CMMC as a driving force, there’s the opportunity to surround it with restaurants, attractions, people. The hospital, and the city itself, are rediscovering themselves. It’s an exciting time to be here.

That’s a lot to have in the air, even for a juggler. Which leads me to ask: You juggled in Made of Honor. You may be the only person ever to have successfully juggled as a nerd (from your Can’t Buy Me Love and Loverboy period) and as a dashingly handsome Mc–well, you know. Acknowledging you’re happily married and a father of three, does–or does not–juggling fascinate women?
I think juggling in general fascinates everyone, always. It lights people up. My time in vaudeville, touring with jugglers like Randy Judkins, Buckfield Leather and Lather–it prepared me exactly for what I do today: I am there as a performer, and I like to distract and move people. See you at the Dempsey Challenge!