George tells PEOPLE that his return to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ for season 21 has meant he gets to see “some of my favorite people every day”
Jason George knows he will always have a home at Grey’s Anatomy.
The 52-year-old actor — who returned to the hit ABC medical drama for season 21 after the ending of Station 19 — tells PEOPLE that being back on set was like “coming back to your parents’ house.”
“For people who live in the same town as their parents, you never stopped dropping by the house,” he shares. “I mean, it’s never stopped being your house, it’s just you’ve got your house that you built, and for me that was Station 19. And then now I’m moving back home and I’m like, ‘What is this going to be like?’ But it turns out it’s super cool.”
“Nobody tries to tell me when to be home,” he adds. “They treat me like I’m an adult. So it’s been smooth. There are new faces that I got to get used to, but there’s so many people that have been there for years. And then the other part is I get to see some of my favorite people every day.”
George decided to return to the hit show as a series regular following conversations with Grey’s Anatomy creatorShonda Rhimes, executive producer Betsey Beers and showrunner Meg Marinis.
“I like Ben a lot, and I like Ben and Bailey (Chandra Wilson),” he shared. “So when they brought it up and they made it make sense to me that there was more story to tell, I was like, “You know what? Yeah, let’s do this. That’s a good call.’”
Fans were first introduced to Ben when he was a first surgical resident at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in season 6. He later married Bailey and made guest appearances on the series while also starring on Station 19 for seven seasons.
George says the pair have built an on-screen relationship that is reminiscent of another iconic Hollywood duo.
“We do the Fred and Ginger of it. It’s not adversarial. It’s [like], ‘How much can we do…?” he says of their characters’ dynamic. “How high can we take this together?’…We’re Fred and Ginger, but I think I’m in this scenario. We’re Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing backwards.”
George adds Wilson has stayed “a dear friend” despite not consistently working together while he was part of Station 19, adding, “It’s like that sibling that you tease all the time, but you admire them greatly and you’re like, ‘But I can’t say it to your face because then you’ll get a swelled head and whatnot.’ We do that to each other.”
As for what fans can expect for the pair moving forward, George teases that Ben will be bolstered by his time as a firefighter when returning to medicine.
“Ben is actually interviewing at Grey Sloan, and I think what’s fun about it is that there’s a kind of confidence that you get from learning to be a doctor, but there’s nothing like the confidence you get from running into burning buildings when everybody’s running out,” he teases of the Oct. 10 episode.
“When you’ve almost died several times and made it out, there’s a new level of swagger even beyond a doctor,” he adds. “So I think Ben brings that into trying to come back and interviewing for a gig at Grey Sloan, but there might be too much swagger. There might be a little bit too much overconfidence so things might go completely differently.”
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.