After Grey’s Anatomy bid farewell to Jake Borelli’s Levi Schmitt last week, it was Midori Francis‘ turn to say goodbye to the show. Her exit was one of several major storylines in a jam-packed fall finale that left multiple lives in limbo.
Set more than six months after the events in the previous episode, the finale chronicles Mika’s (Francis) first day back after the van accident which left her fighting for her life, with her younger sister Chloe ultimately dying. Mika is not herself all day, evoking her late sister anywhere she goes, including the room Chloe died in and the morgue.
Mika then becomes hysterical when a male patient starts coding, screaming at Bailey (Chandra Wilson) “He’s dying”, “you can’t just let him die like that,” before abruptly switching to “you have to save her, please save her” and “just take me, Dr. Bailey, take me.”
It soon becomes clear that this is all too much too soon for Mika. “Chloe, she was my heart. And now I’ve lost it,” she tells Simone (Alexis Floyd).
After the coding patient incident, Bailey was already going to ask Mika to take more time off. Instead, Mika told her that she was leaving Grey Sloan. “I need to find a way forward but I can’t do it if everything around me reminds me of her.”
Having had sex with Jules (Adelaide Kane) for the first time a little earlier in the episode, she and Mika have a heart-wrenching goodbye, and Mika walks out.
In an interview with Deadline from the set of a movie Francis would not identify, she addressed her decision to depart Grey’s Anatomy after two and a half seasons, which Deadline reported exclusively in May. She discussed filming Mika’s dramatic final arc and her three big scenes with one of her acting heroes, Wilson.
Francis also spoke about Mika and Jules finally hooking up, the strong bond with the actors from her class of interns, Kane, Floys, Niko Terho and Harry Shum Jr., and the one scene with them this season where she is not in character. She also shared her vision for Mika’s future and whether she would return to Grey’s. (In a September interview, series showrunner Meg Marinis called Francis and Borelli “fantastic actors” who “will always be part of the Grey’s Anatomy family.)
Being a series regular on Grey’s Anatomy is a dream job for so many actors. What made you decide to walk away from such a hit show?
FRANCIS: First of all, not only did I love the show, I watched the show when I was in middle school. I can still remember watching it with my friends and my mom and just being like, Oh my God, this is TV. Obviously they were older than me, and I just thought that the characters were so cool and interesting.
So when I joined this new group of interns, it was so surreal and awesome to be a part of that. I had a full-hearted, full-throated, wild, beautiful ride that I am so grateful for. Creatively, it’s about coming together to find the right story, the right moment for Mika’s exit that could fit into the larger season and arc, and I think that the writers did such a good job. Because when I think about Mika, she’s so ambitious and she’s so competitive, so what would cause her to leave Grey Sloan? And boy, did they set that up well.
I worked pretty close with Meg Marinis, our incredible, kind showrunner. We talked about sister stuff, got very into it, because Meg is a younger sister, and I’m an older sister, and the writers came to me and said, you’re getting a sister, and she’s younger. It was really interesting because I thought she might be older, but the fact that she was younger put Mika in this kind of leadership position, and made her more mature, in a way. And then, when they did what they did to Chloe. Oh, my God. I think they called themselves monsters in the most loving way.
But what it did is it made for a freaking great episode and so iconically Grey’s, which is a very full circle moment for me, because I started with watching Grey’s. I just felt like the only way Mika would leave the hospital is something really bad happening. And boy, they created something so incredible for me to play. I honestly, had such a great time this season.
Mika has been a largely comedic character. Were you surprised how dramatic her final arc was?
FRANCIS: I was just so excited. You know how I say full circle. How cool it was that for a few seasons, we got to know this character as being very funny and having this quirkiness about her and being, at times, comic relief. And then to be led by the writers’ hand into this darker place — I mean, how well rounded Mika became. That I got to do that as an actor, that I got to do both sides of the iconic Grey’s Anatomy pendulum in one character, I was so, so happy about that.
Did you ask for a great Grey’s death?
FRANCIS: In terms of who dies on the show, that is entirely up to those creative, delightfully wicked minds, of which character fits, what makes sense when.
Mika looked like a different person on her first day back at work, almost like a zombie. How was it playing her in that subdued mode until her meltdown?
FRANCIS: There are many things going on here. There was our director, [Grey’s star] Kevin McKidd, who we had two weeks together; he really led me into these spaces. I had probably the best time I’ve ever had working with him as a director. I came with what I was thinking, he came with what he was thinking. My makeup artist, Tai Young, helped me put the bags under my eyes. It was just about psychologically making sure that Mika was not okay.
So that was a very conscious choice. And then, it was just playing what it would be like to be this person who really wants to work and to be a good doctor, but then everywhere you turn, you see reminders of this horrible thing that just happened.
In Episode 4, which I loved, you meet Chloe, who’s played by Julia Rose. Me and Julia went out to get lunch, we got to know each other and weirdly, it did feel like she was my little sister. Because we did such a good job of, you built that love, and you saw why Mika loved her. So it was almost an easy transition to then go into the sorrow, because we had already built the love. I think those two things are two sides of the same coin, you can’t really grieve or be bereft without having an immense amount of love for the thing that or the person that you’re grieving. They just set it up really well, quite frankly.
Including the coding emergency, you got to close out your run on Grey’s with not one, not two, but three scenes opposite the great Chandra Wilson, going back to the very end of the previous episode when Mika woke up. How was it working with Chandra and finding that closure for Mika in her final conversation with Dr. Bailey?
FRANCIS: I don’t think I knew that it was going to be Dr. Bailey who led Mika through this until very close to when it happened. And as you can imagine, being somebody who watched the show in middle school. Dr. Bailey seemed super real to me when I first met Chandra Wilson, it was very difficult for me to be like, you are a person, you’re not Dr. Bailey. It was only as I kept getting the scenes, and I was like, Oh, Dr. Bailey is leading me out here.
There are lots of great moments as an actor, specifically. The moment when Mika wakes up and it was Dr. Bailey holding her hand was one of the more profound experiences for me as an artist. Because here’s this person that I respect, this powerhouse actor who’s still killing it, 21 seasons in, and she’s the one holding me through this.
Then I started to learn more about how she’s helped so many other interns, and I got to be part of the cycle. But yes, looking up in her eyes during that scene was one of the more profound experiences for me as an actor. So simple answer, if you had to choose, Dr. Bailey is a pretty good one to go through those things with.
What was the hardest scene for you to film in the finale?
FRANCIS: I’ll give you a funny one — how about that, very Mika. It’s only funny to me, but Kevin had this amazing idea for the opening shot on the chair. I don’t know if he would want me to share it, but he had this very specific inspiration. So I had to turn my head very technically during that shot. Sometimes, as an actor, when you’re trying to live through your emotions, then you also have to do very technical things, it could be challenging. So I was like, how slowly am I moving my head? Am I going right first or left first? And I will say that is something that Grey’s Anatomy has made me much better at, be a better technical actor.
You mentioned the interns. The five of you started on the show at the same time, you’re the first one to leave. Talk about the friendship of the characters on-screen and your relationship as a group off-screen. How was it saying goodbye to them?
FRANCIS: Well, I have a photo of the five of us — I don’t think it’s a public photo actually — all of us laying on the ground in a circle that is currently in my trailer on the movie that I’m making, along with some photos of my girlfriend and my best friend and some quotes. So that kind of explains it.
It was really special. Those are not only stand-up talents, but they’re really good people, and I can’t imagine we won’t stay close. I won’t imagine we won’t stay close because that would be too sad. In Episode 7, specifically, it was kind of fun because — well, it was hard to keep my eyes closed for that long [while Mika was unconscious]. But there was something really awesome about being there with my eyes closed, and just feeling all this incredible work they were doing, from Addie’s meltdown to Harry’s monologue about the laundry, to Niko as Lucas to Alexis rushing in, it was just so cool, that’s how I was closing out, seeing my real-life friends, and feeling proud and connected.
Oh, and if you want to know, a sad moment was a little at the end of Episode 4, when they [Jules, Benson, Lucas and Simone] gave me that stuff [care package for Mika and Chloe]. I think maybe there was a chance we’re all clocking a little bit, coming soon there could be a moment that this won’t be the same exactly anymore, the five of us.
And I had a moment as Midori in that scene at the end of 4 when I was just looking up at the four of them. And if you saw Mika’s eyes tear up, that was just me. I was filled with love. And I assure you, I know this sounds like a love fest, but there are other experiences, there are other groups of people that’ve I worked with that I do not feel this excited about.
Mika’s scene with Jules. Obviously, it was rewarding for the fans who had invested into their relationship since last season’s finale to see the two of them finally do the deed before Mika left. How was it filming that as well as Mika and Jules’ emotional goodbye, with Mika walking away from love, which is as hard as — and possibly even harder — than walking away from a job?
FRANCIS: Yeah, Addie and I came together not too long ago to play these characters who then developed a more romantic relationship. I don’t want to speak for Addie, but I know that for both of us, how that story was told was very important to us on a personal level, and because we had already had this trust and this friendship, we could really get into it and talk about the scenes on and off screen.
It was one of those things where it was great chemistry, it just happened. And we also work really well together. She knows when I’m doing my weird thing in my corner with my AirPods. I know when she’s doing her little, very specific and unique quirks. We both just cared very much about how it was told, and it was really fun to do that together. As far as Mika walking from love, I feel terrible for Jules, but I feel like she has more pressing things at this moment. That’s life sometimes, isn’t it?
Was there a final scene with someone else on Grey’s you were hoping for but didn’t get to do? Mika’s storyline with Taryn was awhile back but it felt a bit rude to leave without saying goodbye.
FRANCIS: I feel that given the extent of Mika’s grief in that moment, I forgave her for walking away pretty quickly. But gosh, I could be greedy and name every single one of them but I won’t, because I’m deeply happy with with how it all played out. And I hope fans are too, happy in the way that sometimes you’re not happy when you watch Grey’s Anatomy, but you’re happy because it is Grey’s Anatomy.
What do you think happens to Mika next, would she return to surgery in the future? And would she — and you — return to Grey’s if there’s an opportunity?
FRANCIS: I think Mika has a lot of healing to do, and she’s going to go home and do that. In the back of my mind, because I know how passionate she is about what she does, do I think and do I hope that she will find a way to use this grief as a way to continue pursuing caring for other people? Yes, I do.
As far as returning to Grey’s, I would be so delighted. These people and this world has become part of my trajectory of acting families, and I would be absolutely delighted to return. I don’t know if Mika would, I think for Mika it would be triggering.