Jessica Capshaw, well-known for playing pediatric surgeon Dr. Arizona Robbins on “Grey’s Anatomy,” is set to make her first appearance in Ryan Murphy’s ‘9-1-1 Nashville’ spin-off series on Thursday, October 16 on ABC.
Capshaw will star in the role of Blythe Sharpe in the upcoming procedural drama, alongside her former “The Practice” co-star, Chris O’Donnell, who will play Capshaw’s on-screen husband, Don Sharpe, described as a “rugged fire captain and rodeo rider who runs Nashville’s busiest firehouse, which he runs with his son.”
While the debut season of the spin-off drama is still a few months off, Capshaw opened up about filming scenes for the upcoming series during a July 21 episode of her “Call It What It Is” podcast, co-hosted by fellow “Grey’s Anatomy” star Camilla Luddington.
Though the 48-year-old actress admitted that filming keeps her busy – especially when she’s travelling all the way from New York City to record the ‘9-1-1’ spin-off in Nashville – she similarly revealed that she’s spent her entire life on sound stages, including accompanying her step-father, world-renowned director Steven Spielberg, to the set of “Indiana Jones” as a child.
Capshaw Opens Up About Lengthy Commute for ‘9-1-1’ Filming
In 2021, Capshaw moved from sunny Los Angeles, California to the heart of New York City with her husband, Christopher Gavigan, and their four kids: Luke, Eve, Poppy and Josephine. Despite filming on-location in Nashville for the foreseeable future of the ‘9-1-1’ companion series, Capshaw admitted that she has yet to fully pack up and ship out to the capital city.
“It sounds a little bananas. I live in New York, and I commute [to set],” revealed Capshaw on her podcast. “We’re back and forth, and it’s summertime and the kids are out of school.”
Like “Grey’s Anatomy” and its “9-1-1” predecessor, the upcoming series will feature an ensemble cast, following several character storylines in each episode. For Capshaw, that means that it’s not always necessary to be on set every day.
“We’ve got a lot of comings and going, and every episode of television is different,” added the actress. “Sometimes you’re not working a ton in an episode, and sometimes you’re not.”
“When I’m working, I’m there and I’m present, I’m in and it’s awesome,” she continued. “When I’m not working, instead of living my life in Nashville – where I don’t live, although I have so many friends there – I have just been coming home.”
According to the “Tell Me Lies” star, the hours-long commute to set has been “so far…really great.”
‘Grey’s’ Star Recalls Her Mother Filming ‘Indiana Jones’ in Sri Lanka
Though Capshaw certainly got used to a hectic filming schedule on the set of “Grey’s Anatomy,” where she appeared in over 200 episodes of the medical drama over six seasons, the star informed her co-host that she spent a good portion of her childhood on different film stages with her actress mother, Kate Capshaw.
Kate, now 71, is known for her roles in projects like “The Quick and the Dead,” “Black Rain” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” directed by her husband, director to the stars, Steven Spielberg.
Though not Spielberg’s biological daughter, Capshaw was adopted by the “Jaws” director after her mother married the director in 1991 after their paths crossed on the set of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”
Paramount/Getty“As the daughter of an actress, my mom was always doing movies, and, at that time, movies were all wherever they were meant to take place,” said Capshaw as she remembered jetting around the world with her mother for different roles. “So we were in Sri Lanka and London making ‘Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom,’ and she was in Japan making this movie with Michael Douglas called ‘Black Rain.’ I didn’t go there for that, but then it was all over the place…so, I would just come along for the ride.”
After spending years traveling the world to spectate her mother’s film career, Capshaw reported that she’s more than prepared to continue commuting from New York to Tennessee for ‘9-1-1 Nashville.”
“I moved around a lot…and my mom was always really good at setting up these homes, and so I feel comfortable doing that. And now in my own life, I move around a lot [too],” Capshaw concluded.
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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Alum Reveals Childhood Memories Growing Up on the Set of ‘Indiana Jones’