Jake Borelli Teases the ‘Heart-Racing’ Season Finale

• Jake Borelli told Insider he recently read the “Grey’s Anatomy” season 18 finale and is “still in shock.”
• He said Levi Schmitt is “percolating” things in his mind and may return to Grey Sloan as a doctor.
• The actor said he hoped Schmitt and his ex-boyfriend Nico could “pull through” their difficulties.

A fan-favorite doctor at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital came to a crossroads of sorts on “Put It to the Test,” the April 7 episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Dr. Levi Schmitt (Jake Borelli) is forced out of his basement when his mother Myrna (Michelle Gardner) falls down the stairs during an argument, and it’s up to him to save her life.

Levi has been avoiding his friends, his job, and his responsibilities since a mistake he made while following Richard Webber’s (Jim Pickens) method of teaching killed a patient named Devon. Dr. Schmitt felt empowered through the method to make a decision in surgery without a superior present, and his fatal mistake sent him into a deep

depression

. 

After “Put It to the Test,” Insider spoke to Borelli about what it feels like to act in the intense life-or-death situations that Seattle’s finest doctors face week after week and whether Dr. Schmitt will ever return to the hospital as a doctor.

How do you create the tension on set that we see on screen in life-or-death scenarios, since you don’t have the dramatic music to help you out? 

On set, everything looks so real, because we have the best medical department ever. So they make these prosthetics that look incredibly real. So when I was cutting into Myrna, I actually had a knife in my hand and blood was actually coming out. It looked so real, it was almost like you don’t have to pretend that much.

Do you actually feel the stress of those stakes in your body? 

Definitely. Kevin McKidd, who plays Owen, was directing, and he’s just there behind the camera yelling like, “Okay, it’s happening now? It’s happening now, yell up the stairs.” So he helps me with that adrenaline, too. 

And then for the opposite of that kind of energy, what do you do as an actor to prepare yourself to cry or prepare yourself for really emotional scenes, like when Levi is crying in Dr. Webber’s arms?

I really just build the history of what that character is going through. And luckily, I’ve been playing Levi for five years now, so I have a pretty good grasp of him. Adding in the given circumstances of what’s going on with his mom, what happened with him killing Devon during surgery, his entire career sort of crumbling, if you just tap into those parts of you, it comes

Usually what I’ll do is I’ll figure out based on the circumstances how he’s feeling. And then I’ll try to find in my body a memory where I felt that way in real life. And sometimes they’re completely different things, but that’s the work of an actor.

What’s next for Schmitt? Before his mom’s fall, he was basically making an argument that made it seem like he was ready to come back. Is he? 

I think that there was a lot in that nod to Richard at the very, very end when he is sitting at his mother’s bedside. And it seems like things are percolating. He’s seeing that he is a good doctor and that these talents he has mean something because it’s what ended up saving his mother. And so I hope that he gets a chance to come back to the hospital, but there are a lot of people he probably needs to apologize to first, and who might need to apologize to him.

What about the future for Nico and Levi? Is there hope? 

This was the most adamant I’ve seen Levi in his feelings for Nico, and I think it’s hard. They don’t communicate well and they both have different styles of communication, and different needs when it comes to that. And they haven’t been able to match up on that. So I hope that they can pull through.

What can we expect from the back half of the season for the doctors at Grey Sloan as the finale gets closer? 

All I know is I just read the finale two days ago, and I’m still in shock. I don’t know how I feel. It’s heart racing and literally, I’m looking at my couch right now, where I read it and my jaw was just on the floor. So brace yourself.

You work so much with Ellen Pompeo. What’s your favorite memory with her on set? 

Oh my gosh. I love Ellen. I’m so lucky that I get to work so much with her too. She’s just so kind and she’s so generous with her time and with her advice. It’s just incredible. I mean, the biggest thing that surprised me is just coming to work, and it’s early in the morning and she just comes in with such energy. She’s oftentimes playing super awesome music on her loud speaker, just keeping the energy flowing.

You’ve made history with Levi and Nico’s relationship, as far as representation of the gay community on network television. In what ways would you like “Grey’s Anatomy” to continue to push the envelope with authentic representation of the community? 

I hope they just keep telling authentic queer stories. I just hope they keep showing more facets of that community. And Levi has grown so much in his queerness, and I just think about myself and how I’m such a different person now than I was 10 years ago when I came out, or 12 years ago when I came out. And so I hope that we see him grow in that and grow in his power, and see him maybe step even a little bit further into the queer community.

He’s such a gamer, he loves D&D and video games and there’s such a huge queer gaming culture. They call them gay-mers. And so I feel like we could explore that. There are also so many queer doctors out there. Continually showing that experience would be incredible.

“Grey’s Anatomy” returns to ABC with its next new episode on Thursday, May 5 at 9 p.m. ET.