It’s been 10 years since Grey’s Anatomy pulled off one of its saddest character deaths ever. In Season 12, Wilmer Valderrama guest-starred in a handful of episodes as Kyle Diaz, a guitarist whose MS-related hand tremors brought him to the hospital for treatment.
One of his doctors was Stephanie Edwards (Jerrika Hinton), and she grew close to him as he underwent a deep-brain stimulation procedure by Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone). Memorably, Kyle’s surgery required him to play the guitar during the operation so they could monitor for brain bleeds along the way.
Unfortunately, he developed another tremor, required another surgery, and later developed an infection that required the removal of his tremor-reducing implant. As the infection continued to spread, he needed yet another surgery and died on the operating table.
Though he and Stephanie had their ups and downs as a result of his condition and treatments, they’d reconciled before his fatal surgery, leaving the doctor heartbroken over the loss.
So when TV Insider caught up with Valderrama to dissect the latest season of NCIS, we simply had to ask him about that gulp-worthy milestone.
“It’s been 10 years since Shonda Rhimes killed me. Wow,” he joked when discussing the anniversary.
When asked about whether he still gets recognized for that role, despite the many other legendary performances he’s had on the small screen, past and present, the actor confirmed that he does.
“Occasionally, I’ll be walking around the airport, and it’d be a mom with a kid comes up and goes, ‘I still can’t believe they killed you,'” the actor told TV Insider. “It’s really nice to be recognized, to be part of that show. When they called me to do it, it was so funny. Talked to Shonda, and she was like, ‘Hey, I’d love for you to come and do a couple of episodes with us.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s go. It sounds like a lot of fun.’ And at that time, I was taking a little break from TV, too, so it was just kind of nice to just keep the wheels oiled. And she’s like, ‘But just so you know, I’m going to have to kill you.’ And I said, ‘Let’s go, whatever it is.'”
Valderrama complimented the Grey’s Anatomy fanbase for being “passionate,” saying, “That show really spoke of different genre — altered the genre of what that was for television, created a lot of beautiful characters that you wanted to just live with. Obviously, such a long-running show. So yeah, I felt privileged, and it was such a blast to work with the girls, man. It was so cool.”
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