You likely know her as Doctor Jo Wilson on ABC’s hit series Grey’s Anatomy. So it’s no surprise that Camilla Luddington is quickly proving she has the perfect prescription for Hollywood stardom: hard work, talent and just enough humility.
Originally from Windsor, UK, Camilla Luddington knew from an early age she was going to pursue acting. As an avid fan of musicals, she was particularly drawn to the classic, The Wizard of Oz. However, unlike most children, she distinctly remembers recognizing the showmanship of it all; they were actors portraying characters in a movie. She notes that even while playing make-believe in her backyard at the age of five, she would not pretend she was in Oz. Rather, she would pretend she was on the movie set creating the film alongside one of her idols, Judy Garland.
During her high school years her dream of Hollywood would get a little bit closer, if only by proximity; her father was transferred to Austin, Texas from the UK. “I went from an all-girl Catholic private school in Windsor to public school in Texas; it was like my own little Dawson’s Creek,” she explains with a chuckle. At 19 she attended theatre school in Pennsylvania for six months before switching to complete a year in New York. While she was learning a lot, she made the bold leap to quit school, and like so many before her, chased her dreams to sunny Los Angeles noting that, “I knew being on set would be the best education for me.”
Landing in LA she found herself alone and with no connections. She recounts that there were a couple of years where she was doing the “struggling waitress thing” while taking classes, participating in workshops and meeting with casting directors. “I was really trying to find my own way and find the right people to represent me.” After signing with her manager through her agent, Camilla started doing guest starring roles. Then came the call that would change her life. She auditioned for the Lifetime movie Will and Kate, a lighthearted conceptualization of the love story between Prince William and Kate Middleton. “When I got the role I thought: oh this is going to be a fun lifetime film,” she notes, not realizing that in no time life was going to start to imitate art.
Nothing could have prepared her for the whirlwind and the hype that would start to surround Will and Kate, but given the upcoming real-life wedding of the films main characters, doing press tours and interviews became a staple for Camilla. Suddenly paparazzi were following her, reporters were showing up at her door. Camilla remembers, “I was doing all these scenes in the movie where Kate was being followed by the paparazzi for the first time and that was starting to happen to me.”
It was the big break many who chase their dreams to Tinseltown hope for. And the timing couldn’t have been better to thrust her into the media circuit. “I hadn’t really had to promote anything before that” she says, “it prepared me for what that is like.”
No stranger to the press now, with a few roles under her belt like voicing Lara Croft in the latest installment of the Tomb Raider video games, and hit series including Californiacation, True Blood and most recently, her role on Grey’s Anatomy, the hit medical drama by creator Shonda Rhimes. “I was a huge fan of that show before; it was something I had watched back in the day while at my waitressing job,” explains Luddington, “I was part of that fandom and that was nuts to me. Once I got on that set, I was geeking out.” She believes it instantly made her love her job more because she was a fan of the show. She knew the backstories of all the characters and recognized that wouldn’t have been an easy task to learn in the few days she had from being cast to showing up for the first time on set.
“My first few scenes, and my character in the beginning, well, she was really intimidated by Meredith and I felt that.” She remembers her first scene with Ellen Pompeo, “I was like, oh my god this is Meredith Grey.” Recognizing that this would only help her with her portrayal of her character she went for it, noting Pompeo was incredibly gracious and kind. She cannot rave enough about the cast and crew she works with, including the show’s creator Shonda Rhimes. She notes, “Shonda will do things and will write things the fans won’t want to happen. She will go for the gut-wrenching, heartbreaking moment. She doesn’t apologize for it. That is what is amazing about her, she is not about boring. That is what I admire about her.”
An acting career is often a very fickle thing. One minute you can be the name on everyone’s lips; the next it can seem you are all but forgotten. It is clear this British beauty matches her talent with drive. She is equal parts self-deprecating and down to earth, noting that she stays grounded among longtime friends known before the fame. She is funny and charismatic, while able to take a joke. Even with all the success of her voice-over work and multiple TV roles, including the wildly successful Grey’s—it would seem that Camilla Luddington is just what the doctor ordered.
Words by: Jentzen Michael Shea