Jesse Williams reveals he realized it was time to leave 'Grey's Anatomy' when it started feeling 'increasingly safe'

• Jesse Williams revealed why he decided to leave "Grey's Anatomy" after 12 seasons in The New York Times.
• "I needed to get out of my comfort zone," Williams explained.

Jesse Williams recently revealed in a New York Times profile that he knew it was time to leave "Grey's Anatomy" when he began to feel "increasingly safe, protected, insulated."

The actor, who got his big break on ABC's hit medical drama, exited the show in 2021 after 12 seasons playing plastic surgeon and ENT specialist Dr. Jackson Avery.

"As an actor, director, and person, I have been obscenely lucky to learn so much from so many and I thank our beautiful fans, who breathe so much energy and appreciation into our shared worlds," Williams' statement about his departure read in part, per Deadline. The site also reported that Williams' decision came when his most recent two-year contract on the show expired.

In the new interview promoting his Broadway debut in the Richard Greenberg play "Take Me Out," in which he stars as Darren Lemming, a fictional baseball star who comes out as gay, Williams explained why he decided to make his Broadway debut so soon after leaving "Grey's."

"I knew that as I designed my exit, the next thing I did had to be terrifying," he said. "I needed to get out of my comfort zone, I needed to go into a very unknown place."

Williams wanted his next project to challenge him, which is exactly what drew him to 'Take Me Out'

Williams' physical appearance was emphasized during much of his run on "Grey's Anatomy." In one of his first episodes of the show, his character Jackson addressed his looks. "I'm pretty. In my family, I was always the pretty one. My face, my eyes. The body. You should see me with no shirt on. It's sort of ridiculous," the character said.

His former "Grey's Anatomy" coworkers reiterated the same in the Times' new profile.

"Yes, he really does look like that," Krista Vernoff, the drama's current showrunner, said. "And yes, he is really smart. And really, really talented."

"He's handsome. Girls always like that," said former costar Ellen Pompeo, who has played Meredith Grey since the series began.

But Williams told Insider in a joint conversation with former on-screen "Grey's Anatomy" love interest Sarah Drew in December that the pair worked hard to make a lot of the relationship between Jackson and Drew's character, Dr. April Kepner, feel deep and authentic.

"We carved a lot of that on our own with tremendous support, but it was not like it had to be that way. We could have been lazier about it," he told Insider.

Though Williams is not gay like his "Take Me Out" character Darren, he told the Times that he was drawn to the role because he "really wanted the challenge."

"The last thing I want is to be the shiny rich TV guy that thinks he can just show up and do something, because that's just absolutely not how I feel," he said. "I'm just here to learn."

Drew told the Times that he's up for it. "There's nobody that worked as hard as he did," she said of their time on the "Grey's Anatomy" set. "Nobody."

"Take Me Out" officially opens at the Hayes Theater in New York City on Monday, April 4.