Grey’s Anatomy star Sarah Drew has spoken out about how “damaging” it was when online trolls viciously criticized her looks during her first big acting role in Everwood.
Drew, now 44, was in her early twenties when she landed the part of shy bookworm Hannah in the WB family drama — and she says that, although social media wasn’t yet booming, she still found fans calling her “ugly” online.
“Everwood was my first show ever, and I got addicted, there was no social media yet, but there were forums and message boards,” she said on a recent episode of the “Broad Ideas” podcast, hosted by Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allen. “It’s the worst thing ever. It was so bad for me. I came on to play the ugly wallflower best friend of Emily VanCamp. I had glasses and frizzy hair and not a stitch of makeup. I was the ugly one, the ugly duckling.”
Drew, now best known for her role as April Kepner in Grey’s Anatomy, says that there were some kinder comments too — but it’s the negative ones that she vividly remembers “word for word,” citing “Sarah Drew is so ugly that the television cracks every time she steps in front of it” as one example. “It hurt so badly,” she recalled.
Prior to her Everwood role, Drew had worked as a voice actress as Stacy in the cult MTV animation, Daria, so suddenly having her appearance scrutinized online came as a huge shock.
“I grew up never considering whether I was pretty or not,” she said. “It just wasn’t a thing we talked about. My mom is a scientist and, just, makeup wasn’t worn. Hair, nobody cared about it, nobody cared about fashion. I never considered whether I was one of the pretty people in the world or not. All of a sudden I was like, ‘Am I an ugly person? I guess maybe I’m an ugly person.’”
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The actress, who is currently appearing in festive Hallmark series Mistletoe Murders, shares two children with her husband, academic Dr Peter Lanfer — son Micah is 12 and daughter Hannah (yes, like her Everwood character!) is 9 — and says her “damaging” experience makes her worry for kids growing up on social media. “Think about our girls,” she urged.
Drew recently spoke to Us Weekly about previous comments that she was “unceremoniously let go” from Grey’s Anatomy.
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“I lived a beautiful life as April Kepner for nine years on that show. I’m so grateful,” she told Us exclusively. “I have friendships that will last me a lifetime. I had my babies on that show in a total matriarchy where I was so well cared for. I have a platform, I have a voice all because of that show. I loved my time there. And also, I’d been there for a long time and I wouldn’t have left. And now I am directing and I’m producing and I’m writing, and I don’t think I’d be doing any of those things if I was still on the show. So it was a great gift, actually. But hard in the moment.”
