‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Sisters Kelly And Crystal McCreary Open Up About Filming ‘Overwhelming’ Death Scene

Kelly McCreary and her sister, Crystal McCreary, are dishing about their experience filming together on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, according to a report from Entertainment Tonight.

Kelly plays the role of Dr. Maggie Pierce, half-sister of Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and daughter of Richard Webber. (James Pickens Jr.) As previously reported by The Inquisitr, on the November 7 episode of the hit ABC series, Maggie met a cousin from her father’s side, Sabrina, played by Kelly’s real-life sister, Crystal. During the episode, Sabrina died from a massive heart tumor, despite her cousin’s best efforts to save her.

This marks the sisters’ first time acting together on a television series, and both women agreed that having to pretend that one of them would die was a truly traumatic experience.

“Everyone at the table read was like, ‘Oh boy, this is going to be tough,’ and I didn’t know how that would show up,” Kelly said, adding she was completely caught off-guard when the scene caught up with her. “When she was in the room being Sabrina I was very convinced that she was Sabrina, but when I thought about my sister being on the table, it caught me up.”

The scene affected Kelly so much that the actress broke into tears while filming. Crystal said she wasn’t aware of how her sister was processing the death scene until a crew member pulled her to the side to fill her in.

“One of the cameramen came up to me at one point and he was like, ‘I just wanted to let you know that Kelly had a moment because she was really picturing you and she started to cry,'” Crystal said.

After hearing how the scene affected her sister, Crystal said she also became emotional knowing Kelly was imagining her dying on the operating table. Soon, it became very clear to the McCreary sisters that the emotional episode would likely affect their family and friends as well. But despite the overwhelming nature of the episode’s storyline, the sisters said they felt working together allowed them to truly appreciate each other’s talents, particularly during the scene showing both characters bonding in a hallway.

Elsewhere in the same episode, Owen (Kevin McKidd) and former love Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) found themselves having a difficult conversation after she revealed she was pregnant with another man’s child. During their relationship, Amelia made it clear she did not want to have children, which made the revelation difficult for Owen to process.

Grey’s Anatomy airs on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC