Sandra Oh to Leave 'Grey's Anatomy'

"Grey's Anatomy" will be losing one of its central characters at the end of the series' upcoming tenth season. Sandra Oh, who plays Dr. Cristina Yang, announced last week that she will depart the show at the end of the season in order to pursue her career elsewhere.

Oh told The Hollywood Reporter that although her decision "doesn't feel real" yet, she knows definitely that "I'm ready." Oh was one of the original actors on the cast when "Grey's Anatomy" debuted in 2005, and she and several other actors signed two-year contract extensions in 2012 that keep them on the show through the upcoming season. For Oh, that two years was the time she needed to make peace with leaving her character behind.

"I started thinking about it because I had to prepare myself," she said. "I gave myself two years to emotionally let go."

The new season is currently in production, and there's no indication yet of how the writers will account for the departure of Dr. Yang. For her part, Oh hopes that her character leaves the show in a less than ultimately final sort of way.

"I don’t want them to off me," she told Entertainment Weekly. "I know people have died on this show. They could send her to the moon. I have no idea."

The other actors whose contracts are up after this season—Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Justin Chambers, James Pickens Jr. and Chandra Wilson—have not, at this point, announced plans to leave, although Dempsey has said that "it's worth having a discussion" about the future of his character.