Alberto Frezza is saying goodbye to his Station 19 character Ryan Tanner.
During last week’s episode of the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, Tanner was accidentally shot in the chest by a 3-year-old boy. The episode concluded with his longtime love and ex-girlfriend Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz) attempting to revive him.
Thursday’s episode started with a sweet flashback of 20-year-old Andy and Ryan, cuddled up on the roof of a car. Soon after, fans saw Andy giving Ryan CPR while repeatedly saying, “Stay with me.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t make it. Minutes later, fans joined the Station 19 family at Ryan’s funeral.
“It was a surprise,” Frezza, 30, tells PEOPLE of discovering his character would be killed off. “Obviously, I didn’t know that’s the direction that Krista [Vernoff] was going to go in. But once she told me, and she told me her idea of what she wanted the show to be moving forward and how she wanted Ryan to end up leaving the show, it was a very interesting idea. And as sad as I was leaving the show, I was also a very nice way for a character to go out.”
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Speaking to gun violence, Frezza adds, “We’re talking about an issue that’s, that’s very present in our days, and I think that it’s an issue that needs to be addressed, not only through TV shows, but through a day-to-day basis. People need to be talking about these issues and these problems that we’re going through, especially with gun violence. We’re dealing with things that happen on on in real life. It’s not something that’s fabricated and somebody just made up. These things happen. So by her telling me the story that Ryan was going to go out that way, it was also a beautiful way for me to say goodbye to the character. It was sad but also interesting and challenging to film that.”
The on-again, off-again couple has had their share of ups and downs throughout the past three seasons, but Frezza says he hopes Andy can find a way to move on.
“I’m hoping Andy will find peace,” he says. “I don’t think she’ll ever be able to find peace, because she’ll probably deal with survivor’s guilt and watching the person that she knows the best in her life die in front of her. But I think that the best thing that she can do is to try to really build a solid relationship going forward with her father, and I think that the closer they get to each other, the better they’ll be able to deal with the loss of Ryan.”
While Frezza says he’ll miss his Station 19 family, he feels grateful to have been a part of it.
“I’m fortunate enough to be on the show for so long as an actor,” he says. “You always get into it with the dream of being able to work and promote yourself doing what you love. It means a lot to me to be an actor in the world of Grey’s Anatomy, which is a historic show, that’s one of the longest running shows on TV. Just to be associated with a show like that, it’s been a privilege. I’m lucky enough to have worked with the people that I’ve worked with. So it’s meant a lot to me as a person and as an actor, being on the show for two and a half years for me at least. You know, it makes you grow because you’re on set every day. You try different things, work with different directors. So it’s been a growing time for me as a person and as an actor, so I’m very grateful for it.”
