'Grey's Anatomy' Star Patrick Dempsey Tests His Movie Stardom

The "Grey's Anatomy" star is making the leap from TV to feature films.

ByABC News
April 22, 2008, 10:53 AM

April 23, 2008 — -- During his writers'-strike-induced hiatus from "Grey's Anatomy," which returns with new episodes Thursday (ABC, 9 p.m. ET/PT), Patrick Dempsey whisked wife Jill away for a romantic Italian getaway. No kids. No cameras. And no reporters.

The couple, married since 1999, took in a fashion show in Milan; then, in Lake Como, they were among many marveling at the waterfront estate of that city's most famous resident: George Clooney.

"He's larger than life," says Dempsey. "I've met him a few times now, and he has always been very funny and charming. I like him."

Though he'd perhaps prefer comparisons with his idol, Cary Grant, it is Clooney with whom Dempsey has been compared ever since he rejuvenated a stalled teeny-bopper career by hitting it big on a prime-time medical series. Clooney, of course, did the same when he segued from early "Facts of Life" fodder to "ER" superstardom.

With his comedy "Made of Honor" hitting theaters May 2 and potentially solidifying his movie stardom for the first time since his late '80s hits -- "Can't Buy Me Love" (as a dorky kid who hires a cheerleader to be his girlfriend) and "Loverboy" (as a pizza delivery boy who delivered a little something extra to desperate housewives) -- the Clooney comparisons are back.

Dempsey, 42, got an early jump on his leading-man status last year by wooing princess Amy Adams away from the charming James Marsden in "Enchanted." Its almost $128 million domestic take has producers dreaming up a sequel. But "Enchanted" was an ensemble.

"This is the first time I've carried a movie in a long time," Dempsey says over drinks at a corner table in the Four Seasons Hotel bar. As a result, he has been asking himself, "Can I pull this off? Will people come see it?"

"This is a very big film for him," says "Made of Honor" director Paul Weiland. "Patrick grew up in the (Hollywood) system, but I'm not sure he wants to stay in it forever."

Dempsey concedes that he "wasn't sure if 'Enchanted' was going to work." So he sought another project that would be "light and different from 'Grey's'. And with a broad-based appeal. Something that would do well commercially to allow me to cross over."