Brooke Smith brushes up on anatomy
Natalie Finn

LOS ANGELES—Considering all the broken hearts that pass through Seattle Grace, it would be pretty irresponsible for the hospital to not employ a topnotch cardiothoracic surgeon.
Enter Dr. Erica Hahn, the formerly part-time doc played by Brooke Smith who was upped this week to fulltime status on Grey’s Anatomy, which has been without a cardiologist since Isaiah Washington was unceremoniously handed his walking papers after season three.
The no-nonsense Hahn, who always had a dry word for her old schoolmate and rival, Preston Burke, first appeared toward the end of the Golden Globe-winning ABC drama’s second season when Burke got shot. (Hahn wasn’t there to treat him, but to cross swords over Denny’s donor heart.)
Why Washington’s Burke is no longer operating on Grey’s is a whole other story, of course, but now creator Shonda Rhimes has filled the void with Smith, who has also had recurring guest roles on Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Crossing Jordan and, most recently, Weeds.
After each of her Grey’s appearances, “I would hope that they would call and also hope not too—kind of like when I used to be single. And they finally actually called!” Smith told the Los Angeles Times.
Once she had been notified of her fulltime status, she was presented with her very own Grey’s Anatomy: Season 4 plastic thermos.
“You have to be responsible with that thermos,” Smith said. “You have to bring it with you. Because you have to hydrate. It’s the desert here.
The 40-year-old Smith, who cut her acting teeth in 1991 while screaming at the top of her lungs from the bottom of a pit as the seemingly doomed Catherine Martin in Silence of the Lambs, also said that, as far as her costars go, she hasn’t met “anyone who’s not nice there.”
How nice some of her costars will be on-camera is yet to be determined. Hahn may be a workaholic but, now that she’s a regular cast member, it’s almost a given that her heart’s going to be getting a little workout, as well.
“There might be a certain man there who’s interested in me,” Smith told TV Guide’s Website. “But I don’t know what Dr. Hahn will think of that.”