“Sara is just a fabulously comedic actress and has so much to give, and post-George I felt like she was searching for something,” Rhimes explained.

“She and Erica together — Callie and Erica together — seemed to have a lot of interesting chemistry and dynamic. And we really did start them out as being friends, and it felt like there was something more there — the same kind of chemistry that I saw between, say, Christina and Burke, before Christina and Burke got together, [so] that I wanted to play it and see what happened with it.”

Both actors, Rhimes noted, were fully supportive and “really, really embraced the story line.” In an interview with AfterEllen.com at the press tour, Brooke Smith said that upon learning of this new twist in her story line, “I was psyched. I thought it was a great idea.”

When AfterEllen.com’s managing editor Malinda Lo had the opportunity to ask Rhimes some questions, she quickly zeroed in on two important ones: Are Callie and Erica lesbian or bisexual, and will either one immediately become pregnant upon coming out?