Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd. (ABC)
Patrick Dempsey’s “Grey’s Anatomy” producers are worried about him. His family is really worried about him. And yet, Dempsey, risking life, limb and all that McDreamy hair, has no intention of giving up his drug of choice: race car driving.
“My life really started when I started racing,” says Dempsey, star and executive producer of the surprisingly revealing “Patrick Dempsey: Racing Le Mans” for the Discovery Channel offshoot, Velocity.
Does that mean Dempsey was just marking time becoming a movie and television star? “Acting has never felt comfortable,” he admits in the four-part documentary, which tracks the 15 months leading up to this year’s most prestigious endurance race, 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“I never felt like I belonged in the acting community. I’m [ten] years into a TV show that’s been incredible. It’s transformed my life and my family’s life,” he says. “But it’s like running a marathon. You’re exhausted, and you run out of creativity because you’re telling the same storyline over and over. And there comes a time when you want to do other things.”
If that sounds like someone ready to chuck all things Hollywood, not quite. Because Dempsey knows he can’t feed his habit — in this case, his stable of race cars, including a $750,000 British-built Lola prototype, or the team to keep it running — without sponsors willing to keep him in the game. “Going to work and being an actor gives me the visibility to fund the racing,” he says. “But it gets in the way of me getting enough seat time to become a faster driver. And there’s the rub.”
He’s not the first star to feel the need for speed. Dempsey is following in the footsteps of Steve McQueen, James Garner and, most significantly, Paul Newman. “Newman gave me great hope,” says Dempsey. “He came into [racing] late and worked hard at it and became very successful . . .. I think for Newman, it was just a compete escape from Hollywood and all the bulls–t.”
But that escapism comes at a price. Racers have to find tracks to practice on, and travel the world to compete. Just think of the costs of shipping a race car from Los Angeles to Le Mans, France. Good thing that Dempsey, one of prime time’s highest-paid actors, is making $350,000 per episode and has a net worth estimated at $40 million. Earlier this year, perhaps looking for a serious alternative to his Hollywood paycheck, he out-bid Starbucks to take over the bankrupt Tully’s Coffee in Seattle for a cool $9 million.
In the documentary, “Grey’s” producers sound supportive, even as they insist Dempsey drive in a car with a closed cockpit (for insurance purposes), adjust shooting schedules and light candles that nothing will go amiss.
“Patrick’s passion is clearly racing,” says executive producer Rob Corn. “And he is a happier person when he’s here and able to get out and do the races Thursdays through Sundays. But it’s a challenge.”
“I trust he knows what he’s doing when he’s on the track and doing it,” says producer Karin Gleason, “but there are a lot of other factors that you can’t control. The bottom line is: What would we do if something happened?”
No doubt his family is thinking the same thing. The 47-year-old actor, twice married, is the father of an 11-year-old daughter and 6-year-old fraternal twin boys. “Oh, I think they’re deeply concerned, certainly,” says Dempsey. But his wife, Jillian, knowing that Dempsey has loved racing since he was a kid, “opened Pandora’s box by giving me the Skip Barber [Racing School] certificate to go and to learn how to race,” he says. “She realizes it’s important for me as a person to do it.”
Dempsey has had a 10-year learning curve leading up to Le Mans, including six years as an apprentice, and many appearances on American tracks. But Le Mans is the mother of all races, and this June, his team of drivers maneuvered a Porsche 911 GT3 over more than 3,000 miles, six times the length of the Indy 500, at speeds hovering at 200 miles per hour. They came in 29th overall, and fourth in class.
What drives him to do it? “You’re really testing yourself,” he says. “You’re going into your own fears and anxieties, and you have to test yourself physically and mentally. That’s what I like about it. And certainly the sense of fellowship and camaraderie is really what I love most.”
PATRICK DEMPSEY: RACING LE MANS
Wednesday, 10 p.m., Velocity