Disgraced television writer Elisabeth Finch has come forward with her first interview since she was put on leave from Grey’s Anatomy in March for lying about cancer, suicide, and, bizarrely, the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. Speaking with The Ankler, Finch confirmed that she’s “never had any form of cancer.†Finch’s nonmedical lies include claims that the FBI allowed her into the Tree of Life synagogue crime scene to collect the remains of a (nonexistent) friend, and that her (very alive) brother “died by suicide.†She addresses her snowballing fabrications, which she used for clout and privileges in her career and special attention in her personal life, by saying, “I know it’s absolutely wrong what I did … I lied and there’s no excuse for it. But there’s context for it. The best way I can explain it is when you experience a level of trauma a lot of people adopt a maladaptive coping mechanism.†She then compares her own lying to an addiction.
The profile has additional revelations about her workplace behavior at Shondaland, including accounts that she lied to and bullied co-workers “with less power than her, compassionate people with kind souls,†according to a former colleague. Another said that at work she was “quietly volcanic.†Another colleague recalled her telling stories about being stalked, being sexually accosted in the middle of a red light, and an antisemitic incident. Finch insists that these incidents all happened.
In a May Vanity Fair piece about the scandal, Finch’s ex-wife Beyer alleges Finch took stories from Beyer’s life and twisted them into stories about herself at work. Many stories of abuse stemmed from, Beyer claimed, her own accounts of domestic abuse at the hands of her late husband, Brendan. Brendan’s mother complicates this account to The Ankler, saying that her son displayed “all sorts of strange and erratic behavior,†but claimed that Beyer also had a tendency to allegedly lie about “suffering from a range of illnesses, the symptoms of which never quite manifested.â€
Toward the end of the interview, Finch was asked what television series she would “most comfortably†write for next. The Handmaid’s Tale “would be a dream.†“I’ve struggled with that show a lot and I love what they’re doing in the world of redemption and what redemption looks like,†she added. Hulu, you’re in danger, girl.