Grey's Anatomy's James Pickens Teases 'Rocky Patch' for Catherine and Mer

Richard Webber will watch the women he loves duke it out in Grey’s Anatomy season 21 as wife Catherine Fox butts heads with protege Meredith Grey.

“Well, obviously, he’s invested emotionally in both of them,” actor James Pickens Jr. exclusively told Us Weekly of how Richard is handling the conflict while discussing Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and his partnership with Movember. “He’s not gonna be a referee per se, but I think he’s there to navigate this little rocky patch they have. And I’m sure the audiences will be really intrigued by how this thing moves forward — but you know where my allegiance lies.”

When the ABC medical drama left off last spring, Catherine (Debbie Allen) was livid after discovering that Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) was moving forward with her Alzheimer’s research behind her back and getting help from the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial. After Meredith defied orders and published an abstract online, Catherine started firing docs, including Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone), Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) and Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd).

In the trailer for the Grey’s Anatomy season 21 premiere — which airs on ABC Thursday, September 26, at 10 p.m. ET — Catherine is seen threatening Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), who slaps the philanthropist. Amid all the drama, Richard is once again considering retirement.

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“He’s still hanging in there. He’s working out some anxiety and some demons he’s having around that, that we touched upon when we ended last season,” Pickens, 69, teased. “We pick up where he is now trying to wrestle with those, with the help of Winston [Ndugu, played by Anthony Hill] and some others. We’re really excited about that, and there’s some dynamics with some of the surgeons who have been let go and what that’s going to look like moving forward.”

He added, “I think the premiere episode is gonna be really good. September 26th. That’s a really good one. I think the audiences will be quite, quite surprised at what goes down.”

Pickens is one of the three original cast members who appear regularly on the show, alongside Wilson and Pompeo, the latter of whom narrates each week but only appears onscreen in a handful of episodes. He says that the veterans try to welcome all the new cast members with open arms, but Wilson is the one who truly makes them feel at home.

“Chandra Wilson, who plays Bailey, is just so remarkable, and she’s warm and giving,” Pickens told Us. “I don’t want to call her the mother of the cast, but she has that persona and that gift about her that makes everybody feel at ease. She made it a point to make sure that the new actors who were coming in felt that they were now part of the family, and then they didn’t have to go outta the way to do anything special or anything.”

His onscreen family isn’t his only priority. Pickens has partnered with Movember, the leading global men’s health charity, for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month throughout September because of his offscreen family history.

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“My father had prostate cancer. It didn’t kill him, but he had it. He also had two brothers, I think, that had it as well,” Pickens shared with Us. “So it was something I felt incumbent upon myself to be diligent [about] as I looked into my own health. I started being pretty proactive when I turned right around, I guess about 50, and started to get yearly prostate exams.”

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the U.S., according to Movember, and one in eight American men will receive a positive diagnosis in their lifetime. Pickens added that people of color in particular are at higher risk for prostate cancer.

“I thought it was very important that as Black man that we needed to be made more aware of how this disease played a part in our community,” he added. “There’s a lot more prevalence in the African American community.”

Sign up at Movember.com to get resources and help save men’s lives.