Scrubs: Eddie Leavy Discusses Revival Reaction, AI, Astro Boy & More

Posted in: ABC, TV | Tagged: Scrubs

Scrubs: Eddie Leavy Discusses Revival Reaction, AI, Astro Boy & More

Scrubs star Eddie Leavy spoke with us about his favorite Raffi scenes, Sarah Chalke, Bill Lawrence, Aseem Batra, Rachel Bilson, and more.

Published Sun, 26 Apr 2026 16:37:08 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• Scrubs revival guest star Eddie Leavy breaks down Raffi’s fan response, praising the character’s weirdness, honesty, and charm.
• Leavy highlights his favorite Scrubs scene with Sarah Chalke and explains why Raffi’s early moments helped define the role.
• Discussing Scrubs episode “My Angel,” Leavy shares his complicated views on AI and its growing impact on entertainment jobs.
• Leavy recalls the Astro Boy gag in “My Best Friend’s Barbecue” and praises the Scrubs finale, Rachel Bilson, and Bill Lawrence.

With season one of the Scrubs revival in the books, or "season 10" if you want to be technical, the circle is complete on Zach Braff's Dr. John "J.D." Dorin's homecoming at Sacred Heart as the new Chief of Medicine, taking over for his mentor, Dr. Perry Cox (John C. McGinley). As we're also reunited with familiar faces like J.D.'s best friend Dr. Christopher Turk (Donald Faison), Dr. Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke), and Nurse Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes), we're also acclimated to a new generation of staffers Sibby Wilson (Vanessa Bayer), Dr. Kevin Park (Joel Kim Booster), Nurse Raymond (X Mayo), Nurse Dubois (Michael James Scott), and a new class of interns. In part one, Leavy spoke to Bleeding Cool about his three-episode run on the revival season on ABC, embracing Raffi's "weirdness and honesty," his favorite scene, how he feels about AI following the themed episode "My Angel," the infamous end credit scene with "Doctor Face," and smuggling an Astro Boy figure through customs, and his favorite scene of the season.

Scrubs: Eddie Leavy on Embracing Raffi's Quirks, Sarah Chalke, and More

BC: After Raffi made his debut on Scrub, you came in at two more episodes, with the one with the AI in "My Angel" and the ending scene of "My Best Friend's Barbeque" with the infamous Astro Boy scene. What has the fans' reaction been to those episodes?

Leavy: Being part of this world has been incredible, and having people respond to the character is so fulfilling. People seem to really like him with his weirdness and his honesty [laughs]. He's very honest about the things that he does and the things that he wants. One of my favorite scenes was the one I got to do with Sarah Chalke [in "My Rom-Com"], because it felt so character-defining in that moment. It's been a great reaction.

I was wondering, since your character, Raffi, and Zach's character, J.D., in episode 5 had relationships with AI, what's Eddie's relationship with AI?

Oh, wow! I think the conversation around AI is really complicated, and I do want to educate myself more on the different nuances. I've listened to podcasts, interviews, and whatnot with people, outweighing the pros and cons. I know in my industry, especially, there's a lot of fear about how quickly things are moving. It breaks my heart that so many people are working less in my industry. Again, AI is looming over entertainment as a thing that can cost a lot of people a lot of jobs, and that concerns me. I want people to be able to work, and to be able to have humans create our art and humans write scripts. I don't know if you're familiar with The Comeback, but the new season of The Comeback, I think, is doing a great job of having that conversation around AI, especially within the entertainment industry. It's so ongoing, and it's moving so rapidly that… I think my own thoughts about it sort of ebb and flow every day.

Regarding "My Best Friend's Barbecue" and that wonderful ending. Did they throw Astro Boy at you, or was it your idea? Was there another figure, maybe in mind?

No, it was always Astro Boy in the script, which was so fun. I read that, and that was a special episode to shoot. We shot that a week before Christmas, and it was like the perfect sort of holiday send-off to come in and shoot that scene. We did a bunch of different versions of it. It was one of those days when you're on set as an actor, and you feel like it's all working. It's all coming together. Randall [Keenan Winston], our incredible director, was playing, Zach was bringing ideas, and that was the first time I got to work with some of the interns. It was really fun because I think Jacob [Dudman] even said this in one of his interviews. I kept doing my thing, and he kept breaking, and they had to have their "doctor face" in that moment, which I thought that through line in the episode was just so great.

That was probably one of my favorite episodes of the season from beginning to end. I thought it was such a strong episode. It was such a memorable day, because I think by then I that was my third episode, so I was getting a little more comfortable with being on set, being in that environment, and working with those people. To have that all come together, it was just such a great experience, and I went back on that plane home for the holidays on the ultimate high.

Did you have a favorite moment overall?

Oh my gosh! The finale ["My Celebration], I thought…shout out to Rachel Bilson. I thought she was so great in the finale. I got to meet her at the premiere, and she was so lovely and kind. I'm excited to see where that character could go. I thought Bill Lawrence was so good at bringing all these characters together. Obviously, Aseem Batra is the showrunner of the show, but in a Bill Lawrence world. That last scene with everyone dancing and coming together, and there were so many exciting tidbits and crumbs of what could happen in a season two with the interns and again, with Rachel Bilson, Zach, and everybody. How could your heart not feel so full after that final scene? I know I said this last time, but just the through line between Turk and JD and them seeing their friendship as adults and seeing that love between two men. They did such an incredible job with that throughout the entire season.

Were any of your scenes from the season cut?

I don't know. We all know on TV, especially on network TV, that 21 and a half minutes is such a short run time, and I was very fortunate, where I think all my scenes made it in there.

You can stream all 10 seasons of Scrubs, which also stars Ava Bunn, David Gridley, Amanda Morrow, and Layla Mohammadi, on Hulu.

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