Jeffrey Dean Morgan gained a huge amount of fans after appearing on the hit TV
series Grey’s Anatomy. In fact, two of his Grey’s fans were instrumental in getting
Morgan cast in the romantic comedy P.S. I Love You starring Hilary Swank and
Gerard Butler. Writer/director Richard LaGravenese’s wife and daughter made him
watch a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy just to check out Morgan. LaGravenese
agreed with the women in his life and Morgan joined the P.S. I Love You troupe.

Morgan plays an Irish hunk who catches the eye of recent widow Holly Kennedy
(Swank) while playing guitar and singing, two musical skills Morgan didn’t have
prior to P.S. I Love You. “I have not a musical bone in my body,” admitted Morgan.
“It was the first time I’d even held a guitar. And certainly my singing voice, other
than me in the shower – I think it’s spectacular – I don’t know that anyone else
would particularly like it. But getting the opportunity to do it was great.”

“I don’t know if you talked to Gerry [Butler] but we got a week’s worth of lessons from
Nancy Wilson, which was one of the coolest things that could have ever happened,
especially for me. I’m from Seattle and always had a huge crush on Nancy as a kid.
When she opened up her door I think I turned like crimson. I was like, ‘Oh my god,
it’s my childhood crush!’ So it was a helluva opportunity. I still have my guitar from
the movie and at some point I’d actually like to learn more, because really I learned
how to play one song – the song that I play.”

Another special skill he needed just for the film was mastering an Irish accent. “The
dialect was a whole other thing. When I’d originally gone in and met with these guys
for the movie, I went in for the Harry Connick role. They really liked me but they were
having trouble finding an Irishman with as much appeal as I brought to it. And
Ritchie [LaGravenese] asked me if I wouldn’t mind coming back. Like, ‘Come back
tomorrow and do this Irish accent,’ and I had no clue. Other than like a leprechaun
on a Lucky Charms commercial, I didn’t know where to begin. So I hired a dialect
coach for like an hour, thinking, ‘Oh god, this isn’t going to work at all, but there’s
always that role of Daniel. I’ll get that one.’ And then they gave it to me. They actually
said, ‘Oh, it’s pretty good.’ I was still stunned and amazed.”

Practice continued once the cast landed in Ireland. “When we got to Ireland, both
Gerry and I had to work endlessly with dialect coaches and try and figure out what
part of the country. You drive a mile down the road in Ireland and the dialect
changes. Trying to get on the same page with Gerry was just a nightmare in itself. To
have the same dialect, because we obviously grew up together, was a challenge. But
I think we worked it out.”

Morgan ventured out to pubs to try out his accent. “Guinness is the key to all things in
Ireland,” laughed Morgan. “Have a couple of those and sure, I was trying out the
accent. I got slapped a couple of times but you know, a guy’s got
to do what a guy’s got to do.”

Sounding surprised, Morgan said the Irish people were very sweet to the P.S. I Love
You group. But, he added, not everyone approved of his Irish accent. “I remember
doing a scene in a pub and one of the extras I saw in the background was rolling his
eyes. And so I went up to him and I was like, ‘What?’ And he’s like, ‘That’s not how we
would say it at all.’ I was like, ‘Say the words? Would the words be different or is my dialect just horrible?’ He says, ‘A little bit of both.’ [Laughing] So I actually used the
extras a lot. My dialect coach was so specific but then as you get amongst the people,
you know everyone has their kind of opinion. They want to say, ‘You are doing this or
you’re saying this,’ and would have different inflections than what the dialect coach -
who’s super anal - is going to tell you. I did the best I could. I probably could have
worked on that accent for another year and not been comfortable with it because you
just want it to be as real as it can be. But I think we pulled it off, I’d like to say.”

Even in Ireland Morgan couldn’t escape Grey’s Anatomy fans, not that he’d want to if
he could. “I don’t know that it matters where I go anymore. Grey’s is going to follow
me wherever I am in the world. Everyone knows Denny. They don’t know my name,
but they know Denny. It doesn’t matter where I go, I hear ‘Denny’ from across the
room or wherever. It happened in Ireland. My arc had just started airing in Ireland
so as we were there, as the weeks progressed, more and more people would recognize
me. It was great. I don’t expect to go to my supermarket and get recognized, much less
go to a different country so it always flatters me a great deal.”