It’s a compliment to Dempsey, who ultimately did perfect the smolder on Grey’s Anatomy, but I’m not so sure that Lowe couldn’t have nailed the part in his own way, and not just because he was a teen heartthrob and Emmy-nominated star of The West Wing who now lives a mile away from a royal prince.
In other words, Rob Lowe doesn’t suppose he could have made the character into the husky heartthrob surgeon quite like Patrick Dempsey.