Work’s in L.A., heart’s in NYC
In the summer after his freshman year of high school, “Grey’s Anatomy” star Justin Chambers‘ childhood in Springfield, Ohio, was turned upside down when his parents, Pam and John, both sheriff’s deputies, were assigned to investigate two grisly murders on the outskirts of town.
Chambers, 35, talks about his “mischievous” childhood friend Rodney. A man in the neighborhood thought Rodney and some other kids were stealing from him.
“Then one day,” he recalls, “the old guy just flipped out and went to my friend’s home and shot my friend, his baby brother and their other siblings.” Then later that summer, “there was another incident where a woman and her son were butchered by her boyfriend. That’s as evil as it gets.”
Chambers drew upon these mysteries and horrors while playing the role of a protective father/police detective on the trail of the real-life 1960s Zodiac serial killer in the film “The Zodiac,” opening March 17. (Another film about the same case, called “Zodiac,” directed by David Fincher and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman and Robert Downey Jr., will be released later this year.)
At 18, Chambers left the mostly comforting confines of Springfield for Paris, where he worked as a fashion model. But he spent little time living a life akin to what he calls his “emotionally retarded” “Grey’s Anatomy” playboy rogue, Alex Karev (known in some circles as “evil spawn”).
In fact, the line from “Grey’s” theme song, “Nobody knows where they might wake up,” has not applied to Chambers since he was 22 and met his wife, Keisha, a former booker for a modeling agency.
Chambers’ 12-year marriage to Keisha is far more stable than Alex’s relationship with Izzie (Katherine Heigl), which the actor says will turn “explosive.”
During a recent break in filming, he surprised Keisha with a trip to the Turks & Caicos Islands. “It was just us, with this huge spa, on the beach, with no kids,” Chambers says.
That provided a rare break for Keisha, who has been raising their five children: Isabella, 11, twins Maya and Kaila, 8, Eva, 6, and Jackson, 4 – and the family beagle, D’Artagnan, who is named after the lead character Chambers played in “The Musketeer” – in the couple’s New York home.
“I’ve been a parent most of my adult life, so I don’t know any other way,” says Chambers, who has coached his twin girls’ soccer team. “But five is enough.”
With “Grey’s” now a solid hit, the whole brood finally will join him in Los Angeles this summer – in a rented house.
“I came out here for “Grey’s Anatomy” and didn’t know it would be such a success,” he says. “When it’s over, I’m out! Back in New York, which will always be my home.”
The birthday bunch
Actress Margaret O’Brien (“Meet Me In St. Louis”) is 70. Singer Captain Beefheart is 66. Actress Andrea Martin is 60. Actor-director Mario Van Peebles is 50. Actor James Nesbitt (“Waking Ned Devine”) is 42. Singer Lisa Lisa of Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam is 40. Actor Chad Lowe is 39. Actress Regina King is 36. Actor Eddie Cahill (“CSI: New York”) is 29.