Jesse Williams Cherishes A Gross (But Fun) Grey’s Anatomy On-Set Tradition – Looper

Jesse Williams, who played Dr. Jackson Avery on “Grey’s Anatomy” for 12 seasons and earned nicknames like “Pretty Boy” and “Mr. Monopoly,” has a strange habit of watching his co-stars eat hot meals.

Specifically, according to an interview with E! Insider, he got a kick out of an unusual tradition. “Once or twice a year, we do eating contests — cast and crew eating contests,” Williams stated. “It’s gross, but you get to watch all these glamorous people in makeup, pigging out with no hands, trying to eat banana splits and hot dogs. It’s really unpleasant, um, but it’s pretty fun.”

It sounds like fun, and fun’s fun, but you know what isn’t fun? Boerhaave syndrome is the spontaneous tearing of the esophagus that can result from too much strain — exactly the kind of strain that one would be likely to experience during an eating contest. That sort of thing only leads to coaches checking their patients out of medical care so that they can attend a competition, inadvertently sabotaging their student’s career thanks to blind ambition and an unwillingness to listen. Or maybe we’re conflating reality with “Grey’s Anatomy” Season 2, Episode 14, “Tell Me Sweet Little Lies.” We do that sometimes.