T.R. Knight Reveals This Part of the Grey’s Anatomy Set Made Him Cry When He Revisited (Exclusive)

T.R. Knight admits he got a bit teary visiting the Grey’s Anatomy set years after his departure from the show.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE ahead of his appearance on stage with Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Knight shares how one visit to the set of the beloved medical drama “got me in my feelings.”

After briefly reprising his role as George O’Malley to meet with Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) in her dreams as she battled COVID-19, Knight says he revisited the set once again to shadow Chandra Wilson as she directed her 24th episode of the show. Wilson has appeared on more than 400 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and has directed a handful of them since 2009.

“That was interesting because that was revisiting all the sets. That was being back in the space, in the house — which has changed so much. In the hospital set — which has changed so much,” Knight recalls. “But some things haven’t changed — like the bar is still there and hasn’t changed. So that had a little bit of a surreal quality for me. I remember walking around with Chandra and being like, ‘Oh my God, this is crazy.’ “

But of all of the filming locations Knight saw while shadowing Wilson, he reveals it’s Meredith Grey’s house that had him tearing up a bit when he revisited.

“Being back in Meredith’s house was actually surprisingly the most emotional,” he says. “Everything else seemed surreal, but being back in the house — and in the kitchen, oddly enough, I don’t know why, specifically in the kitchen —  it got me in the feelings a little bit. My eyes got a little wet with the salt water.”

Not only was Meredith’s house the central meeting point for many of the show’s core cast members, who would hang out and drink or throw the occasional party after a long shift at the hospital, but George eventually moved into one of the spare bedrooms after moving out of his parents’ place.

Knight was a recurring member of Grey’s Anatomy for five seasons before his character was ultimately killed off. The season 5 finale saw George get his by a bus, and it wasn’t until the season 6 premiere that the other doctors realized the John Doe they were trying to save was George.