Sandra Oh opens up about her 'Grey's Anatomy' exit and doesn't shut the door on possibly returning 

Knowing in advance was a huge advantage for everyone involved in crafting Cristina's goodbye. "It creatively gave the writers a runway so they could plan. And I think that they planned it beautifully," she expressed. "It also gave me time to move the audience with me to say goodbye to this character and wish her well. And I think that — at least I hope — myself and the writers, we did that."

Cristina got one of the best endings on the show, which often kills off characters when their actor exits. With her still being alive, Grey's Anatomy has continued to mention Cristina and include texts or other written correspondence from her. Oh is all for that, saying, "I am glad for the show to use the character as they see fit. Absolutely. The character should still be there to service the story— and so, yay! "

Whenever she was previously asked about returning, the actress always gave a hard no. However, her answer has now changed: "As for actually physically inhabiting the character of Cristina and coming back.... For the longest time, it has always been a hard no. And it's just.... I don't know. I just don't know. When you finish something, it's a deep process.... I just cannot tell you.... I can't stress to you enough how consciously I tried to fully process leaving. I don't feel the need to revisit, but I also profoundly understand the audience's love for this character because I've seen it for the past 10 years. That's the part that makes me just go, hmmm."

New episodes of Grey's Anatomy air on Thursdays on ABC.