Fans fell in love withPatrick Dempseyin 1987’sCan’t Buy Me Loveor as JFK-esque fiancé Andrew Hennings in 2002’sSweet Home Alabama.Not to mention, as neurosurgeon Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd on ABC’sGrey’s Anatomy.
But the actor, 57, who was just crowned PEOPLE’s 2023Sexiest Man Alive, jokes he’s been in an awkward phase “pretty much my entire life.”
During his childhood in Maine, “I needed to be moving all the time. Lot of sports, baseball, soccer, skiing, cycling,” theFerrariactor tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “I had dyslexia, so the classroom was never happy, and I was really a late bloomer.”
In his youth, Dempsey joined a vaudeville troupe and rode a unicycle while juggling. “People are very enthusiastic when you juggle,” he says. “That helped my confidence a lot.”
Patrick Dempsey.Carter Smith
Carter Smith
The actor says the key now is maturity and wisdom. “I think it helps when you get older,” he explains. “You go through cycles of life, so you understand there are going to be high and low moments and what are the most important things. Everything else is a gift.”
Despite his heartthrob status over the years, “I’m glad it’s happening at this point in my life,” he says of his new title. “It’s nice to have the recognition, and certainly my ego takes a little bump, but it gives me the platform to use it for something positive.”
Closest to his heart isthe Dempsey Center,which he founded in honor of his late mom Amanda, who died in 2014 after a longtime battle with ovarian cancer.
As for his mom, “I think she’d be proud,” Dempsey adds. “We founded it in 2008, and one of the things that kept her going was going into the Center. She would come in and talk to people who were newly diagnosed. There’s a lot of healing between both people in those moments.”
For more on 2023’s Sexiest Man Alive, pick up this week’s issue ofPeople, on newsstands Friday.
He does arguably have some of the best hair in Hollywood. “It took four hours this morning to get it like this,” he says, laughing. “It’s all smoke and mirrors.”
Ferrariis in theaters Christmas Day. For more information on the Dempsey Center, visitdempseycenter.org.
source: people.com
