Hollywood Left Astonished: Jeffrey Dean Morgan Reveals He’s Never Auditioned Since Denny Duquette Role—Grey’s Anatomy Star’s Candid Confession Sends Ripples Through Industry, Redefining Stardom and Opportunity as Fans and Casting Directors Alike Grapple With the Unimaginable Ease of His Meteoric Rise and Enduring Career Momentum

The “Walking Dead” star tells PEOPLE his “whole career launched” in his 40s after his breakthrough performance on ABC’s hit medical drama

Jeffrey Dean Morgan; the actor as Denny Duquette on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.Credit : Vivien Killilea/Getty; Randy Holmes/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

NEED TO KNOW

Jeffrey Dean Morgan credits his time on Grey’s Anatomy for a slew of hit roles that followed

He reveals in an interview with PEOPLE that he’s never auditioned since playing Denny Duquette in seasons 2 and 3 of the ABC medical drama

The actor has stepped into a hosting role for the first time in NBC’s new competition series, Destination X

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is best known for playing Negan, the unpredictable, foul-mouthed, bat-wielding showman of the apocalypse in The Walking Dead universe. However, the hit character may never have come to pass if not for a “life-changing” role on Grey’s Anatomy.

“That show honestly gave me a career. I was doing that, Weeds and Supernatural simultaneously… I’ve auditioned zero times since playing Denny Duquette,” Morgan, 59, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

The Seattle native first won over fans 19 years ago on the ABC medical drama as the dreamy heart transplant patient who appears in seasons 2 and 3 and who proposes to Katherine Heigl’s Dr. Izzie Stevens on his deathbed. Morgan credits the breakthrough performance with launching his career in his 40s after years of failed pilots and guest star spots.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Denny Duquette and Katherine Heigl as Izzie Stevens on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.Byron Cohen/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

“I’d been kicking around Hollywood for a long time, but nobody certainly knew who I was,” says Morgan. “My whole career launched out of that character.”

“P.S. I Love You I got because of that show,” Morgan says of his starring role in the 2007 rom-com opposite Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler.

“[Director] Zack Snyder told me that he cast me in Watchmen because he saw me as Denny. How you watch Denny and go, ‘Well, that’s the nihilistic comedian right there,’ is beyond me,” Morgan quips of his 2009 comic-book film character.

In 2015, Morgan revealed at PasCon that he was offered the coveted role of The Walking Dead villain, a part he was all too eager to accept despite initially receiving very few details.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan with his bat, Lucille, on ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’.Robert Clark/AMC

“My agent and manager called. They said, ‘You’ve been offered this thing on The Walking Dead,’” Morgan revealed in a panel clip that was uploaded to YouTube. “It’s to play a big bad. At that time, they didn’t know the character’s name because I think it was supposed to be a secret.”

But Morgan knew immediately.

“And I’m like, ‘Is it f—— Negan?’ And they’re like, ‘I don’t know, we’re going to have to call you back.’ And I’m like, ‘No, it’s f—— Negan. And I’m f—— doing it,’” Morgan said in 2015.

In recent years, Morgan has appeared in a variety of projects, including The Good Wife, Invincible and The Boys, typically playing a similar smooth-talking, charming rogue. He’s also still playing Negan a decade later on The Walking Dead‘s spinoff series, TWD: Dead City.

But recently, Morgan decided to step outside of his comfort zone and into the role of TV show host for NBC’s competition series Destination X. It marks yet another gig that fell into his lap.

“I’m still not actually completely sure how the hell this happened,” he tells PEOPLE. “I am not like a typical host. I’m not Ryan Seacrest — who I love, and I think he’s excellent at his job — but that’s not me. I’m a bit on the crass side and I’ve got a very sarcastic sense of humor, and I didn’t picture it.”

Producers knew they had their man, but Morgan needed a little more convincing.

“It was my wife [Hilarie Burton Morgan] who said, ‘You know what?’ She came from this world. She came from the world of hosting,” he says, referring to her gig on MTV’s Total Request Live in the early 2000s. “She said — in a very nice way, but much more diplomatic than I’m going to make it seem now — ‘You’re not getting any younger. You’ve got this thing about you that it would be fun for you to be able to share that with the world, and you may have an opportunity to do that [by] hosting a show like this.’”

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is host of ‘Destination X’.Matteo Graia/NBC

Based on a Belgian competition series, the reality show follows players as they travel across Europe on a blacked-out bus and attempt to solve their location each week through various challenges. The contestant whose guess is farthest from their destination gets the boot.

“I spent a month and a half in Europe being a weird, fun host, and it was great,” Morgan says. “I had so much fun being the ringmaster of the circus.”

He adds, “It’s an opportunity to do something new, and I sort of relish in that still, at the ripe old age of whatever I may be,” he says. “I had a great time. It was really fun.”

No matter what roles come his way, though, Grey’s Anatomy lives rent-free in Morgan’s mind. As new generations discover the series, people still come up to him asking if he’s Denny.

“I think about him a lot,” Morgan says of his character. “Every now and again, I’ll see something on social media, a scene or something, and I’m just like, ‘F—.’”

“I still wake up every day, and I say my little thank you to [creator] Shonda Rhimes,” he adds. “It was lightning in a bottle, and it gave me the opportunity to have a career.”

Destination X airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.