Zach Braff Speaks on Scrubs Exit & Isreal

27 November 2008

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Actor Zach Braff has confirmed his exit from TV comedy Scrubs, confessing he feels free now that he's quit his role as DR. John 'J.D.' Dorian.

The news ends long-running rumours he is leaving the hit show, along with creator Bill Lawrence and co-star Judy Reyes, after the series' eighth season, which premieres in the U.S. in January (09).

And Braff can't wait to branch out of TV and try new movie roles, because he always felt restricted while contracted to the programme.

He says, "(I left Scrubs because) there's so much I want to do with my life.

(It was) the most amazing experience of my life, but when you work on a television series, they own you."

Those two things don't really go together a lot!

Braff has already started to make full use of his newfound freedom - he's travelled to Tel Aviv, Israel and even gained his pilot's licence - things he doubts the show's insurers would have allowed him to do.

He adds, "I don't think they'd let me come here (to Tel Aviv). They wouldn't let me take flying lessons."

Meanwhile in seperate news the Scrubs star Zach Braff has urged his fellow American Jews to make a trip to Israel at least once in their lifetime - so they can experience a true sense of "community".

The actor recently flew in to Israel, where he has enjoyed doing "all the touristy things", visiting the towns of Jerusalem, Jaffa and Eilat.

But he's spent most of his time in Tel Aviv - and he's reluctant to leave.

He tells Haaretz.com, "I was a teenager (when I first came here) - I couldn't really appreciate it as much, and now I come back as an adult and I can really get the flavour of the city, and I love it. What I really wanted to do is live in the city and feel like a Tel Avivian."

And Braff admits he feels more at ease with locals in Israel than back in his native U.S.

He adds, "As an American Jew it's an amazing feeling to come to a place where you feel you belong. You know we're such a minority in the U.S. Even though I grew up in New Jersey, which was very Jewish, and then I went to school in Chicago, which was Jewish, and then I moved to New York, which is very Jewish, and then I went to Hollywood, which is very Jewish. But they say we're only two per cent of the population and shrinking because of intermarriage.

"You just feel this amazing sense of community (in Israel). We hear so much about Israel and politics with the Palestinians and you feel so separate from it. So I really wanted to see for myself.

"As a Jew I think it's really important to come to this place. There is such a tremendous sense of community, tremendous bond for obvious reasons. I don't know if Israelis have a sense of it because they live here, but I love it."

And Braff's experience has inspired him so much, he's making plans to write a movie "about an American Jew who visits Israel".

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