LEWISTON – Drowsy after an all-night flight from Los Angeles, Patrick Dempsey seemed happy to be in Maine.

“I always feel very comfortable and relaxed when I get here, more than anywhere else I go,” the homegrown star of TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy” said Monday. “It’s frustrating I don’t get back enough.”

Despite the red-eye flight, the Turner native looked awake, immaculately dressed in a dark blue suit and shaved to a perfect stubble.

Monday’s event was serious – aimed at establishing a center for people with cancer and their families. Dempsey stole a few moments to laugh, though.

During the official announcement of the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing, he made quips about his hair.

And one fan asked him if he needed a ride back to the airport for an afternoon flight.

He also set aside a few minutes for the Sun Journal, which first profiled him in 1983 when he was 17 and went by “Pat.”

Even then, before he’d made movies or TV shows, he seemed prepared for fame.

“It’s sort of nice to represent Maine and say, ‘We do more than make shoes and sell lobsters,'” he said in the 1983 profile, written after his acceptance into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

“I said that?” the 42-year-old actor asked Monday, laughing. “I’ve changed, certainly, a lot just because of the years that have gone by. I don’t think I’ve changed that much as a person, though.”

The decades have been kind to the teen heartthrob who starred in “Loverboy” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.” When the starring roles came back again, Dempsey re-emerged as a leading man. He earned Golden Globe nominations and lots of fan praise for his TV role as Dr. Derek Shepherd, also known as “McDreamy.”

When he blushed at the Oscar awards last month, it made headlines.

“They run out of things to say, so they make up things,” Dempsey said Monday. “You adjust. I’ve been in the business a very long time and I’ve worked hard to get to the place I’m at.”

Still, he tries to be approachable, especially here in Maine where he has a home on the coast.

“I just sort of stay at the farm,” he said. “People come up and talk.”

Dempsey was willing to answer a few questions solicited from Sun Journal readers:

Can you still juggle and ride a unicycle? Would you consider performing again with Oddfellow Theater founder Mike Miclon?

“Yes. I still juggle every now and then, sure,” he said. An appearance with his old friend and fellow juggler in Buckfield is unlikely, he said. “It would be fun if I had the time to do it. I haven’t seen him in many years and I hear he’s doing really well up there.”

Will season four of “Grey’s Anatomy” be the last?

“No,” he said.

“Have you ever been to my house?” asked Chrissy Cowen, who heard that her Auburn home once belonged to a Dempsey family member. “I want bragging rights,” said the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ fan. “I won’t lie. He’s hot.”

“No,” replied Dempsey, laughing, after he heard the address. “I haven’t been.”

Of course, the TV star was sleepy on Monday. Maybe he forgot.

However, Cowen seemed resigned to Dempsey’s answer and will remain a fan, she said, when reached later by phone.

“I’m sure he’s still hot, even with red eyes,” she said.