Actress Alex Kingston has said parting comments about TV show ER, in which she claimed producers thought she was too old to stay, were "tongue in cheek".
Kingston, who plays surgeon Elizabeth Corday in the US drama, said statements she made were "taken out of context".
The actress, 41, had said producers and writers saw her as one of "the old fogeys who are no longer interesting".
But she has now said: "We are in mutual agreement that the storyline for my character had run its course."
"Statements from an interview I recently gave were spoken tongue-in-cheek and unfortunately have been taken out of context," she said through her spokesman.
"I regret if these statements have affected the producers.
"Like other former cast members who have moved on from the show, I am looking forward to a creative and successful future."
She had told the Radio Times it was "a shock and upsetting" when the producers decided not to renew her contract.
Kingston described suddenly feeling "very old" on set, adding: "Does it mean that I'm the geriatric being pushed out because she's too old?"
Kingston, the former wife of actor Ralph Fiennes, said she also became "deeply unhappy" on the show and was aware she was being used less and less.
'Reinventing itself'
The show "definitely seems to be taking a different tone", she told the magazine.
"I understand it needs to keep reinventing itself in order to keep going, and apparently I, according to the producers, the writers, am part of the old fogeys who are no longer interesting. In that respect it's a shame," she said.
"It's fine to have young med students, but you need to have figures of authority, people of different ages, races, shapes and sizes.
"The classics are all on their way out. And what happens when they've gone, which will be very soon?"
Kingston has also suggested her $150,000 (£81,000)-per-episode salary could have counted against her.
'Run its course'
"I know for a fact that the newcomers aren't getting much at all," she said.
TV network NBC said her character had "run its course" over time.
Kingston has been in ER since the fourth series, which aired in the US from 1997. The show is now into its 10th series.
Kingston said she was returning to the UK to do a film before returning to shoot the beginning of the next series of ER.
She has remarried, to Florian Haertel, and has a daughter, Salome.
Comments