‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Ellen Pompeo Reveals ‘Uncomfortable’ Sex Scene That Made Her Cry, Details Fight for Equal Pay: ‘I Am the Disney Princess of That Franchise’
In a lengthy new interview, "Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo opens up about her cringy sex scenes and fighting for equal pay.
While Ellen Pompeo views her former “Grey’s Anatomy” costar T.R. Knight as one of her closest friends, their love scene during Season 2 was one of her least favorite memories on set.
“TR and I are such good friends and we had to do a love scene and we were both crying,” Pompeo said on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, recounting the love scene between Meredeth and Geroge O’Malley in Season 2. “The scene was so uncomfortable and awkward. He didn’t want to do that, I didn’t want to do it. When we filmed it, it was so bad. And then the network said there was too much thrusting.”
She continued, “In your worst nightmare to have to do it one time, we had to reshoot that shit… I’ve never watched that scene. I’ve never seen it. I don’t know how it was shot or covered or how it was edited but I’m full-on in tears the whole entire scene and those are real tears. There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t want to do at the time.”
T.R. Knight and Ellen Pompeo ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection
During the episode, Pompeo also talked about her decision to step away from the show; while she is still a supporting character and a producer on the ABC drama, she’s turned her attention to her new drama, “Good American Family,” which debuts on Hulu on Wednesday.
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“I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew that I really couldn’t do ‘Grey’s’ anymore,” Pompeo said. “It was to the point where I really just felt like an animal at the zoo. I’m a big believer in destiny. I thought, if there’s something else I’m meant to do, it’s gonna find me. But I know I have to leave this.”
The interview covered a great deal of topics, including Pompeo’s marriage, children and journey to asking for more money on the drama. In 2018, she became the highest-paid actress in a TV drama, raking in $20 million a season. Prior to that, her costar, Patrick Dempsey, was making more than her and she made the argument that they should be paid the same.
“To be completely fair, the television game was so different then. He had done 13 pilots before me,” she said, explaining that his quote was much higher than hers. “Nothing personal to him, just in general, only a man can have 13 failed TV pilots and their quote keeps going up, right? But in all fairness, his quote was what it was. He was a bigger star than I was at that point. No one knew who I was. Everybody knew who I was, so he did deserve that money. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that money. It’s just, being that I was the namesake of the show, I deserved the same and that was harder to get.”
She added, “I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got. I was salty that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him, and they never will.”
Pompeo explained that she went to Shonda Rhimes to let her know she would be asking for more money, not because she had to but because she trusted her.
“Being raised in a mafia culture, I always want to pay respect to the people that deserve respect,” she said. Her team was then able to show her the statistics from the show’s impact, which prepared her to fight for her salary. “I see exactly how much ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ makes for ABC/Disney. I get to see the number. It’s my face, it’s my voice. I’ve done so much work promoting the show all over the world for the past 20 years. I am the Disney princess of that franchise.”
The full episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast is below: