Ellen Pompeo admits she was ‘salty’ that Patrick Dempsey was paid more on ‘Grey’s’ Anatomy’ after ‘13 failed TV pilots’
Ellen Pompeo got candid on the pay gap between herself and her former “Grey’s Anatomy” co-star Patrick Dempsey at the start of the ABC drama.
The actress, 55, who has portrayed Meredith Grey since the season premiere in 2005, revealed that while she understood why Dempsey, 59, made more money at the time, it still felt unfair.
“To be completely fair, the television game was so different then. He had done 13 pilots before me…” Pompeo said on Wednesday’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “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.”
Pompeo added that “Grey’s” was her first TV pilot, explaining, “He was a bigger star than I was at that point. No one knew who I was. Everybody knew who he was, so he did deserve that money.”
However, the “Good American Family” star felt since her character was the “namesake of the show,” she “deserved the same and then that was harder to get.”
“I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got,” Pompeo continued. “I was salty that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him and they never will.”
Pompeo ended up negotiating a new contract for herself, and by 2018, she had become the highest-paid actress in a television drama, raking in $20 million per season.
“Being raised in a mafia culture, I always want to pay respect to the people that deserve respect,” Pompeo explained about her decision to tell Shonda Rhimes, the show’s creator, that she would be asking for more money.
Rhimes’ team then showed the star the series’ statistics, which helped Pompeo plead her case.
“I see exactly how much ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ makes for ABC/Disney,” she expressed. “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 ABC hit show is currently in its 21st season, with Pompeo now serving as a supporting character and a producer.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew that I really couldn’t do ‘Grey’s’ anymore,” she confessed. “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 actress also opened up about the one sex scene she didn’t enjoy doing on the series.
Pompeo’s Meredith and T.R. Knight’s George O’Malley had sex in Season 2 of “Grey’s Anatomy,” which was uncomfortable for the real-life pals to get through.
“T.R. and I are such good friends and we had to do a love scene and we were both crying,” she told host Alex Cooper.
“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,” Pompeo said.
The co-stars were then asked to redo the scene.
“In your worst nightmare to have to do it one time, we had to reshoot that s–t…,” Pompeo admitted.
“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.”
Pompeo is currently starring in the new Hulu series “Good American Family,” which debuted on March 19.
