\n<\/p>\n
After 19 seasons on TV\u2019s longest-running prime-time medical drama, Ellen Pompeo<\/strong> temporarily scrubbed out<\/a> of the series for a plum role on her new Hulu drama, Good American Family<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> \u201cThere\u2019s a tremendous amount of pressure on me,\u201d she previously told Vanity Fair.<\/em> \u201cWhy would anybody believe that I could do anything other than play Meredith Grey, myself included?\u201d<\/p>\n To help reintroduce herself, Pompeo stopped by Alex Cooper<\/strong>\u2019s Call Her Daddy<\/em> podcast<\/a> to talk about her nearly two decades on Grey\u2019s Anatomy,<\/em> a series that\u2019s been known to foster drama both onscreen<\/a> and\u2014as VF<\/em> has extensively<\/a> reported<\/a>\u2014behind the scenes.<\/p>\n Not all storylines on the hit ABC show are created equal<\/a>, as Pompeo saw firsthand while filming her character\u2019s regrettable one-night stand with T.R. Knight<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s George O\u2019Malley. \u201cT.R. and I are such good friends,\u201d Pompeo told Cooper during the March 19 episode, \u201cand we had to do a love scene, and we were both crying.\u201d<\/p>\n The season two encounter was \u201cso uncomfortable and awkward,\u201d she recalled. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to do that. I didn\u2019t want to do it. When we filmed it, it was so bad, and then the network said there was too much thrusting.\u201d After receiving studio feedback on the episode, Pompeo and Knight had to get back beneath the sheets. \u201cIn your worst nightmare, to have to do it one time\u2014we had to reshoot that shit,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had to reshoot it and do it twice.\u201d<\/p>\n To this day, \u201cI\u2019ve never watched that scene,\u201d said Pompeo, who also serves as an executive producer on Grey\u2019s.<\/em> \u201cI don\u2019t know how it was shot or covered or how it was edited, but I\u2019m full-on in tears the whole entire scene, and those are real tears.\u201d<\/p>\n Suffice it to say, Pompeo has more than earned her $575,000-per-episode paycheck<\/a> for the series. But as the actor told Cooper, she struggled to reach pay parity<\/a> with her costar and original onscreen love interest, Patrick Dempsey<\/a>.<\/strong> \u201cHe had done, like, 13 pilots before me. That was my first pilot I had ever done,\u201d Pompeo said of their start on the show, which debuted in 2005. \u201cBack in those days\u2014you know, I don\u2019t know if they still do this or not\u2014you had a quote, and with every TV pilot you did, you got your quote, which was whatever it was. So if you\u2019ve done 13 TV pilots\u2014and, nothing personal to him, but just in general, only a man can have 13 failed TV pilots and their quote still keeps going up, right? But in all fairness, his quote was what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n She added, \u201cHe 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. I\u2019m not saying he didn\u2019t deserve that money. It\u2019s just, being that I was the namesake of the show, I deserved the same. And then that was harder to get.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n