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Ellen Pompeo Recalls Being ‘Salty’ As She Wasn’t Valued More on Grey’s Anatomy Despite Patrick Dempsey’s 13 Failed Pilots
Ellen Pompeo speaks about her experience on Grey's Anatomy, admitting her long-standing frustration at feeling underappreciated, especially when compared to co-star Patrick Dempsey.
Ellen Pompeo recently shared her experience of being on Grey's Anatomy, exposing the frustration she harbored for all those years being undervalued as the star of the show despite being one — especially compared to co-star Patrick Dempsey, who at first had a better salary despite having had 13 failed pilots.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Pompeo talked about her experience on the cult-favorite medical drama, stepping back from the leading role, and making a transition to Hulu's Good American Family.
She also plunged into the fight she waged to earn equal pay, eventually reaching the status of highest-paid actress in a television drama in 2018, earning $20 million a season.
Pompeo recognized that Dempsey's greater salary was understandable initially. He was a more veteran actor with higher name recognition, and she was not well known. She said, "To be completely fair, the television game was so different then. He had done 13 pilots before me."
From a business standpoint, his fame and exposure were worth the bigger paycheck. Despite having 13 failed pilots, Pompeo noted, "[Dempsey] was a bigger star than [she] was at that point. No one knew who I was. Everybody knew who he was, so he did deserve that money. I'm not saying he didn't deserve that money. It's just that I was the namesake of the show, and I deserved the same, but that was harder to get."
She said, "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."
Nonetheless, as the series expanded with Pompeo as its core character, she felt she should be rewarded based on how she was pivotal to the foundation of the show. Prior to requesting a salary increase, Pompeo went out of her way to discuss the issue with showrunner Shonda Rhimes because the actress had faith in her.
Pompeo noted, "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."
Her anger was not against Patrick Dempsey himself but against the network's refusal to acknowledge her equal value to the success of the show. For Ellen Pompeo, the actual letdown was the ongoing industry thinking that placed greater value on male stars.
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