Ellen Pompeo is getting candid on her time at Grey Sloan Memorial.
The actress, 55, has starred on “Grey’s Anatomy” for 21 seasons after the medical drama first premiered in 2005, but she isn’t receiving life-changing residuals on streaming platforms.
“Them having the ability to use my voice, my likeness, my image, 47 billion minutes a year and not paying me a penny wouldn’t really feel great to me,” Pompeo told Variety on Tuesday after receiving her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “People don’t stream the last 10 years more than they stream the first 10 years. Most people stream the first 10 years the most, and there’s no residual structures for any of those writers, actors, directors.”
“That, to me, is really shitty and really unfair,” she went on. “So, me being on the show a little bit and still getting to at least make money from them profiting off of us is more digestible for me. That’s why I stay on, to be honest.”
Despite low residuals, playing Meredith Grey has allowed Pompeo to meet viewers that have connected with her character on a deeper level.
The “Good American Family” star said she is “overwhelmed” at the fact that the ABC series “provided comfort to people in their absolute worst moments.”
“I’ve had the chance to meet and shake hands and hug so many young people who are so sad,” Pompeo continued. “That alone leads the actress to “try to stop and see people and see their pain and just look them in the eye and acknowledge them. If that brings people some comfort, then I guess that’s something I want to say I’m called to do. Every once in a while, a character comes along that moves people. It’s not often that comes along. I’m trying to embrace it with as much grace and gratitude as I can.”
These days, the “Art Heist” alum has stepped back as the lead and instead acts as a supporting character and a producer. Despite garnering a nomination at the Golden Globes in 2007 for best actress, the “Law & Order” vet has never taken home an award for her work.
“To keep a show on the air for 20 years, I have to be somewhat talented, but I’ve never been critically recognized,” Pompeo admitted to the outlet. “I think I’ve worked so hard and for so long that, yeah, I’d like a little bit of probably a pat on the back from someone to think I have some sort of talent.”
In March, Pompeo revealed why she decided to take a step back from “Grey’s Anatomy” while on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew that I really couldn’t do ‘Grey’s’ anymore,” she told host Alex Cooper at the time. “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.”
During her time on “Grey’s,” Pompeo also made waves as she vigorously fought to make equal pay.
Pompeo argued that she should make the same amount of money as her then co-star, Patrick Dempsey, who was her love interest on the show.
By 2018, the Hollywood star had become the highest-paid actress in a television drama — bringing home $20 million per season.
“To be completely fair, the television game was so different then. He had done 13 pilots before me,” Pompeo shared, adding that the “Dexter” star, 59, had a quote that was much higher than her own.
“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 noted, “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. 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.”
“I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got,” she reiterated. “I was salty that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him, and they never will.”
