Ellen Pompeo has candid thoughts about her experience of “Grey’s Anatomy,” specifically regarding negotiating her salary.
In the latest episode of “Call Her Daddy,” Pompeo didn’t hold back on the pay gap between her and her former “Grey’s Anatomy” co-star Patrick Dempsey. Recognizing his status as the bigger name at the start of the series, she said he had more experience filming TV pilots than her, meaning his quote was higher.
“To be completely fair, the television game was so different then. And he had done, like, 13 pilots before me. That was my first pilot I had ever done,” Pompeo recalled.
“So if you’ve done 13 TV pilots — nothing personal to him, but just in general — only a man can fail, can have 13 failed TV pilots, and their quote still keeps going up, right?” she added.
While acknowledging that Dempsey had built a reputation in the industry before the hit ABC series began, Pompeo described feeling frustration at the disparity, as she was playing the show’s titular character.
“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,” she explained.
Starting at $15, our editors have worn these joggers everywhere from lounging to hiking the Grand Canyon
After gaining experience and seeing how the show was performing, Pompeo said she leveraged that knowledge to negotiate her salary.
“I see exactly how much ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ makes for ABC, Disney. I get to see the number,” she said. “And then, you know, 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.”
Now, the actor said she’s committed to helping women who don’t have the same insider knowledge.
“You really do have a responsibility to look and see what everybody else is making and use your power to say, ‘Listen, I appreciate what I got. This is amazing, but I happen to notice this, and I really think that all the women deserve a bump,’” she said.
