Ellen Pompeo
speaker
140 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Ellen Pompeo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Or they see Meredith and they think that's me and that's who I am. But really, I'm... really very different. Right. And probably should have been on The Sopranos more, more than Grey's Anatomy.
Well, I always – I didn't know what I was going to do. I just knew that I really couldn't do Grey's anymore. Yeah. Um, that it was to the point where I really just felt like, you know, an animal at the zoo. Like I, and even if in, like I said, I'm a big believer in destiny and I thought if there's something else I'm meant to do, it's going to find me. And, uh, but, but I know I have to leave this.
And sometimes, you know, you'd like opportunities to come while you're doing something. So you have an easy exit, you have a soft landing. Um, And it turns out I actually did get a soft landing because I still did both. But I was sort of thinking, like, nothing's coming along. And I really believe in this town. If they want you, they will find you. I'm on TV for 20 years. The biggest show ever.
Like, everybody knows who I am. Clearly, these people don't want me. They're not coming for me. No one's offering me this. No one's offering me that. I mean, I've been offered a few things, obviously, but, like, could never make it work. And everyone's always just like, well – We're not going to offer Ellen this because there's no way she can get out of her Grey's commitment.
And, you know, for the most part, you shoot network television 10 months out of the year. So I had always committed to that. And then there's no room to do anything else. Now it's a little easier because you don't – you shoot 15 episodes. You know, they've really reduced the orders on network television now. Um, but anyway, I had really stepped away and I had said, I really, I have to step away.
I can't do it anymore. And if nothing else comes, nothing else comes. It's my destiny. No one wants me. That's okay. I can swallow that pill like I swallow everything else. And, um, at least I'm financially okay. And then I got the script, um, which Laura Holstein, who's sitting outside, she, um, I think brought it to me with my agent and, uh, and, and,
And my agent said, and I said, why would we do this? How will we pull this off? This is kind of tricky stuff. This world, social media, TikTok, documentaries, cancel culture, all of it, you know, It's all a lot, and this is tricky subject matter, and this looks like walking through a landmine. I don't know why we would do this.
And then he said, you've always said if there was something so different and so crazy in a character that was just a complete 180 from everything you've done that you'd love to do it, to challenge yourself and to prove that you can. And this is it.
It does happen to be tricky subject matter and we're dealing with child abuse and disabled children and a lot of neurodivergent children and a lot of tricky subject matter. But if you really want to take a turn and you really want to flip shit, Ellen, this is the moment right here. And so it's an offer, you know, they want you to do this and you should just go for it.
I think the first thing I started with was every mother... has the intention and the maternal biological crazy instinct to literally do anything for your kids. You can lift a car off your kid if you had to, right? It's this otherworldly strength that you have to want to love your children, protect your children, and you will do anything to give them the best chance. So I started from that.
And then what happens when you have the best of intentions and shit just doesn't go the way you thought it was going to go? So I think that we have a lot of expectations and especially when people have children, you expect your child's going to be super cute. You're going to dress them up super cute.
You're going to put them in little dresses and they're going to look just like you and they're going to do everything you say and they're going to go to bed when you tell them and it's just going to be awesome. But sometimes you have a kid who's like, we're not doing that today. I'm going to throw this on the floor. I'm going to knock this over. You know, whatever.
And as a parent, there's a lot attached. Parenting is a lot about ego. Because you do expect this person to do everything you tell them to do. You want them to be exactly who you want them to be. But the truth is, they're not. They come out... who they are.
Can't do any of that. And we really did create like our writers. And this is the interesting thing about fiction and drama and entertainment is we can create our own narrative. And the idea that your truth is different than my truth. The two of us can sit here today. I mean, this is maybe a bad example because we're having a great time and it's love fest.
But like, we come away from this with two different versions of what happened.
Which is so often the case. You've been, you know, in situations with people where this person thinks this thing and this person thinks this thing. And you're like, wait, I didn't think that at all. That's what she thought. I was doing this. And they took it as this. So that's another one of our complicated human conditions is like your opinion and your version of events is different than mine.
Everybody sees things differently. And we're certainly dealing with that in our country right now. So we're telling this story from a lot of different perspectives, which makes it complex and interesting. Because you think you know what this story is. People think they know what this story is. There was the movie Orphan that was done years ago. And
People are like seeing the trailer and they're like, oh, I know what that is. No, you don't. Like, we're smarter than that. Give us some credit, please. We've thought of everything. And we've been thoughtful. And we're like, what if it was this? What if it was this? What if it wasn't this? What if it was this? Wow. And we're giving you a lot to think about.
Yeah. Because also what I love is like, did you see Jane Fonda on the SAG Awards? Like her consistency, right? I love consistency. I love consistency. Yes, she's that bitch. She's exactly who she's always been. She was that then, got canceled for it in the 70s when she was speaking up about us killing children in a war. And she's still speaking up and she's still using her voice.
So I guess that being said, I'd really like my legacy to be someone who used my voice, my privilege, and my power to help other people.
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