Ellen Pompeo And Denzel Washington's Relationship in Grey's Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey reunited on a podcast to talk about ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

“Grey’s Anatomy” has had its fair share of behind-the-scenes drama. Just recently, former cast member Isaiah Washington revealed that he almost played Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd on the show — but he ultimately didn’t land the role because of Ellen Pompeo. “I didn’t audition for Burke, I auditioned for McDreamy,” Washington explained in an excerpt from the book “How to Save a Life” by Entertainment Weekly editor-at-large Lynette Rice.

“I had a beard and Afro and was going for a Ben Carson character at the time,” he continued. “Shonda and I thought it was a great idea to represent a brain surgeon who looked like Dr. Ben Carson. That didn’t go that way.” Allegedly, Washington didn’t get the part because Pompeo didn’t want him as her love interest. “There’s a rumor out there or something that Ellen didn’t want me to be her love interest because she had a Black boyfriend [Chris Ivery].”

“The context is that she’s not into white men,” he continued. “I guess she implied that her boyfriend may have had a problem with her doing love scenes with me, so she felt uncomfortable. I supported her with that.” As fans will know, Washington was let go from the ABC show in 2007, after he allegedly used gay slurs onset (per the New York Post). Though Pompeo has yet to comment on Washington’s claims, she did speak about her tense on-set relationship with Denzel Washington.

Ellen Pompeo and Denzel Washington clashed over one particular line

Denzel Washington once worked behind the scenes of “Grey’s Anatomy” as a director on Season 12. Titled “The Sound of Silence,” the Washington-directed episode aired in February 2016 and saw Ellen Pompeo’s character (Dr. Meredith Grey) brutally attacked by a patient at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (via Grey’s Anatomy Fandom).

While taping one scene from the episode, Pompeo yelled out a line that wasn’t included in the script, which didn’t sit well with Washington. “I was like, ‘Look at me when you apologize. Look at me,'” the actor told co-star Patrick Dempsey on the podcast “Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo,” via E! News. “Denzel went ham on my a**. He was like, ‘I’m the director. Don’t you tell him what to do.'”

Pompeo isn’t the one to back down, though. “I was like, ‘Listen, motherf****r, this is my show,'” she said. “This is my set. Who are you telling?” Despite the tense incident, the actor revealed that she has nothing but respect for Washington as a director and actor, and the two quickly patched things up. “So, we didn’t get through it without a fight, but that’s actors for you,” she continued. “Passionate and fiery and that’s where you get the magic, and that’s where you get the good stuff. So, it was an amazing experience, it really was.” Pompeo recently shared another theory on why actors tend to argue so much on set.

What to Watch ?

Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy return with another crossover

Plus, Big Sky kicks off a new case, Jon Stewart returns with a new Apple TV+ show, and Demi Lovato hunts for aliens on Unidentified.

Station 19 & Grey’s Anatomy

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 8 p.m./9 p.m. on ABC

Season Premiere
Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy are kicking off their new seasons with a crossover event that promises a car crash, an explosion, and maybe a wedding? And let’s not forget that someone from Meredith’s past will be returning to Grey Sloan Memorial. —Samantha Highfill

Grey’s Anatomy Season 18 & Station 19 Season 5 Premiere Crossover Event Trailer (HD)

Big Sky

HOW/WHEN & WHERE TO WATCH: 10 p.m. on ABC

Season Premiere
Big Sky is back with new mysteries for its second season, and a new showrunner, Elwood Reid (Barkskins, The Chi) taking over from creator David E. Kelley. Just weeks after their violent showdown with Ronald (Brian Geraghty), Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) and Jenny (Katheryn Winnick) are trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. Still recovering from being shot, Jenny decides to take Tubbs up on his offer and return to life on the force. But Cassie is single-minded in her determination to find Ronald. Meanwhile, a new case is afoot as a group of local teenagers accidentally witness a shady man crash his truck. They barely escape with their lives and find themselves in a heap of trouble after making off with the victim’s drugs and money. And that’s just the first episode back… —Maureen Lee Lenker

The “Big Sky” Season 2 Trailer – Premieres THURS SEPT 30 10/9c on ABC

Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey reunited on a podcast to talk about ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

“So the story is, Patty just got back from a long trip, and he’s been too busy to have lunch or coffee with me. So I wrangled and roped him into this instead,” Pompeo joked to introduce her guest, who responded that he was “glad it worked out.”

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It was only a few weeks ago that the Hollywood Reporter released an excerpt from a tell-all book about what went on behind the scenes of the fan-favorite series. And Dempsey was not painted in the most favorable of lights.

In the chapter from “How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy,” an unauthorized oral history of the show, entertainment reporter Lynette Rice interviewed a number of executive producers and Dempsey’s co-stars. The published section illuminated the alleged “HR issues” that contributed to the death of his character and detailed issues with others on set, namely Pompeo.

But on the podcast, the pair appeared to allude to the report hinting at tensions between cast members almost right off the bat. They both acknowledged that the experience was not always easy, but ultimately worth it in the end.

“I’ve learned so much from the experience by different relationships with the cast . . . with everybody, that have been some of the best life lessons I’ve ever had in my life,” Dempsey said. “It really has been a blessing in so many ways because you start to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

Pompeo added that only those who have been a part of the show can “understand what this journey has been.”

“We’ve all come through it with a tremendous amount of forgiveness and love for each other,” she said. “I wouldn’t change any of it. Even the bad we’ve learned from, and the good we look back on and laugh. And we still all love each other like brothers and sisters.”

Soon enough, the two turned to discuss perhaps one of the most divisive episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” to air — and, no, not the one where Shepherd meets his untimely death — but, as Pompeo began and Dempsey finished the sentence for her, the “horrible music number.”

In episode 18 of season 7, the cast — despite being surgeons working under strenuous conditions — narrate their troubles and conversations with one another by literally belting out lyrics in “Song Beneath the Song.” It’s been a decade since it was broadcast, but both Pompeo and Dempsey still look back at it with mock terror.

“I mean that musical — we were horrified, right?” Pompeo said. “I was like, ‘Listen, I don’t want to chicken out here like we’re doing this musical. I want to be all in. I want to commit, I want to try, but I’m a terrible singer.’”

Whereas Pompeo had said she was willing to “dive right in” despite lacking the vocal cords of some of her fellow actors, Dempsey acknowledged he “chickened out completely.”

“I was like, ‘No way in hell am I going to be singing,’” he said. “It didn’t make sense to me then. And now when you see it, and you’re like, ‘Oh my god.’ At least they tried, you know, at least they tried.”

But it was one particular anecdote from the podcast, where Pompeo talked about working with Hollywood legend Denzel Washington on set that quickly made the rounds on social media — this time turning the negative spotlight on her.

The discussion began when Dempsey and Pompeo started talking about directing, and then how the experience of working with actor-directors is often different compared to when guided by those who do not also perform.

“But Debbie Allen [Catherine Avery on “Grey’s Anatomy”] was like, ‘What can I do to keep Ellen interested? What can I do to keep Ellen here?’” Pompeo said. “Because after you left, I was like, ‘Why do I have to say here? I gotta go now. Everyone’s gone.’”

Her solution was to surprise Pompeo with Washington as the director of one of the episodes, specifically episode 9 of season 11. In “The Sound of Silence” Meredith gets her jaw broken by a patient, and then has to have it wired shut. It was when Pompeo improvised during the scene that things got a bit rocky.

“I was like, ‘Look at me when you apologize, look at me,’ and that wasn’t in the dialogue” she said, adding that Washington was not pleased with the improvisation. “He was like, ‘I’m the director, don’t you tell him what to do.’”

She continued: “’I was like, listen, [expletive]. This is my show. This is my set. Who are you telling?’”

Some online expressed bafflement as to why Pompeo would publicly state she had caused problems with the famed actor. She quickly clarified that she has nothing but the “utmost respect for him as an actor, as a director, as everything” and that the two worked together well following that argument.

Pompeo and Dempsey also talked about the Dempsey Center — which the actor founded in 2008 with the “intention of giving back to the community where he grew up” — losing their mothers, growing up in New England, and the media they have consumed as of late.

“I love you, Patty. Thank you so much for doing this,” Pompeo said at the conclusion of the podcast.

“Love you, too,” Dempsey responded.