Ellen Pompeo explains why she stayed on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ so long

Ellen Pompeo knows some people see her only as Dr. Meredith Grey, the Grey’s Anatomy character she’s played since 2005, but she ponders what being recognized for other work would mean to her.

“On Grey’s, you really only get an opportunity to be nominated for things in your first few seasons, and so that time had clearly passed,” Pompeo told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday. “I didn’t crave that kind of recognition. I craved the sort of financial and job security situation more that I did critical accolades — that’s why I stayed on the show.”

Since 2022, Pompeo has not been the focus of the series. Her character continues to narrate, but Dr. Grey has only factored into the action for a handful of episodes over the past three seasons. Pompeo continues to be an executive producer on the Shonda Rhimes hit, however.

“Had I been [chasing] critical acclaim, I wouldn’t have stayed on Grey’s for so long,” Pompeo said. “So it wasn’t always the most important thing to me but now that I’m doing something new, it would definitely, probably help me in this next chapter of my story — moving on from Grey’s, doing other roles.”

Still, in April, the recipient of awards including a 2007 Golden Globes nomination (for TV actress in a drama for Grey’s) said she has no plans to leave completely.

“That would make no sense, emotionally or financially,” told El País. “The show was streamed more than a billion times in 2024. More than a billion times.”

Pompeo put a lot into the ABC series, and she understandably wants to share in the profits.

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“The companies that own the show and stream the show make a lot of money from our images and our voices and our faces. If I were to walk away completely, everybody gets to make money from my hard work for 20 years and I wouldn’t make any money,” Pompeo said. “To me, it doesn’t make any sense that everybody [else] gets to profit off of my hard work. And emotionally, the show means a lot to people. I want to have an attitude of gratitude toward the show.”

Pompeo left the hospital long enough to executive produce and star in Good American Family, the Hulu limited series inspired by the story of Natalia Grace, who was born in Ukraine with dwarfism, adopted by an American family, then accused by them of being an adult pretending to be a child. Pompeo played Kristine Barnett, who adopted Grace (Imogen Faith Reid) with her then-husband Michael Burnett (Mark Duplass).

Pompeo is set to appear on the upcoming season of the medical drama and develop another idea for Hulu, which may include another season of Good American Family, presented possibly as a second season sequel of the first or as new anthology entry in the series.