After 20 years as Grey’s Anatomy’s Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo is thrilled to be playing a very different character on the limited series, Good American Family.
“I’ve been dying for something else to do for years,” she recently told The New York Times. “I’ve always wanted another opportunity. I finally have it. Yes, it’s scary. It might be the craziest, dumbest thing. But I’m going to trust in the universe.”
Ellen believes that fate has always played a big role in her life. She grew up in a tough, working-class city north of Boston and lost her mom to an accidental prescription drug overdose when she was 4.
As a young woman, she fell into modeling but confesses she had “too many opinions” and was too short to become a runway superstar. Grey’s Anatomy came along at a time when Ellen, who longed to be a movie actress not a television star, was desperate to pay her rent. Accepting the role turned out to be a smart move but it came with a big catch — the show severely limited her ability to do other projects.
Ellen Pompeo’s Many Blessings
At 55, Ellen has come to terms that she will never be Julia Roberts. She’s grateful, though, that Grey’s has given her financial stability — in 2018 she became TV’s highest paid woman earning $20 million a season.
The show also allows her to work close to home while she and husband Chris Ivery raise their three children, Stella, 15, Sienna, 10 and Eli, 8. The children know what mom does for a living, but Ellen is strict about what programs they watch.
“My 15-year-old has seen it, and now my 10-year-old wants to see it,” she told Jimmy Kimmel. “I don’t want my daughter to see me in my underwear on television just yet.”
Her husband Chris hasn’t seen much of Grey’s either. The couple, who grew up in neighboring Massachusetts towns, met in an L.A. grocery store in 2003 and wed in 2007.
“I was with him before Grey’s, so Grey’s kinda came out of nowhere for us,” she explained on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “I just think we were on this crazy ride that, we were just trying to hang on for dear life.”
At various times, Ellen has considered leaving Meredith Grey for good. In the current season 21, she has reduced the number of episodes she appears in by more than half. She does, however, remain the show’s narrator and a producer.
“I couldn’t keep going,” Ellen admits, although she has a hard time accepting the idea of Grey’s going on without her.
Yet less commitment allowed Ellen to star in Good American Family. She’s hopeful that it’s the first of many projects in her future where she won’t be required to wear hospital scrubs.
“I’m a big believer in destiny,” she said. “I thought, if there’s something else I’m meant to do, it’s gonna find me.”
