Ellen Pompeo On Pay Parity Battle To Match ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Co-Star Patrick Dempsey: “Only A Man Can Have 13 Failed TV Pilots & Their Quote Keeps Going Up”

deadline.com:

Ellen Pompeo fought for pay parity on Grey’s Anatomy to match her co-star Patrick Dempsey‘s salary. While appearing on Call Her Daddy, Pompeo acknowledges that when the drama series started, Dempsey was more well-known than her, but her character’s name was on the show. “To be completely fair, the television game was so different then.

He had done 13 pilots before me,” Pompeo said. “Nothing personal to him, just in general, only a man can have 13 failed TV pilots and their quote keeps going up, right?

But in all fairness, his quote was what it was.” She continued, “He was a bigger star than I was at that point. No one knew who I was.

Everybody knew who he was, so he did deserve that money. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that money. It’s just, being that I was the namesake of the show, I deserved the same and that was harder to get.” In 2018, Pompeo became the highest-paid actress in a drama series, making $20M a season. “I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got.