Ellen Pompeo reveals ‘uncomfortable’ sex scene on Grey’s Anatomy that made her cry

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Ellen Pompeo has revealed the Grey’s Anatomy sex scene that turned into her ‘worst nightmare’ while filming.

The actor, 55, is behind one of the most iconic TV doctor Meredith Grey who she played from 2005 to 2024 – across a whopping 19 seasons and over 400 episodes. She remains a supporting character.

Throughout her time on the medical drama her character got caught up in everything from deadly schemes to tragic love affairs to high-stakes disasters.

Now, the screen star has shared the one intimate scene that has stuck with her opposite co-star T.R. Knight who played Dr George O’Malley for five seasons between 2005 and 2009.

Ellen explained that shooting the scene – when Meredith rebounds with George in season two episode 19 – was so ‘uncomfortable and awkward’ that both actors were driven to tears.

‘T.R. and I are such good friends. And we had to do a love scene and we were both crying. We cried. We cried,’ she told the Call Her Daddy podcast.

The scene in question happened in season 2 (Picture: ABC) Neither of the stars wanted to do it (Picture: ABC)

She continued: ‘And the scene was so uncomfortable and awkward and he didn’t wanna do that. I didn’t wanna do it. And when we filmed it, it was so bad.

‘And then the network said there was too much thrusting. In your worst nightmare to have to do it one time, we had to re-shoot that s**t.’

After having to do it twice the TV star has never rewatched that scene.

‘I’ve never seen it, but I don’t know how it was shot or covered or what the end, how it was edited, but I’m full on in tears, the whole entire scene. And those are real tears,’ she concluded.

T.R.’s character tragically died after being hit by a bus while trying to save a woman and he was sent to hospital looking unrecognisable with his life-threatening wounds.

Dr George O’Malley died after getting hit by a bus in the show (Picture: Scott Garfield/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

He eventually succumbed to his injuries.

Since leaving her full-time role in the Shonda Rhimes production in 2022, the star (who was the highest paid actress in a TV drama in 2018) has been vocal about her fight for higher pay – especially compared to her co-star Patrick Dempsey.

He said: ‘To be completely fair, the television game was so different then. He had done 13 pilots before me.

‘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.

Ellen Pompeo shared an ‘inside story’ of her terrible experience filming a sex scene with co-star (Picture: Richard Cartwright/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty)

‘He was a bigger star than I was at that point. No one knew who I was. Everybody knew who I 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.’

She clarified that she wasn’t ‘salty’ about his fee, just what they valued her at. ‘They didn’t value me as much as they valued him, and they never will,’ she added.

Describing that she ‘felt like an animal at the zoo’ by the end of her time on the show, she knew it was the right time to leave.

The actor had to fight for better pay (Picture: Getty)

‘I’m a big believer in destiny. I thought, if there’s something else I’m meant to do, it’s gonna find me. But I know I have to leave this,’ she reflected.

Her next project is Hulu’s Good American Family which is based on the true story of  the true story of Ukranian-born orphan with dwarfism, Natalia Grace who is adopted as a child by an American family who start to accuse her of being a troubled adult disguising herself as a child.

In the series, Ellen plays the adoptive mother.

The show lands on Disney+ in the UK on May 7.

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