Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo recently reflected on her pay parity battle during the earlier years of the series.
The actress is now recognized today as one of the highest-paid stars on TV thanks to her 20-year tenure in the hit ABC medical drama, but it took a while for her to get to that spot as she had to fight for pay parity.
Ellen Pompeo Reflects on Grey's Anatomy Pay Parity Battle
During her recent interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Pompeo shared that she had to fight for pay parity during her earlier years on Grey's Anatomy despite being the titular star.
She explained that her co-star Patrick Dempsey had a bigger salary since he was a more well-known actor at that time.
"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," Pompeo said.
"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."
Pompeo clarified that she had no personal gripes on Dempsey and she blamed the issue more on the executives.
"I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got. I was salty that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him, and they never will," she explained.
"I see exactly how much Grey’s Anatomy makes for ABC/Disney. I get to see the number. It’s my face, it’s my voice. I’ve done so much work promoting the show all over the world for the past 20 years. I am the Disney princess of that franchise."
Ellen Pompeo Stars in New Hulu Limited Series
Pompeo currently stars in the new Hulu limited series Good American Family where she plays the role of Kristine Barnett, Natalia Grace's adoptive mother.
Told from multiple points of view, as a means to explore issues of perspective, bias, and trauma, the series is inspired by the disturbing stories surrounding a Midwestern couple who adopts a girl with a rare form of dwarfism.
But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, mystery emerges around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is.
At the same time, Pompeo remains the star of Grey's Anatomy in a reduced capacity. In the current 21st season, she is appearing in at least seven episodes while also providing narration in all episodes.
What do you think of Pompeo's remarks about the pay parity battle? Let us know in the comments!
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