Ellen Pompeo Tells Patrick Dempsey About Her ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Fight With Denzel Washington — Plus, More Revelations

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Ellen Pompeo Tells Patrick Dempsey About Her ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Fight With Denzel Washington — Plus, More Revelations

Don’t mess with Meredith! Ellen Pompeo filled her former Grey’s Anatomy costar Patrick Dempsey in on a fight she had with Denzel Washington on the set. The actress, 51, and the Enchanted star, 55, had a lengthy chat about their time on the ABC drama during the Wednesday, September 29, episode of her “Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo” podcast. “Only we can understand what this journey has been, and we are the only ones who truly understand it and each other, and we’ve all come through it with a tremendous amount of forgiveness and love for each other,” Pompeo said. “We have learned that lesson that empathy is the way and we’re living our best lives because of it. So, it has been an incredible blessing. I wouldn’t change any of it — even the bad we’ve learned from and the good we look back on and laugh and we still all love each other like brothers and sisters.” The Catch Me If You Can star told Dempsey that she considered leaving the long-running series after his exit in 2015, but she stayed, in part, because Denzel came in to direct an episode. The Oscar winner, 66, oversaw season 12’s “The Sound of Silence” in 2016 because his wife, Pauletta Washington, was a fan of the show. [sendtonews type="float" key="S7lY0Ouvqg-2834536-14453"] “Denzel’s a movie star, he doesn’t know s--t about directing TV. But [producer and costar] Debbie Allen was like, ‘What can I do to keep Ellen interested? What can I do to keep Ellen here?’” Pompeo shared. “Because after you left, I was like, ‘Why do I have to stay here? I gotta go now. Everyone’s gone. [Sandra Oh’s] gone, Patrick’s gone, I gotta go too.’ And Debbie was like, ‘No, no, no, you gotta stick around. I’m gonna bring in a surprise for you,’ and she would never tell me who it was but she knew I was a huge fan.” The Old School actress subsequently got into a “fight” with Denzel when she went off script. “Working with Denzel was amazing. He went nuts on me,” she revealed, noting that she still “love[s] the guy.” Pompeo was mad at the time, but the pair eventually worked through their disagreement. Dempsey, for his part, missed out on the chance to work with Denzel, but the Can’t Buy Me Love star returned to the show for several episodes during season 17. Scroll through the gallery below for more revelations from the former Grey’s Anatomy costars. [podcast_block]

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Ellen Pompeo Tells Patrick Dempsey About Her ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Fight With Denzel Washington — Plus, More Revelations

Don’t mess with Meredith! Ellen Pompeo filled her former Grey’s Anatomy costar Patrick Dempsey in on a fight she had with Denzel Washington on the set. The actress, 51, and the Enchanted star, 55, had a lengthy chat about their time on the ABC drama during the Wednesday, September 29, episode of her “Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo” podcast. “Only we can understand what this journey has been, and we are the only ones who truly understand it and each other, and we’ve all come through it with a tremendous amount of forgiveness and love for each other,” Pompeo said. “We have learned that lesson that empathy is the way and we’re living our best lives because of it. So, it has been an incredible blessing. I wouldn’t change any of it — even the bad we’ve learned from and the good we look back on and laugh and we still all love each other like brothers and sisters.” The Catch Me If You Can star told Dempsey that she considered leaving the long-running series after his exit in 2015, but she stayed, in part, because Denzel came in to direct an episode. The Oscar winner, 66, oversaw season 12’s “The Sound of Silence” in 2016 because his wife, Pauletta Washington, was a fan of the show. [sendtonews type="float" key="S7lY0Ouvqg-2834536-14453"] “Denzel’s a movie star, he doesn’t know s--t about directing TV. But [producer and costar] Debbie Allen was like, ‘What can I do to keep Ellen interested? What can I do to keep Ellen here?’” Pompeo shared. “Because after you left, I was like, ‘Why do I have to stay here? I gotta go now. Everyone’s gone. [Sandra Oh’s] gone, Patrick’s gone, I gotta go too.’ And Debbie was like, ‘No, no, no, you gotta stick around. I’m gonna bring in a surprise for you,’ and she would never tell me who it was but she knew I was a huge fan.” The Old School actress subsequently got into a “fight” with Denzel when she went off script. “Working with Denzel was amazing. He went nuts on me,” she revealed, noting that she still “love[s] the guy.” Pompeo was mad at the time, but the pair eventually worked through their disagreement. Dempsey, for his part, missed out on the chance to work with Denzel, but the Can’t Buy Me Love star returned to the show for several episodes during season 17. Scroll through the gallery below for more revelations from the former Grey’s Anatomy costars. [podcast_block]

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They Were Neighbors

“We actually lived on the same street. Patrick and I, when we did the pilot for Grey’s Anatomy, we were actually neighbors and didn’t really know each other. I had never met him,” Pompeo divulged, adding: “I truly believe that the people in your orbit are meant to be in your orbit.”  

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They Were ‘Horrified’ by the Musical Episode

Pompeo confessed that the season 7 episode “Song Beneath the Song” was a “completely ridiculous” idea. “I was like, ‘Listen, I don’t wanna chicken out here. We’re doing this musical, I wanna be all in, I wanna commit, I wanna try, but I’m a terrible singer. But yes, if you guys can help me sound better, I’m not going to be good, but I also am not gonna chicken out, so I’ll just dive right in,’” she recounted.   

While his costar tried to make the best of it, Dempsey refused to sing. “I chickened out completely,” he admitted. “I was like, ‘No way in hell am I gonna be singing.’ It didn’t make sense to me then, and now, when you see it, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God.’ At least they tried it.” 

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Pompeo Didn’t Always Enjoy Directing ‘Grey’s’

The Friends alum first helmed season 13’s “Be Still, My Soul,” with creator Shonda Rhimes ensuring that Pompeo’s vision made it to the screen. “Shonda was so generous and let me air my cut, which was just a game changer because the only reason for me to do it was I wanna show the audience what my version of Grey’s Anatomy looks like,” she explained.  

When she directed season 14’s “Old Scars, Future Hearts,” things were different. “With the second episode, we had a different showrunner and I wasn’t able to have the same kind of freedom,” she said. “Network episodic TV, I don’t think many people would consider it very creative because there’s a formula and everything has to be done a certain way … and it’s more like a job where you’re taking on 90 extra hours a week and you’re like, ‘Why am I actually spending more time here doing this? I kind of don’t need to do this.’” 

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The Denzel Fight

Pompeo fought with Denzel after she offered direction to a costar. “I was like, ‘Look at me when you apologize. Look at me.’ And that wasn’t in the dialogue. And Denzel went ham on my ass,” she said. “He was like, ‘I’m the director. Don’t you tell him what to do.’ I was like, ‘Listen, motherf--ker, this is my show, this is my set. Who are you telling?’” 

She added: “So, we didn’t get through it without a fight, but that’s actors for you. Passionate and fiery and that’s where you get the magic.” According to her, she and Denzel patched things up after their argument.  

Dempsey understood where Pompeo was coming from in the moment. “You’re living in that emotion all day long, so things can set you off really quickly so it’s really hard to keep that boiling, that emotion so it’s accessible — especially in television ‘cause you gotta crank it out — that you are raw the whole day, and it’s important to create the right atmosphere on set where you’re safe to be able to do that,” he noted. 

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Dempsey Had His Own Run-In With Denzel

Early in his career, the Made of Honor actor met Denzel when he went to craft services for a breakfast burrito — Pompeo called him out for eating one every day — on the wrong set. “He’s like, ‘Hey, man, you’re on the wrong set, this is not your set. Get out of here,’” he recalled. “And then he looked at me and he winked and he was just giving me s--t in a good way but scared me to death ‘cause he gave me the Denzel Washington look.”