Ellen Pompeo is giving fans a closer look into the drama surrounding all of the behind-the-scenes events that have happened throughout the years on Grey’s Anatomy.
In an interview with the New York Post, Pompeo, who has played Meredith Grey on the show for almost ten seasons now, talked about the Katherine Heigl exit as well as Isaiah Washington’s controversy.
Pompeo explained "Hurt feelings, combined with instant success and huge paychecks started things spinning out of control. The crazier things got, as I watched all the tumult with Isaiah and then the Katie thing, I started to focus on the work."
She talked to the Post about Heigl’s desire to leave the show for a movie career, saying "You could understand why she wanted to go -- when you're offered $12 million a movie and you're only 26. But Katie's problem is that she should not have renewed her contract. She re-upped, took a big raise and then tried to get off the show. And then her movie career did not take off."
Pompeo went on to explain that Washington was originally up for the role that Patrick Dempsey got, and that “backfired.” He was accused of slinging racial slurs on set and again at the Golden Globes five years ago, Us Weekly reports. He left the show soon after.
"Shonda [Rimes, the show creator] really wanted to put a black man in the mix. I didn't think they were really going to put an interracial couple on the show and I didn't want him. It was too close to home,” she said – her husband is African American. "I said I wanted that Dempsey kid. I think that once Isaiah did not get the role it backfired."
Back in August mainstay Sandra Oh announced she was leaving the show after appearing as Christina Yang since its premiere in 2005.
image: ABC