Ellen Pompeo Becomes TV's $20 Million Dollar Woman

January 17, 2018 1:41 PM

"Decide what you think you're worth and then ask for what you think you're worth. Nobody's just going to give it to you." The 'Grey's Anatomy' star recalls in her own words the personal struggles and advice from Shonda Rhimes that led to a milestone: highest-paid actress on a primetime drama.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon (12 comments total)

""As a woman, what I know is you can't approach anything from a point of view of 'I don't deserve' or 'I'm not going to ask for because I don't want other people to get upset,' " Rhimes says now. "And I know for a fact that when men go into these negotiations, they go in hard and ask for the world."

This is great. They can always say no, but when you don't even ask, you're saying no to yourself.

Now I just hope I can internalize this enough to actually do it.
posted by Mchelly at 1:53 PM on January 17, 2018 [18 favorites]

brb, checking if Ellen Pompeo is from Revere.
posted by maryr at 2:24 PM on January 17, 2018

Worse, she is from Everett. Everett's like Revere without the beach access.
posted by maryr at 2:25 PM on January 17, 2018 [3 favorites]

That show is STILL on the air? I watched a few episodes of the first season. Seems like that was 20 years ago.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 3:47 PM on January 17, 2018 [2 favorites]

I...didn’t know I liked Ellen Pompeo this much. Damn.
posted by schadenfrau at 3:58 PM on January 17, 2018 [6 favorites]

Seems like that was 20 years ago.
It debuted in March 2005, a 'midseason replacement' made good, so it's about to celebrate its 13th birthday. It's shows that survive past their 7th season (standard length for a NewShow contract) that have the most highly paid stars. Beyond 10 years is where the actors all but own the network, usually.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:24 PM on January 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

Pompeo is repped by CAA, managed by John Carrabino and her attorneys are Gretchen Rush and Steve Warren of Hansen Jacobson.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:47 PM on January 17, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm watching a L&O/SVU crossover episode featuring Ellen right now. She makes a convincing sociopath!
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:50 PM on January 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is really good timing. I have my last interview for a very interesting and potentially very lucrative job tomorrow. I will NOT lowball myself on pay!
posted by workerant at 8:06 PM on January 17, 2018 [3 favorites]

I admit to still loving the show, which in many ways has gotten better since the reboot following Patrick Dempsey's departure. This interview made me really happy. Shout out to Shonda Rhimes for using her success and power to help other women. Even though she is the titular character, Pompeo has often been overshadowed by the excellence of some of her co-stars, like Sandra Oh, and the behind the scenes shittiness of some of her co-stars, like Isaiah Washington, Katherine Heigl, and Patrick Dempsey. I'm looking forward to what Pompeo does next with her success and her power.
posted by hydropsyche at 6:12 AM on January 18, 2018 [3 favorites]

This whole interview is fantastic. I only watched a season or two of Grey's and have never seen her anywhere else (for reasons made clear in the article!) and I never really gave her or her career trajectory a second thought ... I love how completely no-fucks-given, all-out-honest her responses are, no matter who they make look bad (herself included).

I've been seeing a lot of pull quotes from this article that keep citing her line about how she grew up tough and would've cracked Harvey Weinstein over the head if he'd tried to harass her, which out of context, could make her sound a little victim-blamey. Fewer stories include her continuation:

But I also feel completely comfortable saying that I walked into that room batting the shit out of my eyelashes. My goal in that room was to charm him, as it is in most rooms like that. You think, "Not only do I have to show that I'm a good actress, but that director also has to in some way fall in love with me and at least become enamored with me."

I really appreciate that she's not holding up herself or her behavior as some kind of beacon of the Right Way to do things but rather acknowledging the reality of the context and her actions. She's so straightforward about it and not ... like ... faux-ashamed, if that makes sense? There's so much pressure for women to "rise above" circumstances -- and then additional pile-on or discrediting if they didn't (see every disbelieving "well why didn't she ..." comment about sexual harassment ever). She's pretty much just flat-out saying "this was the reality and this was how you operated within it" and not taking on any burden or blame for having operated within it.

Basically I think it's pretty refreshing how she owns her whole experience, including the things she thought (eg, being Real Actress/too good for tv) or did ("actors behaving badly ... i'm guilty of it too") that she's not proud of today.

And she's refreshingly pragmatic and realistic about the career choices she's made and the options open to her ("It's not for everyone. You have to be more interested in business than you are in acting") and the factors we all weigh when making decisions ("...and directing is cool but, to be honest, it just takes me away from my kids." Then I said, "So, it's got to be a ton of money"). And this is my fave:

Not that I can't do a cool cable thing, but I'm not going to have this whole second life as a movie star. I'm not fuckin' Julia Roberts.

You speak for us all, lol.

I look forward to seeing what she does with her power going forward!
posted by alleycat01 at 11:52 AM on January 18, 2018 [7 favorites]

I'm not fuckin' Julia Roberts.


I comprehend throwing down parameters to achieve definition/resolution, but even Julia Roberts ain't fuckin' Julia Roberts as is what is said by whom it is said because who was not always whom.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 8:49 AM on January 19, 2018