She may have been on Grey’s Anatomy for the last 20 years but Ellen Pompeo isn’t quite ready to let all her children watch the hit medical drama.
Between her three kids — Stella Luna, 15, Sienna May, 10, and Eli Christopher, 8, with her husband, sportswear executive Chris Ivery, 57 — only Pompeo’s oldest daughter has seen the show. “What happens is all the classmates start watching it so you can only hold them off for so long because everyone in the class has seen it except your kid,” says the actress, 55. “And then it gets awkward so you’re like, ‘Okay.'”
As to why the show is resonating with more and more generations, Pompeo says the familiarity “makes people feel comfortable. It’s their comfort food,” explains the actress, who’s next starring in Hulu’s dark new series about Natalia Grace, Good American Family. “It makes them feel like some things in the world stay the same and we’ll be okay, and it’s not all whatever it is.”
While her Grey’s character, Meredith, moved to Boston to research Alzheimer’s disease in season 19, Pompeo still appears on a handful of episodes and narrates the show, for which she serves as an executive producer with her production company, Calamity Jane. “The best thing is the financial security, if I’m being very honest,” she says of her longevity. “It’s been really lucrative, and I think financial security is not something that every actress is afforded, so I’m very grateful for that.”
As for any challenges, Pompeo points to “the repetitive nature of doing the same thing over and over,” she explains. “There’s a familiarity that people love, so we can’t change it too much. I’m always like, ‘Let’s do this and let’s do that.’ ” And they’re like, ‘Shut up, Ellen. We’re not doing that.’ So, people love the familiarity, and familiarity breeds contempt.”
Still, Pompeo admits it’s the fandom that really lends insight into the show’s impact. “What’s extraordinary is that it’s spawned thousands of surgeons,” she says. “People tell me they’ve gone into the field of medicine because of Grey’s all the time, and it’s part of what’s kept me on the show so long. It really does touch people for the better.”
She especially loves the viral videos on social media that show fans sharing iconic moments from the series with their loved ones and filming their tear-filled reactions. One especially hit home for her daughter Stella Luna as well: Season five finale episode, “Now or Never,” in which George O’Malley (played by T.R. Knight) dies after being dragged by a bus having saved a woman’s life. Unrecognizable from his injuries, George draws his nickname “007” into Meredith’s hand to let her know who he was.
“Double-oh seven. Which, by the way, my daughter had the same reaction when she saw the 007. She literally cried,” Pompeo says. “I had to film it and I couldn’t hold it together.”
The actress admits even her middle daughter is starting to reach that point “where her friends are watching [the show]. But I still think there’s a lot of inappropriate stuff that 10-year-olds should not be seeing,” Pompeo adds. “So no judgment on other parents, but I just don’t want to answer questions. I get some weird questions because I was in the scene. ‘So, why are your panties on the bulletin board?’ Really don’t want to talk about that right now.”
Good American Family costarring The Morning Show’s Mark Duplass and Imogen Faith Reid premieres March 19 on Hulu.