Ellen Pompeo might star in Grey’s Anatomy, but she isn’t quite down for revisiting her earliest seasons on the show in the present.
The 53-year-old actress began portraying Dr. Meredith Grey back in 2008, and said farewell to the character for a while earlier this year.
During a recent interview, she revealed that her 12-year-old daughter Stella is diving into the show, which almost became a fun mother-daughter bonding moment. However, it came to a sudden stop after they only got a few episodes in.
Speaking to former co-star Katherine Heigl during Variety‘s Actors on Actors series, Ellen admitted that her daughter’s classmates had already watched the long-running series through.
“She was like, ‘Mom, I’m the only one who hasn’t seen it,’” she recalled. “So I said Ok. In the summer, she started watching it. And at first I was like, ‘Oh, this is so amazing, and we’re going to watch it together.’”
It didn’t stay fun for long, though: “Then it was episode after episode after episode, and I was like, ‘I don’t have the stamina for this!’ I filmed all these episodes; I can’t now go back and watch it again.”
Interestingly, Ellen added that she hadn’t seen most of the show because she “avoided” it.
“Many of the episodes I was seeing for the first time with Stella,” she explained. Despite being unable to continue watching, Ellen did have fond thoughts about the series. “It’s pretty cool to be a part of something that’s lasted this long,” she added.
If you missed it, Ellen revealed that Grey’s Anatomy almost had an entirely different name. Can you even imagine?!
The actress also reflected on if she plans to continue bringing Meredith to life in the future.