‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Actress Upset With Maine’s Patrick Dempsey’s Paycheck

Ellen Pompeo has played Meredith Grey for 21 seasons on 'Grey's Anatomy' and is still overshadowed by co-star and Mainer Patrick Dempsey.

Ellen was on the podcast Call Her Daddy, and that's when she spilled the beans about Maine's Patrick Dempsey.

She doesn't blame Maine's Patrick Dempsey but is frustrated by it all

In an article in People Magazine, they quoted some of the podcast where they talked about money and negotiations between men and women in an industry that has a history of sexism.

To be completely fair, the television game was so different then. He had done 13 pilots before me. Nothing personal to him, just in general, only a man can have 13 failed TV pilots and their quote keeps going up, right? But in all fairness, his quote was what it was.

 

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She admits that she was new to the scene as 'Grey's Anatomy' was her first TV pilot, and by then Patrick Dempsey was a known entity, so he did deserve loads of money. But she was/is the 'namesake of the show' and deserved more. But as a woman, that comes with stereotypes. She said on Call Her Daddy revealed in the People Magazine article,

Being a woman, I guess I’m conditioned to make sure that I’m not stepping on anybody’s toes and I’m being polite. I asked Shonda first. She doesn’t really have much to do with that stuff, it’s business affairs and whatever but I said to her, ‘I’m going to go in and ask for this much, are you cool with that?’

It's not really about Maine's Patrick Dempsey, it's the battle of the sexes

Ellen knew she could come off as either crazy or ungrateful. It comes with the territory of being a woman trying to get what she deserves. She said in the above podcast,

I wasn't salty about him getting what he got. I was salty that they didn't value me as much as they valued him and they never will.

Well, it's not really Patrick's fault that he got what he could, and it's not her fault for being a little 'salty' about it either.