Ellen Pompeo on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Patrick Dempsey Pay Disparity: ‘Only a Man Can Have 13 Failed TV Pilots and Their Quote Keeps Going Up’

“They didn’t value me as much,” the actress says of initially not having the same name recognition as her male co-star

Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey at an event in 2006
Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey in 2006 (Credit: Donato Sardella/WireImage)

Ellen Pompeo said she was “salty” at the beginning of “Grey’s Anatomy” when co-star Patrick Dempsey was paid more than her, even though the show was named after her character, Meredith Grey.

As she told Alex Cooper on the latest Call Her Daddy podcast Wednesday, the actress and producer resented the fact that, as the “namesake of the show,” she “deserved the same [pay] and then that was harder to get.”

However, she admitted that Dempsey, who had a number of films and TV credits under his belt at that point, was better known, while the ABC show was her very first TV pilot.

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