Ellen Pompeo fought for pay parity on Gray’s Anatomy to match her co-star Patrick Dempsey‘s wage.
Whereas showing on Name Her Daddy, Pompeo acknowledges that when the drama sequence began, Dempsey was extra well-known than her, however her character’s identify was on the present.
“To be fully truthful, the tv recreation was so completely different then. He had executed 13 pilots earlier than me,” Pompeo stated. “Nothing private to him, simply normally, solely a person can have 13 failed TV pilots and their quote retains going up, proper? However in all equity, his quote was what it was.”
She continued, “He was an even bigger star than I used to be at that time. Nobody knew who I used to be. All people knew who he was, so he did deserve that cash. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that cash. It’s simply, being that I used to be the namesake of the present, I deserved the identical and that was tougher to get.”
In 2018, Pompeo turned the highest-paid actress in a drama sequence, making $20M a season.
“I wasn’t salty about him getting what he acquired. I used to be salty that they didn’t worth me as a lot as they valued him, and so they by no means will,” she added.
Pompeo famous that her battle for pay parity got here when she reached a sure level in her profession the place she felt like this battle was for herself and all the opposite girls arising behind her.
“I see precisely how a lot Gray’s Anatomy makes for ABC/Disney. I get to see the quantity. It’s my face, it’s my voice,” she stated. “I’ve executed a lot work selling the present all around the world for the previous 20 years. I’m the Disney princess of that franchise.”
Watch the total interview under.
