Ellen Pompeo says her 'financial security' is the best thing to come from 'Grey's Anatomy': 'I'm very grateful for that'
Pompeo's role as Meredith Grey made her the highest-paid actress on television.
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Ellen Pompeo's favorite part about her 20 years on "Grey's Anatomy" has nothing to do with the show itself.
In an interview with People, the TV star said the financial security that portraying Meredith Grey affords her has been the best part of being on the long-running show.
Pompeo in 2017 became the highest-paid woman on television and reportedly brings home $20 million a year from "Grey's."
"Financial security is not something that every actress is afforded," she said. "So I'm very grateful for that."
Her comments echo a sentiment she expressed in 2018, saying then that asking for what she felt she was worth and fighting to get the network to pay her gave her a strong sense of control in her career.
"I've chosen to financially empower myself so that I never have to be ducking predators and chasing trophies," she said at the time. "It's not for everyone. You have to be more interested in business than you are in acting."
Grey's is huge and everything, but in the scope of actors I'm sort of like a blue-collar worker.
Indeed, the 55-year-old told People that even though her show has been massively popular for decades — spawning two spinoff shows in addition to the "Grey's" mothership — she doesn't feel like she necessarily has a lot in common with other A-list stars with more varied careers.
"Grey's is huge and everything, but in the scope of actors I'm sort of like a blue-collar worker," she said. "I'm not the cool kid in high school. I'm not the popular kid, I'm just kind of like a worker bee."
And while Pompeo said it can be hard to deal with "the repetitive nature of doing the same thing over and over" on the medical procedural in which she's starred in more than 400 episodes, she wouldn't trade her career with anyone else's.
"I think sometimes your journey is the journey you're meant to have," Pompeo said. "And I think my journey is the journey I've been meant to have. I wasn't meant to do anything else. And I feel quite peaceful about where I've been and what I've done and really excited about what lies ahead."
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