Ellen Pompeo and T.R. Knight experienced an emotional moment on the Grey’s Anatomy set while filming the sex scene between Meredith Grey and George O’Malley.
“T.R. and I are such good friends, and we had to do a love scene. We were both crying. We cried,” Pompeo, 55, said during the Wednesday, March 19, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “The scene was so uncomfortable and awkward. He didn’t want to do that. I didn’t wanna do it, and when we filmed it, it was so bad.”
When ABC executives saw the final cut, they had some thoughts.
“The network said there was too much thrusting,” Pompeo continued. “In your worst nightmare, to have to do it one time, we had to reshoot that s—. We had to reshoot it and do it twice.”
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The actress admitted that she’s “never watched” that particular scene of the show, which is featured in season 2, episode 19 of Grey’s Anatomy. The ep, titled “What I Have I Done to Deserve This?,” aired in 2006.
“I’ve never seen it. I don’t know how it was shot or covered or what the end, how it was edited, but I’m full on in tears the whole entire scene,” Pompeo said. “Those are real tears.”
Pompeo has starred as the titular Meredith Grey since 2005. The actress said she did “a lot of stuff that I didn’t wanna do” during her tenure on the long-running drama.
“I didn’t wanna say, ‘Pick me, choose me, love me,’” Pompeo said, referring to the iconic line Meredith Grey says to Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd during season 2. However, Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes knew that line “was gonna pop” after people saw the episode.
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“I was like, ‘Why would I do this? Why would I beg, why would I?’ You have to just suck it up and do it,” Pompeo recalled. “It ended up being the biggest thing ever. The most iconic thing ever. I’m not always the best judge of what’s gonna — and it’s not, like I said, it wasn’t gonna be good. I was just like, ‘I don’t wanna do that.’”
Pompeo shared some other Grey’s Anatomy secrets during the podcast appearance, even referring to the moment Knight’s character George O’Malley died in the sixth season premiere as the character death that hit her the hardest.
The actress also said filming Sandra Oh’s last day as Cristina Yang was the most emotional day on set.
“I can’t speak for her, but for me, it was really emotional because she was such a loss,” Pompeo said. “She’s so immensely talented and I really didn’t think the show could go on without her and I was OK with that, but it literally felt like half of the show just leaving.”
