Ellen Pompeo Explains Why She’ll Never Fully Leave Grey’s Anatomy

Season 21 of Grey’s Anatomy is airing now, but the current iteration of the show is missing a lot of the star power and main characters from earlier seasons. Big names like Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, and Katherine Heigl have all fully exited the series, but Ellen Pompeo — who plays Meredith Grey — has not made that leap. During an interview with El País in March, Pompeo explained why she’ll never “completely” leave Grey’s.

“That would make no sense, emotionally or financially,” she told the outlet. “The show was streamed more than a billion times in 2024. More than a billion times. The companies that own the show and stream the show make a lot of money from our images and our voices and our faces.”

“If I were to walk away completely, everybody gets to make money from my hard work for 20 years and I wouldn’t make any money,” Pompeo continued. “To me, it doesn’t make any sense that everybody [else] gets to profit off of my hard work.”

She also shared a sentimental reason for not abandoning her Grey’s character. “And emotionally, the show means a lot to people. I want to have an attitude of gratitude toward the show,” she added.

Per Deadline, Pompeo renegotiated her contract in 2022. Since then, she has appeared in fewer episodes per season, while continuing to executive produce the show and do the voiceover. It also has freed up her schedule to take on other projects, like Good American Family, which premiered in March.

Pompeo opened up about the project while speaking to El País. “People have been watching me in the same role for 20 years. I’ve been playing the same role for 20 years. I had no reason to believe that I could do anything else,” she said. “I hadn’t tested myself in 20 years and I can’t expect my audience to believe me as anything else. If I’m going to ask them to watch me as a new character, then I’d better deliver on all fronts. It was at the same time thrilling and terrifying.”