Appearing on the cover of the latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Grey’s Anatomy (GA) star Ellen Pompeo has spoken at length about her personal struggles and how she has risen to become the highest paid actress on a network television series and one of the most powerful figures in the TV business.
gamechanger
Appearing on the cover of the latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Grey’s Anatomy (GA) star Ellen Pompeo has spoken at length about her personal struggles and how she has risen to become the highest paid actress on a network television series and one of the most powerful figures in the TV business.
According to a new deal, Pompeo will be earning more than $20 million a year. In addition to being paid 575,000 dollars per episode for GA, she is also going to become producer to the show halfway through this present 14th season and executive producer to the upcoming spin-off series of Grey’s Anatomy. GA has also been given the green light for at least two more seasons.
“She also will get a producing fee plus backend on this spring’s Grey’s spinoff as well as put pilot commitments and office space for her Calamity Jane production company on Disney’s Burbank lot. Already, she has a legal drama in contention at ABC, and she recently sold an anthology drama to Amazon, which will focus each season on a different American fashion designer’s rise to prominence,” noted THR.
In the awe-inspiring interview, Pompeo recounted how things happened.
“In Shonda (Rhimes) finding her power and becoming more comfortable with her power, she has empowered me. And that took her a while to get to, too. It was part of her evolution. It’s also why our relationship is so special. I was always loyal to her, and she responds well to loyalty. So, she got to a place where she was so empowered that she was generous with her power. Now, what did that look like? It looked like her letting me be the highest-paid woman on television, letting me be a producer on this show, letting me be a co-executive producer on the spinoff and signing off on the deal that the studio gave me, which is unprecedented,” the actress told THR.
She added: “Let me back up. What happened is that I went to Shonda and I said, ‘If you’re moving on to Netflix and you want the show to go down, I’m cool with that. But if you want it to continue, I need to be incentivized. I need to feel empowered and to feel ownership of this show.’ And she was like, ‘I absolutely want to keep the show going. It’s the mothership, so let’s find a way to make you happy. What do you want?’”
Pompeo also spoke about the post Harvey Weinstein age and what the future should look like. “I don’t believe the only solution is more women in power, because power corrupts. It’s not necessarily a man or a woman thing. But there should be more of us women in power, and not just on Shonda Rhimes’ sets. Look, I only have a 12th-grade education and I wasn’t a great student, but I’ve gotten an education here at Shondaland. And now my 8-year-old daughter gets to come here and see fierce females in charge. She loves to sit in the director’s chair with the headphones on yelling “Action” and “Cut.” She’s growing up in an environment where she’s completely comfortable with power. I don’t know any other environment in Hollywood where I could provide that for her. Now I hope that changes and soon.”
