Ellen Pompeo has revealed that she had a verbal altercation with Denzel Washington when he turned up to direct an episode of Grey’s Anatomy back in 2016. A podcast reunion between Patrick Dempsey and Ellen Pompeo led to an interesting revelation from 5 years back on the sets of Grey’s Anatomy.
Pompeo revealed that she had an altercation with Denzel Washington when he turned up as a guest director of an episode in 2016 of her long-running drama on ABC. The 18 season of the medical series returns this Thursday.
Denzel Washington And Ellen Pompeo Had An Altercation At The Sets
Describing the fight, Pompeo says that Denzel Washington ‘went nuts’ on her. She explained that she was off-script and kept telling her co-actor to look at her when he spoke, repeating the line.
But Denzel Washington did not like the improvisation, and they ended up having a fiery altercation. Denzel Washington went aggressive after Ellen Pompeo used an expletive. He reminded her that he was the director of that episode while Pompeo went off the top telling him that this was her show.
She said that while she had the greatest respect for Denzel Washington, that was one time when she ended up going at each other. Pompeo even recounted the altercation to Pauletta, Denzel Washington’s wife. She told her that they were not on speaking terms.
Ellen Pompeo recollects that despite the verbal duel, it was an amazing experience to work with the great actor. Fans on social media were a little hard on Pompeo, as Denzel Washington is one of the greatest and most beloved actors in America. Others said that using an expletive against Washington was unacceptable, while others wondered if she would have dared to talk to Spielberg or Scorsese in that manner since Washington was the director of that episode.
