So by now, everyone knows that Grey’s Anatomy is basically Ellen Pompeo’s show after playing Meredith Grey for the entirety of the series’ 16-year run. However, it turns out there was one person who never received that memo — none other than Denzel Washington.
In case you didn’t know, the acclaimed actor made his TV directing debut in an episode of the Shonda Rhimes medical drama called “The Sound of Silence,” which aired during the show’s 12th season in 2016. It was the episode where Meredith was struck by an epileptic patient, resulting in a broken jaw that had to be wired shut – hence the silence part. Only she didn’t keep quiet when she felt like Denzel was on her turf.
On the latest episode of her Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo podcast, the 51-year-old told what she called a “good Denzel story” about the experience — one in which the director “went nuts” on her!
Related: Isaiah Washington Talks Rumors Ellen Didn’t Want Him As Her Love Interest!
Speaking to guest and former co-star Patrick Dempsey, who recently got accused of “terrorizing” behavior on the show himself, she revealed how she got into a heated argument with the two-time Oscar-winner. While filming a scene in which she got angry but had to remain silent, she recalled, things got heated IRL over another actor’s choice:
“He made this choice to speak very softly. And [Meredith] was pissed that [she] had to sit there and listen to this apology, and he wasn’t looking at [her] in the eye.”
Pompeo admitted she gave direction to her scene partner, which apparently did not go over too well with the 66-year-old filmmaker:
“Again, we love actors who make choices, right? And I yelled at him, and I was like, ‘Look at me when you apologize. Look at me.’ And that wasn’t in the dialogue, and Denzel went ham on my ass. He was like, ‘I’m the director. Don’t you tell him what to do.’”
To which she recalled responding:
“I was like, ‘Listen, motherf**ker, this is my show. This is my set. Who are you telling?”
Whoa! She continued:
“Like, ‘You barely know where the bathroom is.’ And I have the utmost respect for him as an actor, as a director, as everything, but like, yo, we went at it one day.”
Ordinarily on a TV set, the director is kind of a second banana. The stars aren’t replaceable, but there will be a new director in the chair next week. But this is Denzel we’re talking about. Denzel.
And she went big-time on him? Called him a “motherf**ker”? After she was the one who started yelling out of nowhere? Wow.
While most people would be mortified to have stepped on the toes of one of our finest living artists, she’s practically bragging about that fight, relishing it even! She went on:
“So, we didn’t get through it without a fight, but that’s actors for you. Passionate and fiery and that’s where you get the magic, and that’s where you get the good stuff. So, it was an amazing experience, it really was.”
Umm… Sounds like it?
Okay, but let’s be real here, she really shouldn’t have been so shocked and insulted that The Hurricane star was not cool with her snatching the directorial reins from him when it was literally his job at the time. Ellen apparently thought this story would show her in a good light or give some sort of girl boss moment, putting her on equal footing with Denzel we guess? But that is NOT how Twitter saw it!
Twitics hearing the story for the first time pretty overwhelmingly took Denzel’s side, calling out the Grey’s vet for her diva behavior — and the wild privilege that keeps her from being embarrassed by that story!
I don’t know if Ellen Pompeo revealing that she yelled at Oscar Winning Denzel Washington on the set of Grey’s Anatomy is the flex she thought it would be. She seems like a Karen, and if I hear her say one more time she’s married to a Black man and has Black kids… pic.twitter.com/rYF3ivkx32
— ????sassenach ???? (@omwill3) September 30, 2021
Denzel Washington: Hey folks I’m directing this ep, we’re gonna have a great time ????????
Ellen Pompeo: pic.twitter.com/u6H8Egbohw
— Brooklyn (@BrooklynBoyB) September 30, 2021
Denzel Washington: Ellen can you move slightly to the left..
Ellen Pompeo : DO YOU KNOW WHO TF I AM?! This is MY SET! THIS IS MY SHOW pic.twitter.com/zduokIDJ6A
— raveen marie
(@xoraveen) September 30, 2021
Ellen Pompeo really disrespected Denzel Washington and proudly told the world like we were gonna be on her side… pic.twitter.com/oZpmVoO6L4
— Shonnia Burton (@shonnia21) September 30, 2021
the tl eating ellen pompeo up and i can’t defend her this time bc she was wrong and why you telling us the story unprovoked like it’s tea pic.twitter.com/uGTg3QZe94
— more heat, less foam (@j_ogun) September 30, 2021
Yowza! How about YOUR reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments (below).
[Image via FayesVision/WENN, Nicky Nelson/WENN]
The post Ellen Pompeo Seemingly Brags About Fight With 'Motherf**ker' Denzel Washington On <i>Grey’s Anatomy</i> — And Twitter Is Not Impressed! appeared first on Perez Hilton.
