This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo has opened up about the pay disparity between herself and former co-star Patrick Dempsey. From the mind of Shonda Rhimes, Grey’s Anatomy debuted in 2005 and quickly became one of the most popular medical dramas on television. As the show’s protagonist and the namesake of the series, Pompeo’s Dr. Meredith Grey remained the leading professional at Grey Sloan Memorial before departing the series after 19 seasons. Dempsey played Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd, Meredith’s love interest, until his departure in season 11.
In an interview with Variety, Pompeo recalled asking for the same salary as Dempsey during contract negotiations as a stark pay gap persisted between them. The actor acknowledged that Dempsey was a more recognizable actor when the show first started, but she also pointed out that despite being the “Disney princess of the franchise,” a gender disparity remained. Read what she had to say below:
To be completely fair, the television game was so different then. He had done 13 pilots before me. Nothing personal to him, just in general, only a man can have 13 failed TV pilots and their quote keeps going up, right? But in all fairness, his quote was what it was. He was a bigger star than I was at that point. No one knew who I was. Everybody knew who he was, so he did deserve that money.
I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that money. It’s just, being that I was the namesake of the show, I deserved the same and that was harder to get. I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got. I was salty that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him, and they never will.
Being raised in a mafia culture, I always want to pay respect to the people that deserve respect. I see exactly how much ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ makes for ABC/Disney. I get to see the number. It’s my face, it’s my voice. I’ve done so much work promoting the show all over the world for the past 20 years. I am the Disney princess of that franchise.
Source: Variety
This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.
Source link
