Ellen Pompeo is one powerful woman and her successful fight for equal pay only added to her power.
The “Grey’s Anatomy” star, who is now television’s highest-paid actress with $575,000 per episode, is opening up about what it took to get paid the same as former co-star Patrick Dempsey.
“The only time you ever have a good negotiating position is if you’re completely willing to walk away,” she told InStyle magazine. “And I really never was until the last round.”
But how exactly was she successful in that fight? “I lead with kissing a**,” Pompeo, 48, said. “You always want to start with the positive.”
And her time with “Grey’s” isn’t up yet, “I’ve been on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ forever, and I don’t chase relevancy or trophies. A lot of girls would rather have the attention, and then they realize in their 40s that they have no money to feed their kids and they’re f**ked.”
She added, “I made the choice to be okay with no awards and no attention and make it just about going to work and punching the clock. Which I think is healthier for the ego down the line.”
Read Pompeo’s full interview with InStyle here.
