Interview - The doctor is in
The doctor is in
February 18, 2007 12:15am
Will Grey's Anatomy's beautiful intern return to McDreamy or opt to stay with McVet? Ellen Pompeo knows the answer, but she's not telling LAWRIE MASTERSON
Pompeo, who plays Seattle Grace Hospital surgical intern Meredith Grey, was in a Los Angeles supermarket recently when a young acting hopeful – and there are a few of them around the town! – approached her and announced she had been doing a scene from Grey’s Anatomy as part of a drama class.
The problem was, it occurred to Pompeo, the scene hadn’t even screened in the US at the time.
“What was happening was that actors who came in to audition (for guest roles) were taking the scripts and selling them,” Pompeo says, her tone indicating mild disbelief.
“Now they don’t get a real script. They get a fake script when they audition. The really big things in each episode are kept secret.”
Which explains the reticence of Pompeo and other Grey’s Anatomy stars to give much away about future storylines, especially with the creator of the award-winning series, the formidable Shonda Rhimes, looking over their shoulders.
And so Pompeo is being cagey about which way the beautiful Dr. Grey might turn at the start of season three, faced as she is with a romantic choice between Grace’s neurosurgeon Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and the handsome veterinarian Dr. Finn “McVet” Dandridge (Chris O’Donnell), who she has been dating.
The smart money is on McDreamy, who she enjoyed a steamy reunion with in the final episode of season two, catapulting the Snow Patrol song Chasing Cars to global chart domination.
“I have to say I was really anxious about starting the third season because you just want to know what’s going to happen,” 37-year-old Pompeo says.
“I don’t usually ask because I like the element of surprise, but even I wanted to know.
“I was pretty curious about my character and I had a sense of the relationship she would pick, but they leave it so sort of open, you know?
“There’s always something tricky coming.
“I know Shonda and I’m not going to fall for it.
“Just when you think you know what’s going to happen she does something that’s kind of unexpected.”
Grey’s Anatomy, which made its debut as a mid-season replacement in the US in 2005, is just about the hottest thing on TV at the moment, being named Best Dramas Series as January’s Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild Awards.
Pompeo, whose promising movie career had seen her star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal (Moonlight Mile), Leonardo DiCaprio (Catch Me If You Can) and Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell (Old School) in quick succession, says she approached the pilot of Grey’s Anatomy as “just one job”.
“It’s a risk, like anything,” she says. “You don’t know where it will go and so few pilots get off the ground. I just thought, ‘If nothing else it’s one fun job’ and just tried to appreciate what I had right there.
“Who knew it would turn into this?”
The secret, she believes, is the on-screen chemistry between the cast, the recent antics of Isaiah Washington (Dr. Preston Burke) notwithstanding.
“All these actors are so interesting to watch and compelling,” Pompeo says. “And clearly the writing is fantastic.
“There are a lot of elements that make the show successful but I think if you put this writing with different actors you wouldn’t get the same result.”
Unlike her Dr. Grey, Pompeo does not have to spend her time away from work obsessing over her problems with men. She has been in a relationship with music producer – and fiancé - Chris Ivery for the past four years.
“We have a great relationship and I focus on that,” she says. “I focus on, ‘Am I being a good girlfriend?’”
She mentions the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, written by a rabbi named Harold Kushner.
“It’s a fantastic book about how to be okay with making all this money and getting all this attention and the way to deal with it is to know what really matters in life.
“What matters to me is my work and the people in my life and that I’m a good person to them and a good friend to my friends.
“So I’m not one of those girls who is out in the nightclubs and falling all over the ground in mini-skirts. I’m not soaking up the fame, trying to get photographed.
“I go home every night.”
Source: www.news.com.au
