Meredith Gray is the unique “choose me woman,” nevertheless it’s not a title Ellen Pompeo ever needed for her Gray’s Anatomy character.
In her latest interview on Alex Cooper’s Name Her Daddy podcast, Pompeo cited Meredith’s “Choose Me, Select Me, Love Me” speech as one of many scenes she didn’t need to shoot on the ABChospital drama.
“There was loads of stuff that I didn’t wanna do on the time,” Pompeo stated. “I didn’t wanna say, ‘Choose me, select me, love me.’ And to [creator Shonda Rhimes’] credit score, she knew that was going to pop.”
In case you missed it, the pivotal scene comes within the Season 2 episode “Carry the Ache,” written Rhimes herself, as Derek (Patrick Dempsey) weighs his love triangle with Meredith and with estranged spouse Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh).
“I’m certain she’s actually nice,” Mer says in that episode. “However Derek, I like you, in a very, actually large, pretend-to-like-your-taste-in-music, let-you-eat-the-last-piece-of-cheesecake, hold-a-radio-over-my-head-outside-your window, unlucky approach that makes me hate you, love you. So choose me. Select me. Love me.”
Reflecting on that scene on Name Her Daddy, Pompeo recalled, “I used to be like, ‘Why would I do that? Why would I encourage? Why would I?’ And you need to simply suck it up and do it. And it ended up being the most important factor ever, essentially the most iconic [thing] ever. So, I’m not all the time one of the best decide of what’s gonna [work]. It’s not like I stated it wasn’t going to be good. I used to be similar to, ‘I don’t need to try this.’”
Pompeo additionally talked about that scene in her Selection “Actors on Actors” dialog with former costar Katherine Heigl in June 2023. She revealed that she as soon as caught her daughter and her mates calling somebody a “choose me woman.”
“So I’m like, ‘What’s a choose me woman?’ So that they had been like, ‘, women who’re like choose me, select me.’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, do you, uh, good day? Have you learnt who invented the choose me woman?’”
One other scene Pompeo didn’t need to shoot? Meredith’s tried hookup with George (T.R. Knight) in Season 2.
“T.R. and I are such good mates, and we needed to do a love scene, and we had been each crying,” she stated on Name Her Daddy. “And the scene was so uncomfortable and awkward, and he didn’t need to try this. I didn’t need to do it, And after we filmed it, it was so unhealthy. After which the community stated there was an excessive amount of thrusting. In your worst nightmare, to need to do it one time. We needed to re-shoot that s***. We needed to re-shoot it and do it twice. … I’m full-on in tears the entire total scene, and people are actual tears.”
Gray’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC