Denzel Washington And Ellen Pompeo Once (Pretty Much) Locked Horns

Well, folks, it seems the melodramatic moments on ABC's long-running medical drama, Grey's Anatomy aren't merely confined to the hallowed halls of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, at least according to Ellen Pompeo. On the newest episode of her Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo podcast, Pompeo, the actress behind the series' titular character, Dr. Meredith Grey, told former co-star Patrick Dempsey that the show's signature dramatic tension spilled off-screen once back in 2015, leading to a massive blow-up over an ad-libbed line between her and legendary actor, Denzel Washington who served as a guest director. 

 “I was like, ‘Look at me when you apologize. Look at me.'  And that wasn't in the dialogue,” the star recalled of the line she says she yelled in the heat of the moment. ”And Denzel went ham on my ass. He was like, ‘I'm the director. Don't you tell him what to do.'"

Instead of taking Washington's criticism in stride, Pompeo didn't, erm, mince words, in telling her director to f--- the f--- off. '“‘Listen, motherf---er, this is my show," she remembers telling Washington "This is my set. Who are you telling? Like you barely know where the bathroom is.’” Ouch. 

Despite her harsh words, Pompeo claims their blow-up was ultimately somehow good for the show. "I was like, 'Yeah, he yelled at me today. Yeah, he let me have it today, and I'm not okay with him, and I'm not looking at him, and I'm not talking to him,'" the actress continued. "So we didn't get through it without a fight, but you know, 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."

Pompeo says they have since reconciled since their on-set spat, the actress noting that she has the “utmost respect for him as an actor and director," even likening Washington's charisma to several famous figures throughout history. 

"Denzel is like — his energy is just nuts. He has this vibration, right?" the actress said of her colleague earlier in the episode. "Certain actors just have an energy and a chemistry — like, superstars are superstars for a reason… There's just like an energy and a vibration that they give off that makes them super charismatic. Patrick has it, Obama has it. Anyone that I've ever met that's like crazy charismatic has it, and Denzel has it in spades, for sure." 

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