Ellen Pompeo reveals 'pick me' scene with Patrick Dempsey on 'Grey's Anatomy' left her in tears of embarrassment
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl recently got together after years and discussed 'Grey's Anatomy' hidden facts and stories in an episode of Variety's 'Actor on Actors' series. The reunion took place 13 years after Heigl left the most-watched series allegedly owing to on-set disputes and controversial comments made in public and just a few months after Pompeo's departure from the show after 19 seasons.
'Grey's Anatomy' is well-known for its sequences showcasing the most peculiar medical cases, like the episode when a deer was operated on, the one with the bomb in the body cavity, or the one with the ghost sex, and the show has become an overnight hit. Fans love them! Ellen, though, claims to have hated a famous sequence. The 53-year-old who who played Meredith for almost two decades revealed that while she and Patrick Dempsey were filming the "pick me" sequence for the overnight hit program, she "really cried" out of embarrassment. Believe it or not, she didn't want to say the line that made her character famous: "Pick me, choose me, love me."
'Pick me' scene
As longtime viewers will recall, the quote first appears in Season 2, Episode 5 of the program when Meredith asks Derek (Patrick Dempsey), who is still married to his separated wife Addison (Kate Walsh), to sign the papers for his divorce. She says, "So pick me, choose me, love me."
It appears that Pompeo detested it. "Listen, I don’t know if you remember that I fought that speech so hard," she told Heigl. "That’s another really interesting thing about life—some things that I was so against, and I was like, 'I can’t beg a man on TV! This is so embarrassing.' And then it turns out to be one of the most famous scenes ever."
'I’m really crying'
After Heigl enquired about Pompeo's experience, the latter revealed, "My daughter and her friends, they sit around and they’re like, 'Oh, she’s a ‘pick me girl,'" Pompeo claimed. "I’m like, 'What’s a pick me girl?'" she added. "They were like, 'You know, girls who are like, ‘Pick me, choose me!’' And I’m like, 'Hello?! Do you know who invented the ‘pick me girl’?" Heigl continues by describing the scenario as "beautiful," but it appears like Pompeo is still unsure. "In the scene, I'm crying," she claims. "But I’m really crying because I have to beg a man on television."