Ellen Pompeo’s acting career might be coming to an end.
The beloved actress has revealed that she’d be happy to end acting once Grey’s Anatomy comes to an end.
“I’m not saying I’ll never act again, I very well may, but I’m not super excited about continuing my acting career,” she dished on the Ladies First with Laura Brown podcast.
“The acting, even though I haven’t done a million different roles, I feel like I’ve done it,” Pompeo added.
“Sitting around in trailers, traveling around, shooting this in Atlanta, shooting that in Vancouver. I have no desire to go sit in trailers at 11 o’clock at night and wait to shoot scenes and have ADs knock on my door and tell me when I can eat lunch,” the star said.
“You know, it’s for the young at heart. It’s for the youth!”
Pompeo has been the face of Grey’s Anatomy since its debut in 2005 but has been open about the show potentially ending in the past.
“This year could be it,” she told Variety in October, but the show landed a last-minute renewal in May.
In a prior interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2018, Pompeo said she was “looking for a change” in her career.
“I’m clearly not prepared right now to make any formal announcement about what my future is on the show, but I am really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories that we can tell,” she said.
Last August, the star opened up about why she had remained on the show for so long.
“I made choices to stay on the show. For me, personally, a healthy home life was more important than career,” she said on the Jemele Hill Is Unbothered podcast.
“I didn’t grow up with a particularly happy childhood. So to have a happy home life was really something I needed to complete, to close the hole in my heart.”
“So I made a decision to make money, and not chase creative acting roles. That’s what, ultimately, I think, the hustler in me — I don’t like chasing anything, ever.”
“And acting to me, in my experience, was a lot of chasing,” the executive producer added.
“You’ve got to chase roles, you’ve got to beg for roles, you’ve got to convince people. And although I produce and it’s the same kind of thing, I think I still do it from a place of, I’m never that thirsty because I’m financially set.”
As things stand, Grey’s Anatomy is locked in for Season 18 at ABC, but the show has continued to show great resilience in the ratings, something that could keep it on the air for several more years.
What are your thoughts on the star potentially leaving acting behind?
Hit the comments below.
Remember, you can watch Grey’s Anatomy online right here via TV Fanatic.
The series returns Thursday, September 30 at 9/8c.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.