Ellen Pompeo wants Grey's to be less "preachy," more consistent in how it handles issues
"Less sort of hit you over the head for just one hour and then we never talk about it again," Pompeo said on her podcast
Grey’s Anatomy star (and executive producer) Ellen Pompeo has already announced one major change she’ll be implementing in the show’s upcoming 19th season—i.e., having quite a bit less Ellen Pompeo hanging around. (She’s got a Hulu show she’s working on.)
Now, though, Pompeo has opened up about some other changes she might like to see on the series, on which she’s now been playing Dr. Meredith Grey for the last 17 years. Specifically, Pompeo (as quoted by Variety) gave a podcast interview this week, on her own show Tell Me, in which she stated that she wants the show to be less “preachy.”
To be clear: Pompeo was not saying that the show shouldn’t tackle issues, which it’s been doing in its own admittedly melodramatic way for most of the past two decades. What she’s calling out, though, are those times when the show goes in very hard on a single social topic for a single episode, then promptly forgets about it once the next week rolls around. Here’s her full quote:
I think if I had any desire honestly it would be to be less sort of preachy in one episode about certain things. It’s like, we do one episode about let’s see… Asian hate crimes is one that we did this past season that was really moving. I think I’d like to see things happen a little more subtly and over time. You know, consistently and less sort of hit you over the head for just one hour and then we never talk about it again.
It’s worth noting, as we did above, that Pompeo is an executive producer on the series, so she presumably has some pull on its storytelling. (Although we should also point out that Grey’s Anatomy has racked up a lot of executive producers over the years.)