Ellen Pompeo Revealed That She And T.R. Knight Were “In Tears” Throughout Their Entire “Grey’s Anatomy” Sex Scene Because It Was So “Uncomfortable And Awkward”

Ellen, now 55, has played the leading character Meredith Grey on the hit ABC series since 2005. In 2023, she took a step back from the show and now only appears in a few episodes.

Back in Season 2, Ellen had to film a love scene with her costar T.R. Knight, who played George O’Malley. During the sex, Meredith memorably breaks down into tears, eventually prompting George to storm out.

Reflecting on shooting this scene now, Ellen has revealed that things were incredibly “uncomfortable and awkward” for both her and T.R.

“T.R. and I are such good friends, and we had to do a love scene,” she said during a new appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “We were both crying. We cried.”

“The scene was so uncomfortable and awkward, and he didn’t wanna do it, I didn’t wanna do it,” Ellen shared before revealing that much to her dismay, she and T.R. were ordered to shoot the scene a second time because the first take wasn’t quite right.

“When we filmed it, it was so bad. And then the network said there was too much thrusting. In your worst nightmare, you have to do it one time — we had to reshoot that shit,” she said.

By the way, I’ve never watched that scene. I don’t know how it was shot or covered or how it was edited, but I’m full on in tears the whole entire scene, and those are real tears,” she revealed.

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There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t wanna do at the time,” she added. “I didn’t wanna say, ‘Pick me, choose me, love me’ … You have to just suck it up and do it.”