Learn Ellen Pompeo’s One Criticism of Grey’s Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo may be the star of Grey’s Anatomy, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be critical of the ABC series.

The actress, who has played Meredith Grey since 2005, admits the medical drama has room for improvement, sharing that she feels the series hasn’t done enough to address social justice issues. “We’ve covered a lot of very important topics and we do talk a lot about things,” she said on her podcast Tell Me Aug. 3. “I think if I had any desire, honestly, it would be to be less sort of preachy in one episode about certain things.” 

As Pompeo explained, Grey’s Anatomy tends to do one-off episodes about an issue. “Asian hate crimes is one that we did this past season that was really moving,” she said. “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.”