Ellen Pompeo was "horrified" over Meredith's "Pick me" scene in Grey's Anatomy

5 November 2021, 16:56 | Updated: 5 November 2021, 21:35

Meredith's "Pick me, choose me, love me," speech in Grey's Anatomy season 2 is iconic – but Ellen Pompeo hated it.

It's one of the most iconic scenes in Grey's Anatomy history: Meredith Grey standing in front of Derek Shepherd, asking him, nay begging him, "Pick me, choose me, love me."

It's been 16 years since that scene first aired, and some fans still can't seem to get enough of it. It's even gone viral all these years later thanks to TikTok, and has been turned into a meme multiple times. But it turns out that Ellen Pompeo herself really didn't like it all.

Speaking on her podcast, Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo, with guest and former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay, Ellen confessed that the scene, which appears in season 2, episode 5, actually "horrified" her to the point where she didn't even want to shoot it.

READ MORE: Ellen Pompeo hints that Grey's Anatomy may be ending for good soon

For those that haven't rewatched the early seasons of Grey's Anatomy recently, here's a reminder of how exactly that scene went down.

In an attempt to get Derek to choose her over his then-wife Addison, Meredith tearfully delivers a speech, saying: "It’s simple: her, or me. And I’m sure she’s really great. But, Derek, I love you. In a really, really big, pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window, unfortunate way that makes me hate you, love you. So pick me. Choose me. Love me." 

The episode was written by creator Shonda Rhimes but Ellen wasn't entirely thrilled when that particular moment popped up in the script.

"When I read that scene, I was horrified," Ellen confessed. "'I'm going to beg a man?' And then on top of it, Meredith's sobbing. I don't know if it was in the script or not, or if our set producers wanted me to cry when I was doing that scene..."

Ellen continued: "And what's funny about that scene is that I'm bawling my eyes out, but I'm bawling not for the reasons in the scene. I'm bawling because I can't believe I'm on TV begging a man to love me."

Ellen then touched on the impact of that moment within pop culture, bringing up the fact that her 12-year-old daughter Stella, who doesn't watch the show, came across the scene on TikTok.

Ellen said that Stella had asked her why she was begging a man to love her: "I was like, 'Well, praise Jesus that she's asking me this question and that her head is already in the right space at 12'. What do I say? And then I was like, 'I didn't write that, I didn't wanna do it'."

Ellen continued: "But that scene is wildly popular, right? That just goes to show you how much I know. I was like, 'This is scene is terrible! I don't wanna do this scene!' Yet, it's like one of the most popular scenes in television history."

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