Ellen Pompeo once tried to charm Harvey Weinstein during a meeting in his hotel room.
The 49-year-old actress – who plays the part of Meredith Grey in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ – has revealed she once met the disgraced Hollywood producer in a hotel and admitted she’d have lashed out if he’d "tried anything" with her, though she understood she’d need to get on his good side.
She recalled: "I went right up to his room at the Peninsula, which I would never normally do, but Harvey was a New York guy, so it made sense. Plus, it was in the middle of the day, and he had an assistant there. He didn’t try anything on me.
"Had he, I’m a little rough around the edges and I grew up around some very tough people, so I probably would have picked up a vase and cracked him over the f***ing head. But I also feel completely comfortable saying that I walked into that room batting the s**t out of my eyelashes.
"My goal in that room was to charm him, as it is in most rooms like that. You think, ‘Not only do I have to show that I’m a good actress, but that director also has to in some way fall in love with me and at least become enamored with me.’ "
But Ellen admitted it never "felt right" and she even confronted her agents years later about the situation.
She added in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: "That never felt right or good to me. And I’ve had conversations with my agent 17 years later where I said, ‘You sent me into that room knowing …’ They claim they didn’t know."
Ellen is now the highest-paid actress on a prime-time drama after renegotiating her ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ deal.
And she believes that the fallout from the Hollywood sex scandal, which led to the launch of the Time’s Up campaign, has justified her decision to seek a pay rise.
Speaking in reference to the initiative – which is designed to fight sexual harassment and abuse – Ellen shared: "In the last few weeks, a lot of us actresses in town have been having these meetings [as part of the Time’s Up initiative]. We’ve been sharing stories and trying to figure out how we can promote change and use our voices to help other people.
"And I’ll tell you, sitting in rooms full of Oscar-winning actresses listening to how they’ve been preyed upon and assaulted is frightening. And it confirmed that my path really was the right one for me, because I’ve chosen to financially empower myself so that I never have to be ducking predators and chasing trophies."
Ellen Pompeo tried to charm Harvey Weinstein during hotel meeting
