Ellen Pompeo: Mer-Der, She Wrote

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Ellen Pompeo

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What would Shonda say when you've complained about Mer-Der in the past?
ELLEN POMPEO: She always has answers. Meredith can't commit because there are issues with her mother. But if I couldn't commit, why didn't I just walk away? It did get redundant. But nobody wants to hear me complain.

Fans can't seem to make up their mind whether they want to love or hate Meredith.
Not everyone's going to like you. I don't like everybody who I see on TV. You can't set out to try to have the whole world love you. That's like some weird ego thing. It's silliness. At the end of the day I still have an amazing job.

Do you think this show has eight or nine seasons in it?
I don't know how you can come up with original material for that long, I really don't. To keep the same audience for eight years...I don't know how likely that is.

Could you see yourself going to the bitter end?
No. I'm signed on for seven seasons, we all are. And I'll never say never about anything. But, I think after seven seasons I'm certainly going to feel like I have nothing to give for this character.

Do you try hard to stay out of the press? Except for the occasional Lakers game, there aren't a lot of paparazzi shots of you walking down Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills, doing some shopping.
My wedding was a little bit tricky to pull off. But New York City Hall totally helped us out. It's not hard to stay out of press if you don't want it. There are very specific things you can do. I wear the same black tracksuit to work pretty much every day. That's a little tip I stole from Madonna. If you don't dress up every day when you leave your house, the paparazzi won't come. If they know you're going to step out with a beautiful bag, beautiful dress, beautiful shoes, they're going to show up like clockwork every day. That's what the magazines buy. The second reason [I stay out of gossip press] is I think the more people know about your personal life, the less they believe you as a character. I just want people to believe the character I play and believe me in the role. That's really all I care about.