Denzel Washington Signs On for "Grey's Anatomy" Season 12 as Director
by Michael Ausiello
October 13, 2015


"Grey’s Anatomy" is adding a little A-list star power in Season 12, albeit behind the scenes.

Two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington has signed on to direct an episode of ABC’s durable medical drama, TVLine has learned exclusively.



Washington will helm this season’s ninth episode, a Stacy McKee-penned outing that is scheduled to start shooting later this month (ahead of a November sweeps debut).

Although Washington has previously directed two films — 2002’s Antwone Fisher and 2007’s The Great Debaters — this will be his first time calling the shots on the small screen.

http://tvline.com/2015/10/13/denzel-washington-greys-anatomy-season-12-director-episode-9/

Ellen Pompeo Says She and Denzel Washington "Went At It" When he Directed "Grey's Anatomy"
by Jolie Lash
Sept. 29, 2021


Denzel Washington made his small-screen directing debut on "Grey's Anatomy" back in 2015, with the season 12 episode "The Sound of Silence," but according to series star Ellen Pompeo, things got a little loud during the filming of one particular scene when the two got into it.

Pompeo shared the story on a new episode of her podcast "Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo", in which she reunited with former castmate Patrick Dempsey.




While she began by saying Washington was "amazing," Pompeo went on to discuss a heated exchange the pair had.

Pompeo was shooting a scene for the end of the episode in which her character, Dr. Meredith Grey, is asked to listen to an apology from a man who seriously injured her, leaving her with a broken jaw. (The story was inspired by a real-life incident in which an "epileptic patient goes into a seizure and beat up a nurse," Pompeo explained.)

It being an emotional scene for the actress to shoot, she ended up improvising dialogue in the moment in response to an acting decision the guest star made.




"He made this choice to speak very softly. And [Meredith] was pissed that [she] had to sit there and listen to this apology, and he wasn't looking at [her] in the eye," Pompeo recalled, wavering between talking about herself and the guest star as actors and characters.

"Again, we love actors who make choices, right? And I yelled at him, and I was like, 'Look at me when you apologize. Look at me.' And that wasn't in the dialogue, and Denzel went ham on my ass."

She continued: "He was like, 'I'm the director. Don't you tell him what to do.' And I was like, 'Listen, motherf‑‑‑er, this is my show. This is my set. Who are you telling?' Like, 'You barely know where the bathroom is.' And I have the utmost respect for him as an actor, as a director, as everything, but like, yo, we went at it one day."

https://ew.com/tv/ellen-pompeo-denzel-washington-went-at-it-on-greys-anatomy-set-when-he-directed-episode/

exciting!!!

Ellen Pompeo gets backlash for her revealing she fought with Denzel Washington when he directed Grey's Anatomy (https://www.newsweek.com/ellen-pompeo-backlash-disrespecting-denzel-washington-greys-anatomy-1634196)

The Grey's Anatomy star (https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/ellen-pompeo-says-she-went-off-on-denzel-washington-when-he-directed-greys-anatomy-listen-mf-this-is-my-show.4674927/) was met with widespread criticism from Black Twitter that resulted in her name trending on Twitter last night and this morning over her comments on her podcast (https://www.primetimer.com/item/Ellen-Pompeo-reunites-with-Patrick-Dempsey-on-her-podcast-as-she-recalls-fighting-with-Greys-Anatomy-guest-director-Denzel-Washington-k4S635), Tell Me with Elle Pompeo. "Like most white women who recount stories to others (and it’s usually to other white people) about how they had to raise their voice and put their foot down because they didn’t like the way something was being said or done, Ellen seemed as if she expected people to find this anecdote to be endearing and empowering and maybe even a little bit charming (https://www.pajiba.com/web_culture/when-keeping-it-real-goes-wrong-denzel-washington-vs-ellen-pompeo.php)," says Pajiba's Brian Richards. "Especially considering the reputation she has for her lack of filter and her zero-tolerance policy for bullsh-t when it comes to discussing her work on the show, how much she is paid for her work on the show, and the authority/responsibility that comes with being Number 1 on the call sheet. Unfortunately for Ellen, this was not the response she got when sharing this story with the public, and it sure as hell wasn’t the response she got from Black Twitter. Most of the tweets in response to Ellen going off on Denzel the way she did were of the 'Are you f-cking kidding me?' variety, and other tweets pointed out that this isn’t the first or second time that Ellen has stuck her privileged foot in her mouth when it comes to her interactions with Black people (https://twitter.com/chris_notcapn/status/1443392679203721217)."

Was Ellen Pompeo behaving like a "Karen" with Denzel Washington on the Grey's Anatomy set? (https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/10/10700018/ellen-pompeo-denzel-washington-greys-anatomy-karen-behavior)

If Pompeo is treating the acclaimed Denzel Washington in a denigrating way (https://ew.com/tv/ellen-pompeo-denzel-washington-went-at-it-on-greys-anatomy-set-when-he-directed-episode/), how does she treat her lower-level colleagues? "Besides the fact that we’re talking about Denzel Thee Washington here — John Q! Training Day! Malcolm X! Antwone Fisher! — Pompeo’s intense response to his direction and her decision to brag about cursing at him on set years later speaks to a type of power that only certain people (and you know what type) have in Hollywood," says Ineye Komonibo. "This isn’t to say that directors should be omnipotent on set; there are some people at the helm of TV shows and films that need to be gathered. And through her 16 years on the show, Pompeo has risen from unknown actress to one of the show’s producers and the highest paid actress in television. But if she’s speaking that way to Denzel, how is she speaking to other members of the cast and crew? From the way that Pompeo described the interaction, Washington was simply doing his job by maintaining the order of his set. Claiming that a Black man 'went nuts on her,' and needing to put him in his place — 'This is my show!' — is Karen behavior, plain and simple. We’ve all encountered a Karen before: a woman, typically white, who believes that God left her in charge of the earth and everyone in it. Whether it’s calling the police on people for no reason, touching your hair without permission, or cussing out the A-list actor recruited to direct an episode of a TV show, Karens are always going out of their way to assert their dominance over other people, and when their behavior is rightfully reciprocated, they go into victim mode. In Pompeo’s case, she tattled to a Black woman like she was going to take the actress’ side over her husband’s, then went public years later to boost publicity for her new podcast."

Denzel Washington doesn't recall fighting with Ellen Pompeo when he directed Grey's Anatomy (https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/denzel-washington-discusses-greys-anatomy-fight-with-ellen-pompeo/)

Pompeo made headlines (https://www.eonline.com/news/1304257/ellen-pompeo-recalls-going-at-it-with-denzel-washington-on-greys-anatomy-set) last fall when she recalled going "at it" with Washington on the Grey's set when he was a guest director. "I was like, ‘Look at me when you apologize. Look at me,'" she recalled yelling at the actor during the scene. "And that wasn't in the dialogue. And Denzel went ham on my a**. He was like, ‘I'm the director. Don't you tell him what to do.'" When Variety asked Washington about the incident (https://variety.com/2022/film/features/denzel-washington-tragedy-of-macbeth-oscars-journal-for-jordan-1235146843/), he sidestepped the question. “No, no,” he said, claiming that he doesn’t recall that day. Then, with a slight grin, he added: “But it’s all good.”