'Grey's Anatomy' Star Ellen Pompeo Details When Denzel Washington "Went Nuts" On Her While Directing An Episode

Over the course of his long career, Denzel Washington has directed five separate projects. Four of them are films, such as “Antwone Fisher,” “The Great Debaters,” “Fences,” and “A Journal For Jordan,” but the other project is something many people don’t realize he did—an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.” And it appears that Washington’s time on the ABC drama series wasn’t as smooth sailing as you might expect, as he had a pretty big blowout with lead actress, Ellen Pompeo.

Speaking on an episode of her podcast, Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo (via EW), the actress detailed the tumultuous on-set experience she had with Denzel Washington when he came on board to direct an episode of her long-running series, “Grey’s Anatomy.”

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“He went nuts on me,” Pompeo said about an incident on set with Washington.

According to the actress, deep into the run of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Denzel Washington was directing an episode that included a scene where Pompeo’s Meredith Grey had an intense scene opposite another actor playing a hospital patient. And the actress explained that she saw her scene partner speak softly in the exchange when she thought the character should be looking at her in the eyes when he apologized, so Pompeo took it upon herself to direct the actor during the scene.

“He made this choice to speak very softly,” explained Pompeo about her acting partner. “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. 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.”

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She added, “[Washington] was like, ‘I’m the director. Don’t you tell him what to do.’ And I was like, ‘Listen, motherfucker, 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.”

Eventually, the actress talked about how she met up with Washington’s wife on set and explained the situation to her. And through it all, Pompeo said it was still a good experience.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, he yelled at me today. Yeah, he let me have it today, and I’m not okay with him, and I’m not looking at him, and I’m not talking to him,'” she said. “So we didn’t get through it without a fight, but you know, that’s actors for you — passionate and fiery — and that’s where you get the magic, and that’s where you get the good stuff. So it was an amazing experience, it really was.”

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Since then, Washington has yet to return to “Grey’s Anatomy,” instead sticking to directing feature films such as “Fences” and the upcoming “A Journal for Jordan,” which is expected to arrive on December 22.