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Ellen Pompeo Calls Out Magazine For Lack Of Diversity Mid-Interview

By Naomi Kennedy
Published on: 03:00 PST, Nov 20, 2018

Fan-favorite female television stars Ellen Pompeo, Gina Rodriguez, Emma Roberts, and Gabrielle Union sat down recently for a round-table discussion for Porter Magazine’s “Women in Television” issue.

The leading TV ladies discussed a variety of issues pertaining to women and diversity in the workplace, but as Huffington Post pointed out, the Grey’s Anatomy star was quick to call out what she was seeing in the room as the conversation was going on, taking the opportunity to point out the lack of diversity within Porter itself.

“This day has been incredible, and there’s a ton of women in the room,” she said. “But I don’t see enough color. And I didn’t see enough color when I walked in the room today.”

Pompeo continued, sharing that during an earlier meeting for another endorsement project she was doing she explained to the director that she wanted the crew to “look like the world that I walk around in every day,” and that it was at the hands of the productions to do so.

Her fellow TV stars clearly felt the same way–in a short clip of the interview posted to Twitter of Pompeo’s comments, which has since gone viral with over 37,000 retweets and more than 126,000 likes, Gabrielle Union of Sleepless can be seen nodding her head in agreement, and Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez dons a huge grin.

“As Caucasian people, it’s our job, it’s our task, it’s our responsibility to make sure we speak up in every single room we walk into,” Pompeo added. “It’s our job because we created the problem.”

The ladies followed Ellen’s call out with a “cheers” of their coffee cups.

Social media went abuzz after Pompeo’s comment went viral, and the star, who portrays Meredith Grey in Shonda Rhime’s popular medical drama, has received immense praise for what she said.

“1) White people sometimes ask me how they can be an ally. @EllenPompeo puts on a master class in how to be one,” Atlantic staff writer Jemele Hill wrote on her Twitter account. “2) @itsgabrielleu’s facial expressions are a whole a** mood.”

The official Twitter account for dictionary.com even got in on it, tweeting the definition of “ally” and providing Ellen Pompeo as a prime example.

Pompeo hasn’t been one to shy away from standing up for what she believes in and speaking her mind. Earlier this year in February, she tweeted her response to a clip of Fox New‘s Laura Ingraham saying Lebron James should “shut up and dribble” and leave political comments to those that finished high school.

“Someone tell this b*tch to meet me outside…I’m so not in the mood for playing nice or polite this week,” she wrote.

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