Ellen Pompeo admits she might quit acting after 'Grey's Anatomy' ends: 'I feel like I've done it'

• Ellen Pompeo isn't excited about acting anymore.
• She said on the "Ladies First with Laura Brown" podcast that she may be done after "Grey's Anatomy."
• "The acting, even though I haven't done a million different roles, I feel like I've done it," she said.

Ellen Pompeo is opening up about why she might be through with acting once "Grey's Anatomy" is over.

"I'm not saying I'll never act again, I very well may, but I'm not super excited about continuing my acting career," she revealed on a recent episode of the "Ladies First with Laura Brown" podcast.

"The acting, even though I haven't done a million different roles, I feel like I've done it," Pompeo continued.

She added that she's not enthusiastic about continuing on with the less-glamorous parts of the business like "sitting around in trailers, traveling around, shooting this in Atlanta, shooting that in Vancouver."

"I have no desire to go sit in trailers at 11 o'clock at night and wait to shoot scenes and have ADs knock on my door and tell me when I can eat lunch," Pompeo said. "You know, it's for the young at heart. It's for the youth!"

The 51-year-old Golden Globe nominee has been the lead of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" for its entire 17-season run as Dr. Meredith Grey. In May, it was announced that the show has been renewed for another season, with Pompeo set to return.

Back in 2018, Pompeo negotiated a highly-publicized $20 million a year deal with ABC to remain on the show, which included $575,000 per episode of "Grey's" plus a signing bonus and backend equity as an executive producer.

According to the Hollywood Reporter's renewal news in May 2021, Pompeo's negotiations for season 18 resulted in a "rich new deal" to return, which included another salary bump and solidified her status as the highest-earning actress in a primetime drama - a milestone she first achieved after the 2018 deal.

Pompeo said on the podcast her interest lies more in the business world going forward.

"I'm more entrepreneurial at this stage," she said. "I'm excited about investing in businesses, and starting business. That's an area of growth that I'm excited about, using my brain in a different way."

That includes going into the podcast space herself. She teased an upcoming series titled "Tell Me."

"[I thought], 'Let me go out there and do something I've never done before and try something completely different for absolutely no other reason than to try something different because I haven't for so long,'" Pompeo said. "If it fails, it fails, but at least I'm trying something new."