Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo reveals she cried during sex scene with co-star she really didn’t want to do

Grey's Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo has been walking down memory lane in a new episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, and she is NOT disappointing.

Host Alex Cooper guided her guest through all things Grey’s, from salary negotiations behind the scenes to Meredith’s most iconic moments.

At one point, she tasked Pompeo with dishing out some advice to her on-screen counterpart, telling the star how Meredith didn’t always make the ‘best decisions’ in her relationships.

When it came to Meredith begging Derek to choose her over his wife, Pompeo said bluntly: “Girl, bye!”

Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey (ABC)

As for Meredith attempting to be friends with benefits with an ex – like, say, Derek – Pompeo said diplomatically that it ‘depends on the situation’.

“Do what you gotta do, girl!” she grinned.

“Handle yo business...”

But there’s one moment from the series that the actor was far less breezy about, as the conversation turned to the time our titular character went on the rebound with George (T.R. Knight), when she knew he had liked her for years.

Recoiling, Pompeo said: “Can I tell you an inside story about that? This is crazy. T.R. and I are such good friends, and we had to do a love scene, and we were both crying. We cried, we cried.

It turns out those tears were very much real (ABC)

“And the scene was so uncomfortable and awkward, and he didn’t want to do that, I didn’t want to do it. And when we filmed it, it was so bad, and then the network said there was ‘too much thrusting.’”

Pompeo said they had to re-shoot the scene, which meant they had to ‘do it twice’.

"By the way, I’ve never watched that scene, I’ve never seen it,” she continued.

“I don’t know how it was shot or covered or how it was edited.

“But I’m full on in tears the whole entire scene. And those are real tears.”

Cooper's face says it all (YouTube/Call Her Daddy)

Pompeo admitted there was ‘a lot of stuff’ she didn’t want to do at the time, but often knew creator Shonda Rhimes knew what she was doing.

"I didn’t want to say ‘Pick me, choose me, love me’ - and to Shonda’s credit, she knew that was gonna pop,” she said.

“I was like, ‘Why would I do this, why would I beg?’ And you have to just suck it up and do it. And it ended up being the biggest thing ever, the most iconic thing ever.”