Grey’s Anatomy Star Ellen Pompeo Speaks Out on Return After Exiting the Series

After 19 seasons on the hit ABC series, Ellen Pompeo departed Grey’s Anatomy as a series regular earlier this year, marking a major shift for the series. After all her character, Meredith Grey, is the main character of the long-running series and the character the show is itself named after. But while Pompeo’s time as a series regular is over, it doesn’t mean she’s entirely done with Grey’s. She appeared again in the Season 19 finale and she’s open to coming back more in the future. Speaking with former Grey’s Anatomy costar Katherine Heigl as part of Variety‘s Actors on Actors, Pompeo said she will hopefully be appearing next season — if she can find the time.

“I will be making some appearances hopefully next year, if I can find some time,” Pompeo said (via PEOPLE). “No, it’s not a complete goodbye. And I think we’ve got an interesting story to tell.”

Pompeo also revealed her frustrating with playing Meredith, speaking about what she described as the character making bad decisions over and over and having a lack of growth in certain aspects of her life — particularly her love life.

“When you stay on a show and with a character that long…for me, I really need to make sense of things and I really need to see evolution and growth,” Pompeo said. “And with network television specifically, there has to be some consistency for the audience. The audience wants familiarity. The writers get stuck in the consistency of something, and it’s harder, which I always would argue against and say, ‘We have such an incredible fan base. They’re so loyal. They’ll literally come along with us no matter what we do.’ I think it’s okay for Meredith to stop making bad decisions.”

“One of my frustrations is the Nick and Meredith of it all,” Pompeo said. “Scott Speedman plays Meredith’s love interest, Nick Marsh, and I love Speedman. He’s fantastic. And somehow, Meredith can’t figure out how to make a relationship work still after all this time. And I guess if she were to make it work, then where’s the conflict?…There has to be conflict. It’s not that I don’t think there shouldn’t be conflict. There should be conflict. I guess I just have different ideas about what the conflict should be.”

What do you think about Pompeo’s comments? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.