NEW YORK, Oct 8: Actress Ellen Pompeo did not want Isaiah Washington to play her on-screen love interest on hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy because she felt the mixed race storyline was similar to her real life.
Pompeo, who is married to African-American music producer Chris Ivery, has revealed that show creator Shonda Rhimes wanted to pair her Meredith Grey with Washington’s Dr Preston Burke during the programme’s early days.
But Pompeo objected and suggested she romance Patrick Dempsey’s character instead, reported New York Post.
“You know they wanted Isaiah Washington to be my boyfriend. Shonda really wanted to put a black man in the mix. I didn’t think they were really going to put an interracial couple on the show and I didn’t want him. It was too close to home. I said I wanted that Dempsey kid,” she said.
Washington ended up leaving the programme after its third season after uttering a homophobic slur towards castmate TR Knight in an on-set dispute with Dempsey in 2007. (PTI)
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