Ellen Pompeo Had Reservations About Meredith Grey's Brutal Attack on 'Grey's Anatomy'

Ellen Pompeo steps out to run some errands with a pal on Wednesday (February 17) in Studio City, Calif.

The 46-year-old Grey’s Anatomy star appeared on EW‘s Shondaland Revealed last week after her character suffered a brutal attack by a patient at her hospital.

“The first thing when [directing producer Debbie Allen] told me they were planning this episode, I said, ‘So Meredith is going to be attacked again? Do you think the audience is going to go for that? Are they going to be able to handle that? Hasn’t enough happened to Meredith?’ And she said, ‘It’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be great,’” Ellen said. “And, as always – listen, if Shonda [Rhimes] thinks something’s a good idea, it’s usually a good idea.”

“Even though I had my reservations, I was still gung-ho to give it everything I have, not having read it. Then, finding out Denzel [Washington] was coming on to direct it, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah – let’s go. Yes, let’s do it,’” Ellen continued.

“You don’t think you’re going to have to come up with 12 years of devastating things happening to one character. However, I look at the news every day and read newspapers online, and people have had some pretty unfortunate series of events happen to them in life. Things that you never think would happen. … So we can always suspend our disbelief enough to be able to tell some story and learn some lessons,” she added.

Grey’s Anatomy airs tonight at 8pm EST on ABC.