The actress will also reduce her on-screen commitment to ABC’s hit medical drama.
Ellen Pompeo is setting her sights on newer things.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the 52-year-old actress will both star in and executive produce her first on-air series for Hulu through her ABC Signature-based production company, Calamity Jane.
According to the outlet, Pompeo will be reducing her screen time on ABC’s longest-running primetime medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” and will only star in eight of the 22 episodes that are set to make up Season 19.
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Although her on-screen commitment has been scaled back, Pompeo will remain the primary narrator for the majority of the next season. Despite her comments about wanting to expand her career beyond “Grey’s Anatomy,” THR reported that Pompeo has no plans to depart from the series as of now.
Back in December, the SAG Award winner revealed to Insider that she had been actively working on wrapping the series behind the scenes. “I’ve been trying to focus on convincing everybody that it should end,” she admitted.
“I feel like I’m the super naive one who keeps saying, ‘But what’s the story going to be, what story are we going to tell?” said Pompeo, adding that she’s found it difficult to get others onboard with her as the show is still successful after so many years.
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“Everyone’s like, ‘Who cares, Ellen? It makes a gazillion dollars,'” she added. Pompeo is earning more than $20 million per year, plus an additional estimated $6 to $7 million as a producer on the show.
Creator Shonda Rhimes has said on multiple occasions that “Grey’s” will end whenever Pompeo says she’s done.
Meanwhile, Pompeo’s new venture with Hulu is a drama series “inspired by the story of a Midwestern couple who adopts what they believe is an 8-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, they slowly start to believe she may not be who she says she is. As they question her story, they’re confronted with hard questions of their own about the lengths they’re willing to go to defend themselves, falling into a battle that’s fought in the tabloids, the courtroom, and ultimately their marriage.”
