There are some TV moments that live in your head rent-free, even though you definitely would love to charge them for all the emotional distress they’ve caused. There are honestly far too many of those scenes on my own personal list, but at the very top of it is the infamous sex scene between Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) in season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy. And apparently I’m not alone in that feeling. Ellen Pompeo is also haunted by Meredith and George’s Grey’s Anatomy sex scene, and she shared some behind-the-scenes details that make it (somehow) even cringier.
In case you (very smartly and justifiably) blocked it out, here’s your refresher on the hook-up-that-never-should-have-been between Mer and George. Back in ye olden times of Grey’s Anatomy season 2, George had been harboring a crush on Meredith basically since the moment he met her in episode 1. Meredith, though, was hung up on the one and only McDreamy, aka Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), who was trying to save his marriage to Addison (Kate Walsh).
In Grey’s Anatomy season 2, episode 19 — aptly titled “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” — George confesses his love to a heartbroken Meredith, and they wind up in bed together. They have sex and Mer breaks down sobbing — yes, sobbing! — in the middle of it. The worst part for me, though, is when George stops but a teary Meredith tries to power through and asks, “You’re almost done, right?” It makes me want to crawl out of my skin, and at least that’s when George gets up and puts everyone out of their misery. According to Ellen Pompeo, that scene was just as excruciating to film as it is to watch.
Ellen Pompeo’s Details About the Meredith and George Sex Scene
Ellen sat down with Alex Cooper for an episode of Call Her Daddy and revealed all about the Meredith and George sex scene. “T.R. and I are such good friends,” she said. “And we had to do a love scene and we were both crying. We cried.”
She went on to explain that it was actually just as cringey in real life as it was on screen. “The scene was so uncomfortable and awkward and he didn’t wanna do that,” she said. “I didn’t wanna do it. And when we filmed it, it was so bad.”
At least the audience only had to suffer through the scene once. Ellen and T.R., unfortunately had to film it twice because it wasn’t right the first time. She told Alex, “The network said there was too much thrusting. In your worst nightmare to have to do it one time, we had to re-shoot that shit. We had to re-shoot it and do it twice.”
Ellen has spared herself from enduring the scene yet again by watching it. All these years later and she still hasn’t seen it. “I’ve never watched that scene,” she said. “I’ve never seen it. 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.”
Maybe there’s some comfort in knowing we’re all cringing through that scene together.
