Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey co-starred in "Grey's Anatomy." (Photo : Facebook)
"Grey's Anatomy" actress Ellen Pompeo was shocked to hear viewers' sexist reactions when her on-screen husband Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) was killed on the show.
Many viewers' assumed that after Shepherd's death, her character Meredith Grey would also be killed or the show would now go off air, without a male protagonist.
"All of a sudden, Patrick leaves, and it's like, 'Oh my God, Meredith's gonna get killed with Alzheimer's!'" Pompeo said of the viewer's response to Entertainment Weekly, where the star has also posed naked.
She was aghast to know that the viewers assumed "Grey's Anatomy" "couldn't possibly go on without the man." Shepherd's character was killed in the story when Dempsey expressed his desire to leave the show. However, show's boss Shonda Rhimes fast forwarded an entire year last May following the death of Shepherd.
While talking to TV Line, Rhimes said she decided to skip one year because he did not want Pompeo to be an "inconsolable widow" on the show. The director could not think of a world where Meredith (Pompeo) could go "a month and be able to speak or breathe - or [even] six months." She needed the time of her husband's death to pass soon, so she could have normal conversation.
Rhimes also said that the process of Shepherd's death was "brutal" and she not only found it "incredibly painful" to write the show but it was equally painful for her to watch the series that time.
The new season of "Grey's Anatomy" premieres on Sept. 24 at 8 PM ET/PT on ABC.
