Ellen Pompeo Says She and T.R. Knight Both Cried During Their ‘Uncomfortable’ Grey’s Anatomy S/e/x Scene

Ellen Pompeo and T.R. Knight did not pick, choose or love their Grey’s Anatomy characters’ infamous sex scene.

On the most recent episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, host Alex Cooper asked Pompeo to weigh in on some of Meredith Grey’s most questionable decisions on ABC’s long-running medical drama, including sleeping with friend and colleague George O’Malley (Knight).

“Can I tell you an inside story about that?” the Good American Family star, 55, asked. “This is crazy. T.R. and I are such good friends. And we had to do a love scene, and we were both crying.”

The scene in question came in Grey’s Anatomy’s second season, when Meredith, reeling from both her breakup with Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and from an encounter with her estranged father, falls into bed with George, who has harbored a crush on her since early in season 1. It’s later revealed that their tryst was such a disastrous mistake that Meredith burst into tears mid-coitus.

According to Pompeo, those tears were real, and Knight was equally as upset when they filmed the scene.

“We cried. And the scene was so uncomfortable and awkward, and he didn’t wanna do that. I didn’t wanna do it,” she recalled.

And it gets worse! Pompeo said she and Knight had to re-film the scene after ABC deemed their first attempt too risqué for TV.

“The network said there was too much thrusting,” she revealed. “In your worst nightmare to have to do it one time, we had to re-shoot that s—. We had to re-shoot it and do it twice.”

“By the way, I’ve never watched that scene,” she added. “I’ve never seen it, but I don’t know how it was shot or covered or what the end — how it was edited. But I’m full-on in tears, the whole entire scene. And those are real tears.”

Pompeo said the scene was just one of many things she didn’t want to do in early seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, including the now-iconic scene in which her character begs Derek to leave his wife (Kate Walsh) for her.

“I didn’t wanna say ‘Pick me, choose me, love me,’ ” Pompeo said. However, she credited series creator Shonda Rhimes for knowing that the line would resonate with viewers.

“I was like, ‘Why would I do this? Why would I beg, why would I?’ ” Pompeo recalled. “And you know, you have to just suck it up and do it. And it ended up being, you know, the biggest thing ever, the most iconic thing ever.”