Ellen Pompeo Said This Famous Actor Hit On Her Before He Made It Big
Ellen Pompeo has lived quite the dramatic life in front of and behind the scenes of "Grey's Anatomy." As Meredith Grey, Pompeo experienced the intense professional and personal hardships in the life of a surgeon. But, as it turns out, the same intensity was bubbling up on the set, too. "The journey of it has been quite interesting because, obviously, we've had our ups and downs behind the scenes," Pompeo said on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" in November 2017. Of course, a lot happens in a decade and a half and a whopping 18 seasons. "I've loved the journey as a whole. It's started out one way and ... right now where we are is such a different place from where we started," she added.
However, Pompeo seems to live out all the drama her heart needs on the set of "Grey's Anatomy," as her personal life appears to be much more stable than that of Meredith's. Pompeo has been married to music executive Chris Ivery for almost as long as she has been playing the titular role in the popular series. Pompeo and Ivery tied the knot in November 2007 in a private ceremony at City Hall in New York City, according to People. "She just didn't want a big thing," her father, Joseph, told the outlet. But that's not to say Pompeo did not have plenty of opportunity for flirtatious run-ins with some of Hollywood's heartthrobs. In fact, one such encounter in 2002 made quite an impression on her.
Jake Gyllenhaal was struck by Ellen Pompeo's hair
Ellen Pompeo and Jake Gyllenhaal played love interests in the 2002 rom-com "Moonlight Mile," but they had actually met a few weeks before they auditioned for the parts. "I walked into the room and I saw Jake and I said, 'Oh my God, it's you!'" Pompeo told TODAY in 2012. Their meeting had been brief. "We sort of bumped into each other. He told me I was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen," she added. Pompeo was sitting in her car in the parking lot of a sandwich shop in Hollywood when a young, handsome guy knocked on the car window, she told the Los Angeles Times in 2002.
Pompeo didn't know who he was. "No one had ever heard of him at that point," she told TODAY. She rolled down the window and heard a "nervous and shy" Gyllenhaal compliment her on her good looks. "And he tried to run away. So I said, 'Wait a minute, come back here.' Normally, I would say, 'Thank you' and let it go. But there's something so interesting about his face, so soulful," she told the Los Angeles Times. Gyllenhaal was similarly enthralled by Pompeo, especially by her hair. "She walked by and I was just blown away by this energy. She does this thing with her hair where she kind of jolts it back and forth. I thought it was so sexy," Gyllenhaal said in the same Los Angeles Times interview.
Ellen Pompeo joked that Jake Gyllenhaal was no threat to her marriage
Ellen Pompeo joked that nothing happened between her and Jake Gyllenhaal because of their 11-year age gap. "I said, 'He's 12! And maybe we'll see each other again and I should leave!' There were sparks, but we just bolted,'" Pompeo told TODAY in 2012. Pompeo met Chris Ivery shortly after the flirtatious encounter and starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in "Moonlight Mile." They met at a supermarket in 2003 and developed a friendship, according to People. About six months later, their feelings changed. "One night she just looked different to me," Ivery told People. Pompeo jokes about the Gyllenhaal anecdote to this day because it never meant anything, adding that she and Ivery have met with Gyllenhaal on occasion. "Listen, he is a handsome guy and a great actor. [But] he is 20 years younger than me!" she joked, exaggerating their age difference.
While Gyllenhaal was struck by Pompeo's beauty, he was later even more impressed by her acting. "She blew the audition out of the water. She walked out of the room and [director] Brad [Silberling] turned to me and said, 'There's our movie,'" Gyllenhaal told the Los Angeles Times in 2002. Just a few years later, Gyllenhaal found himself on Hollywood's A-list when he starred in "Brokeback Mountain," a role that earned him an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA win, and Pompeo, of course, went on to star in one of the most popular shows in American TV history.