Ellen Pompeo: The Playboy Interview

Ellen Pompeo is growing tired of questions about her weight.

In the January issue of Playboy, the star of Grey's Anatomy says she's "paying a trainer $1,000 a week to torture me with weights so I can get bigger."

Then she adds (facetiously, one presumes): "Oh, excuse me, I have to go throw up now."

"If I could gain 5-10 pounds, it would probably go straight to my boobs and [butt]," Ellen Pompeo told the magazine.

"I would be the happiest girl in Hollywood, trust me. I'd have this sick bod because I'd be the skinny girl with big [breasts] and a cut butt."

Pompeo answered other questions in the magazine's January "20Q" (20 questions) feature, some saucy, some semi-serious. Angelina Jolie is the female celeb she'd most like to make out with, she says.

"She's gorgeous," Pompeo said. "Or Sandra Oh. [laughs] I'd be too afraid of Isaiah Washington's Dr. Burke, though. I don't want to be on his bad side."

Funny stuff. Here are a few other quotes from the interview with Ellen Pompeo, which hits the newsstands Friday:

ON BARTENDING: "I wouldn't say I was a good drink maker, but I was a very good hustler. I'd abuse the customers, yell and scream at them and make them wait. If they put money down on the bar and it wasn't enough, I'd go wait on someone else who was giving me enough money. If they put another five down and I made them wait longer, pretty soon there would be $20 on the bar. Then I'd come over and give them a drink."

ON USING BRAINS ON GREY'S ANATOMY: "It's gross. We use real brains â€" I think they're lamb or cow or something. Intestines smell. Brains don't really smell, but what's amazing about the brain is that it's almost like scrambled eggs or soft tofu, almost like a gel. The brain controls so much of what we do, but you could put your finger right through it."

ON WHAT LURED HER TO THE SHOW: "I'm seriously considering working during our next hiatus, but I don't need to work for the money. If there's something with an unbelievable cast and director, I'm going to jump at it. But I did this TV show so I wouldn't have to do [bad] parts in [bad] movies, so I'm not going to start now. I'm not that desperate."

All very interesting. She seems very down-to-earth for a Hollywood celebrity. Below are some additional excerpts from Pompeo's interview:

PLAYBOY: Lots of us know you for roles in Catch Me If You Can and Old School, but playing a surgical intern on Grey's Anatomy has brought your biggest fame. When did you first notice guys wanting to play doctor with you?

ELLEN POMPEO: I didn't have any confidence as a young girl, because all the other girls had [breasts] and hips. I was always thin, always called the stick or the pencil. I didn't have a boyfriend until I was 16, and he was eight years older. My father was furious about this 24-year-old, and I had to hide the relationship.

PLAYBOY: You must also have learned the art of survival very young, since your mother died when you were four.

ELLEN POMPEO: I don't want to talk about that. But because of what happened to me as a child, we had different babysitters. Every day; all these characters in my life would babysit me. I have so many different influences. My mother came from an Irish family of 11 kids and, of course, had a sister who was a nun, so I spent time at a convent and with an aunt and uncle who lived in New York and took me to the theater. It was the 1970s, and all my brothers and sisters were hippies.

They were smoking pot and watching The Three Stooges. When I was small it seemed chaotic, but now, as an older woman looking back, I think, My God, it's so much to draw on.

PLAYBOY: Does the [media] scrutiny ever get under your skin?

ELLEN POMPEO: The trap is when you start to pay attention to that stuff and care, because in six months they're going to be looking at someone else. You know how fickle everyone is. They love it, then they hate it, then they love it. So I'm going to enjoy it because it could be over at any minute.

PLAYBOY: You have the distinction of being one of the most famous victims on Punk'd. A sexy waitress at an L.A. restaurant came on to your boyfriend so strongly that you jokingly threatened to gouge her with a fork. Then you found out your boyfriend tipped her $200 on your credit card. When did you catch on?

ELLEN POMPEO: It smelled funny from the beginning. My boyfriend (now her fiance, Chris Ivery) is definitely a lady-killer, but 10 minutes in, the waitress was calling him baby and honey. She also had makeup like a Vegas showgirl's. I caught on halfway through, but they edited that out.

I said to Chris, "Are you punking me right now?" and he said, "Ellen, you're not that famous. Sorry, darling." If Chris hadn't been so good, I would definitely have known, but he played it right to the last minute. What's so funny is that people have said terrible things about me because of that show. I don't read a lot of Internet stuff, because it's not healthy, but from what I hear, a lot of women have called me names, saying, "Oh, she was such a [mean person]."

Like what they're saying about me is any better than what I did to that waitress? And they don't watch Grey's Anatomy because I was such a terrible [mean person] to that waitress? That's so hypocritical.