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Ellen Pompeo Detained by TSA, Bomb Squad for This Surprising Reason
There’s the old saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away—but clearly, the same doesn’t hold true for sunflower seeds and TSA agents.
At least that was the experience of Ellen Pompeo, who detailed how a bomb squad investigated her travel snack while she was at the airport.
"I had a bag of sunflower seeds, like organic sunflower seeds from Erewhon, so they were probably the most expensive sunflower seeds money can buy," the Grey's Anatomy star recently cracked to Travel + Leisure of shopping at the upscale organic L.A.-based grocery chain. "They literally held me for an hour, and they brought the bomb squad in. And I was like, what is happening? Is this a joke?"
On the contrary, it was no laughing matter. And no, they weren’t just interested in what she planned to eat during the flight.
"They said it was most likely a chemical on the packaging of these super expensive, fancy, organic, clean sunflower seeds," she explained. "My protein on the plane!"
Even though Pompeo said she offered to simply throw out the seeds, she noted she still had to wait until the bomb squad finished their assessment.
"I almost missed the flight," the actress added to the magazine. "It was really like no one would ever believe this! I was texting my publicist saying, 'I might not get on this plane, and you're never gonna guess why.'"
All in all, the whole ordeal was far from a McDreamy situation. However, this wasn’t the first time Pompeo made headlines over a candid confession.
Who could forget when she said Denzel Washington “went HAM on my ass” over a line she’d improvised while he was directing an episode of Grey’s Anatomy? Or, when she admitted she hasn’t seen most episodes of her own long-running medical drama?
Want to hear more of Pompeo’s honest revelations? No need to page Dr. Meredith Grey. Just keep reading.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Variety via Getty Images
On the TSA Confiscating Her Snack
Ellen Pompeo's trip to the airport got off to a turbulent start thanks to the TSA confiscating her snack.
"I had a bag of sunflower seeds, like organic sunflower seeds from Erewhon, so they were probably the most expensive sunflower seeds money can buy," the Grey's Anatomy star recalled to Travel + Leisure in May 2025. "They literally held me for an hour, and they brought the bomb squad in. And I was like, what is happening? Is this a joke?"
However, TSA was totally serious.
"They said it was most likely a chemical on the packaging of these super expensive, fancy, organic, clean sunflower seeds," Pompeo continued. "My protein on the plane!"
While she said she offered to throw away the seeds so she could be on her way, she noted the TSA agent required her to stay put and wait for a bomb squad to check everything out.
"I almost missed the flight," Pompeo shared. "It was really like no one would ever believe this! I was texting my publicist saying, 'I might not get on this plane, and you're never gonna guess why.'"
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images for SAG-AFTRA
On Judgment She Received About Her Weight
Pompeo has played Dr. Meredith Grey for about two decades, and she'll never forget the public scrutiny she faced over her body when she first entered Hollywood.
"I was so skinny and I hated it and everyone thought I had an eating disorder," she told People in February 2025. "It was a whole situation with how skinny I was, and there was so much negative attention. Girls today can be gorgeous and thin and thank God we're not allowed to comment on women's bodies, even though people do. But I just had so much anxiety and lacked self-esteem because people were so critical of my physicality."
The tabloids in particular, Pompeo added, "would say horrible things."
"I just remember being so anxious on red carpets, and the comments about my weight and my body," the actress continued. "I'm so glad, maybe, hopefully things have changed, because it was much, much more brutal 20 years ago."
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images; Kelsey McNeal/ABC via Getty Images
On the Time She and Denzel Washington Went "At It"
For a 2016 episode of Grey's Anatomy titled "The Sound of Silence," Denzel Washington came in to direct. However, Pompeo suggested their time working together wasn't all smooth.
"Working with Denzel was amazing," she said on a 2021 episode of her podcast Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo. "He went nuts on me. This is a good Denzel story."
The issue seemed to stem from Pompeo improvising a line during a scene with a castmate.
"That wasn’t in the dialogue, and Denzel went HAM on my ass," she continued. "He was like, 'I’m the director. Don’t you tell him what to do.'"
However, Pompeo didn't appreciate the Oscar winner's response.
"I was like, 'Listen, motherf--ker,'" she added. "'This is my show. This is my set. Who are you telling? You barely know where the bathroom is.'"
And while Pompeo insisted she has "the utmost respect" for Washington as an actor and director, she admitted they "went at it."
"We didn’t get through it without a fight," she noted, "but that’s actors for you: Passionate and fiery and that’s where you get the magic and that’s where you get the good stuff. So, it was an amazing experience. It really was."
For his part, Washington has implied he doesn't give the moment much thought.
"No, no," the Remember the Titans star told Variety in 2022, insisting he doesn't remember the incident before adding, "But it’s all good."
Ron Tom Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
On How Many Grey's Anatomy Episodes She's Really Watched
While more than 400 episodes of Grey's Anatomy have aired, Pompeo hasn't watched them all.
"No, not even close," she said on a 2022 episode of her podcast when asked if she remembers each one, "and I haven’t really seen most of them. I’ve watched only a handful. The few times that I directed I went back and watched some old episodes."
Anne Marie Fox/Disney via Getty Images
On the Grey's Anatomy Storyline She Was Against
If you were to ask Pompeo, some Grey's Anatomy plotlines weren't exactly what the doctor ordered.
"I don’t always have a say in the choices the character makes," she explained to Variety in April 2025 about Meredith Grey's actions. "And writers will initially service a plot before they might stop to think, 'Would the Meredith Grey that [Ellen] built—would she make that choice?'"
In fact, Pompeo said there was one storyline earlier that year in which she "was deeply against a choice that Meredith was making." Taking place over the course of two episodes, Pompeo's Dr. Meredith Grey discovers that Dr. Evynn Moore (Lena Waithe) tried covering up her wife's Alzheimer’s diagnosis so she would be eligible for a needed liver transplant.
"My problem with that storyline was the Meredith Grey that I’ve created would have always been like, 'I’m pissed that you lied, [but] let’s figure out how to game the system together to get you this f--king liver. F--k the system. The system is broken,'" Pompeo added. "Instead, Meredith chooses, for some reason, to be mad and snitch and tell UNOS and tell the board that she lied and that she shouldn’t get the liver—when Meredith has subverted the system for 20 years to do the right thing. She’s done free surgeries, whatever it takes, to actually heal and help people."
Scott Garfield/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
On Her Husband's Reaction to Her Intimate Grey's Anatomy Scenes
It wasn't long after Pompeo met her husband Chris Ivery at a Whole Foods in 2002 that she filmed the pilot episode of Grey's Anatomy and her whole world changed.
"Poor guy!" the SAG Award winner said on a 2021 episode of the podcast Ladies First With Laura Brown. "He had no idea what he was getting into."
And having to watch her kiss costar Patrick Dempsey—a.k.a. Dr. McDreamy—in scenes didn't make it any easier.
"I remember in the beginning it was really hard for him," Pompeo continued. "He was like, ‘This is not what I signed up for. You’re kissing a guy. You go to work and make out. I like Patrick and everything. He’s a good dude, but really? You actresses are nuts. I’m supposed to put up with this?'"
Not to mention there was the paparazzi. "It was a lot for him at first," she acknowledged. "He was really a trooper, I have to say. He is my favorite person."
Ultimately, the couple created some boundaries between Pompeo's life on Grey's Anatomy and her life at home with Ivery, with whom she shares kids Stella, Sienna and Eli.
"Chris really never watched the show," she shared on a March 2025 episode of Call Her Daddy. "That helped. It was better for him. He knew just not to watch."
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
On the Tabloids Targeting Her Husband
However, navigating tabloid comments about Pompeo's weight and her onscreen romance weren't the only challenges she and Ivery faced.
"Part of it that was more intense for me, even more than that, was—back to the tabloid stuff—how they started attacking him, and bringing up his past things, and a record that he did and stuff that he did," she said on Call Her Daddy. "We don’t need to get into a whole racial breakdown here, but the truth is young Black men in this country aren’t given the same opportunities as everybody else."
And she said the couple often received hate over their relationship.
"The racial component of our relationship was really something that he never asked for," Pompeo added. "I felt really more bad about that—that I felt like the media was really mean to him and really biased. Because how dare this skinny, blonde, petite, little, woman be with this tall Black man. The visual of that I think America wasn’t ready for that. The mail that I used to get, the racist, hateful, violent mail that ABC would get because of that."
Bob D'Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
On Fighting for Equal Pay
Pompeo knows her worth. So, when she found out her co-star Dempsey was being paid more than she was, she spoke out.
As Pompeo put it, it wasn't that Dempsey—who left Grey's Anatomy in 2015—didn't deserve the salary he got.
"He was a bigger star than I was at the time," she explained on Call Her Daddy, noting he had acted on many TV pilots before Grey's Anatomy while it was her first. "No one knew who I was. Everybody knew who he was. So he did deserve that money."
It was more the fact that she played the titular character on a highly successful show and wanted that to be reflected in her pay.
"I’m not saying he didn’t deserve that money," she added. "It’s just being that I was the namesake of the show, I deserved the same and then [that] was harder to get. So I wasn’t salty about him getting what he got. I was salty that they didn’t value me as much as they valued him."
After looking at the series data and talking to show creator Shonda Rhimes, Pompeo advocated for a bigger paycheck. In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter revealed the actress's contract was for $20 million a year—$575,000 per episode—plus a signing bonus, two backend equity points, a producing fee, backend on a spinoff series, pilot commitments and office space for her production company.
Disney/Anne Marie Fox
On Her Decades-Long Run on Grey's Anatomy
Pompeo has been tied to the show ever since it premiered back in 2005. But in 2023, after a whopping 19 seasons, she decided to cut back on her appearances on the series.
"For me, a healthy home life was so important to me—more important than a career," she said on a 2020 episode of Jemele Hill's Unbothered podcast. "I didn’t grow up with a particularly happy childhood. So, the idea that I have this great husband and these three beautiful children to have a happy home life is really something I needed to complete to close the hole in my life. So, I made the decision to make money and not chase creative acting roles."
But make no mistake: Pompeo is still involved. Not only does she occassionally appear in episodes, but she also provides voiceover work and serves as an executive producer. And she doesn't plan to step away from the show completely.
"That would make no sense, emotionally or financially," she told EL PAÍS in April 2025. The show was streamed more than a billion times in 2024. More than a billion times. The companies that own the show and stream the show make a lot of money from our images and our voices and our faces. If I were to walk away completely, everybody gets to make money from my hard work for 20 years and I wouldn’t make any money. To me, it doesn’t make any sense that everybody [else] gets to profit off of my hard work. And emotionally, the show means a lot to people. I want to have an attitude of gratitude toward the show."
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