Why Ellen Pompeo Has "No Desire" to Continue Acting After Grey's Anatomy Ends

Warning: Ellen Pompeo's latest career update just might break your heart.

The Grey's Anatomy star, who plays Meredith Grey on the beloved television show, recently opened up about why she has "no desire" to pursue acting once the long-running ABC series is over. But before you call the medics, Ellen isn't hanging up her white coat just yet.

While speaking on the Ladies First with Laura Brown podcast, the 51-year-old actress explained she's simply planning ahead and hoping to expand her resume once Grey's Anatomy officially comes to an end.

"I'm not saying I'll never act again. I very well may, but I'm not super excited about continuing my acting career," Ellen said on the July 27th episode. "I'm more entrepreneurial at this stage. I'm excited about investing in businesses, and starting [a] business. That's an area of growth that I'm excited about, using my brain in a different way."

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Moreover, Ellen explained that working in Hollywood isn't as glamourous as it seems—which makes taking on future projects all the more appealing.

"Sitting around in trailers, traveling around, shooting this in Atlanta, shooting that in Vancouver," she described, "I have no desire to go sit in trailers at 11 at night and wait to shoot scenes and have AD's knock on my door and tell me when I can eat lunch."

She added, "It's for the young at heart. It's for the youth!"

As for one reason Ellen didn't branch out sooner? The Station 19 star admitted that she was hesitant to take risks at the beginning of her career. Therefore, she played it safe.

"When I was in my 30s, I absolutely saw myself as in a box. That's why I stayed on the show because I said, 'Holy s--t. By the time I can negotiate my contract again and get out of this, I'm going to be almost 40 years old. I am super typecast in this role. I am 40, so I'm never going to work again,'" she explained. "Even 15 years ago, the thought of being 40 was, like, you're over as an actress."

But fast forward to now, and she's done holding herself back.

"Now that I'm 50, I don't see myself that way at all," she noted. "I think...that I can do whatever I want or I can do nothing at all, quite honestly."

If anything, she's already in the process of releasing an exciting new project: Her podcast, Tell Me.

"[I thought], 'Let me go out there and do something I've never done before and try something completely different for absolutely no other reason than to try something different because I haven't for so long,'" the Old School actress shared. "If it fails, it fails, but at least I'm trying something new."

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