ABC

“Grey’s Anatomy” fans: You’ll want to sit down for this.

Star Ellen Pompeo said that the team behind ABC’s stalwart medical drama is starting to think about its ending.

“Yes, we’re starting to think about how you would end a show this iconic,” Pompeo said in an interview with ET this week. “How do you end it? But we’re not there yet. We’re going to focus on season 15. We just take it one season at a time.”

Also Read: 'Grey's Anatomy' Star Kevin McKidd on How the Doctors Try to 'Clean Up' Harper Avery's Mess

“The show’s a tremendous money maker, let’s be honest. It makes a fortune for everybody and everyone wants to keep it going,” the actress continued. “Now, it’s sort of fun. We’re in a contest with ourselves. How long can we keep this going and still have this level of quality.”

For her part, Pompeo is locked into a $20 million per year salary through Season 16.

Pompeo also dropped some tea on how Sarah Drew and Jessica Capshaw will exit the series at the end of this season, saying their exits “aren’t tragic.”

Also Read: 'Grey's Anatomy' Renewed for Season 15 at ABC

“You only get killed off when your behavior is bad. If you’re a nice actor, you die nice,” she said. “But yeah, these endings aren’t tragic.”

“My first reaction was what? What do you mean? Why?” the star said when she heard the fan-favorite actresses would be leaving the show. “You go through levels and stages of grief, right? It’s hard. It’s hard for them, it’s hard for us, it’s hard for the writer, who had to make the choice, had to make the creative decision. And I just try to be as supportive as I could be to everyone involved.”

When “Grey’s” eventually does end, does Pompeo envision a tragic ending for Meredith?

Also Read: 'Grey's Anatomy': Geena Davis Will Reprise Her Role As Dr Nicole Herman

“I don’t know. I know I’m going to survive because there’s no show without me, so I never worry how I’m going to survive this. I guess I just worry if the audience will like it,” she said.

As far as Season 14 goes, Pompeo said the finale is “classic ‘Grey’s’ finale time. So it’s gonna be devastating, and then we’re going to pull you out of devastating and make you smile.”

Watch “Grey’s Anatomy” Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC. The finale airs May 17.

'Grey's Anatomy' Saddest Goodbyes, From Cristina Yang to Derek Shepherd (Photos)

With the Season 14 finale signaling the exit of Dr. April Kepner (Sarah Drew) and Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) after years on the show, we're prepping ourselves to say goodbye to the fan favorite characters. Here's a look back at the hardest goodbyes from the series.
ABC
Denny Duquette

Long before he was bashing people's heads in with a barbed-wire covered bat named Lucille on "The Walking Dead," Jeffrey Dean Morgan played the impossibly romantic -- and dying -- Denny Duquette on "Grey's Anatomy." Denny's charm won over viewers, and Izzy Stevens (Katherine Heigl), and when he eventually died it was heartbreaking.
ABC
George O'Malley

George (T. R. Knight) was the sweetest intern, even if he was a little bumbling at times. He was always there for his fellow doctors, even when they spent plenty of time teasing him. He even died in sacrifice by saving a woman from getting hit by a bus, only to be hit himself. RIP George.
ABC
Lexie Grey

Meredith's half-little sister Lexie (Chyler Leigh) was a little annoying to be honest when she first appeared in Season 3. But it didn't take long for her to win our hearts, and when she died the infamous plane crash episode we were just as devastated as Mark.
ABC
Mark Sloan

Mark initially survives the plane crash, but returns to the hospital in bad condition -- so bad, in fact, that he's on life support. The rest of the doctors have to deal with the fact that he specifies in his will that after 30 days, he is to be taken off life support.
ABC
Cristina Yang

Saying goodbye to Meredith's person felt just as painful as saying goodbye to our own person after 10 years of watching the best friends. In the Season 10 finale, Cristina (Sandra Oh) leaves the hospital for good to go work in Zurich. Our one consoling fact is that Cristina wasn't killed off.
ABC
Derek Shepherd

After everything that Mer and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) have been through together, watching the machines keeping Derek alive turned off one by one with a super-sad rendition of "Chasing Cars" playing in the background -- oh, not to mention the flashback of their relationship -- broke us. It didn't break Mer, though. "It's okay," she tells him. "You go. We'll be fine."
ABC

1 of 7

These Shondaland character exits left us in tears

With the Season 14 finale signaling the exit of Dr. April Kepner (Sarah Drew) and Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) after years on the show, we're prepping ourselves to say goodbye to the fan favorite characters. Here's a look back at the hardest goodbyes from the series.

View In Gallery

Ellen Pompeo Teases ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ End: ‘We’re Starting to Think About’ Series Finale

'Grey's Anatomy' Saddest Goodbyes, From Cristina Yang to Derek Shepherd (Photos)

Police Think Jussie Smollett Paid Men to Attack Him, CNN Reports; Star’s Attorneys Deny It Was a ‘Hoax’

Alec Baldwin’s Latest ‘SNL’ Sketch Has Trump in Another Twitter Rant

Does ‘The Lego Movie 2’ Have a Post-Credits Scene?

‘SNL': Alec Baldwin’s Trump Returns to Tell Us How His ‘Personal Hell of Playing President’ Will End (Video)

‘Walking Dead': Are We Going to See Maggie Again This Season – or Ever?

'Grey's Anatomy' Saddest Goodbyes, From Cristina Yang to Derek Shepherd (Photos)

Related Content