Denzel Washington directed a 2016 episode of Grey’s Anatomy entitled “The Sound of Silence.” According to Ellen Pompeo, their collaboration wasn’t without its tense moments.

Pompeo recounted the experience on a 2021 episode of her podcast, Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo, stating, “Working with Denzel was amazing. He went nuts on me. This is a good Denzel story.”

The disagreement reportedly arose when Pompeo improvised a line during a scene with another actor.

“That wasn’t in the dialogue, and Denzel went HAM on my ass,” she explained. “He was like, ‘I’m the director. Don’t you tell him what to do.'”

Pompeo, however, didn’t take kindly to the Oscar winner’s reprimand.

“I was like, ‘Listen, motherf–ker,'” she retorted. “‘This is my show. This is my set. Who are you telling? You barely know where the bathroom is.'”

Despite the heated exchange, Pompeo maintained that she has “the utmost respect” for Washington as both an actor and director, while acknowledging that they “went at it.”

“We didn’t get through it without a fight,” she said. “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.”

Washington, conversely, seems to have a different recollection of the event. When asked about it, he implied he doesn’t dwell on it much.

“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.”

“We didn’t get through it without a fight… that’s where you get the magic and that’s where you get the good stuff.”