Q 6

PLAYBOY: Did you do the same thing in New York?

Ellen Pompeo: I got a job bartending in SoHo right away. I always worked in superbusy places, and that's hard work. My way of dealing was "If I have to put up with you and your drunkenness, you're going to have to pay me to listen to you babble and say how beautiful I am. If I have to listen to you and all your nonsense, you better make it worth my while." And they always did.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: Did you have any bartender moves or specialties like, say, those women in Coyote Ugly?

Ellen Pompeo: 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. It's not that I wasn't nice. It was just "These are my rules, and you either play this way or try to find a drink from someone else." I wasn't there to make friends. My way worked brilliantly.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: Did you use those skills to launch your acting career?

Ellen Pompeo: I met an agent at the bar I worked in and went to see her the next day in her office. She sent me on three auditions for national commercials. I told her, "Listen, I know I said I was an actress, and I am, but I'm really not. I've never been to an audition, and I might make you look bad or something." But I got all three jobs that same day, and the agent called me and said, "You can quit the bar." I thought, Wow, I'm 25. Maybe I should have pursued this earlier. I gave myself until 30 for acting to work out, though.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: You got there just in time.

Ellen Pompeo: I made a lot of money doing commercials. Literally one year to the day after I got my first commercial, I got my first legitimate job, an episode of Law & Order, and pretty soon I was getting work in series and independent movies. My agent was moving to Los Angeles and said, "Come with me," so I did. I hated it. I was depressed. I didn't understand the whole miniskirts-and-boobs mentality. Even now I'll walk the streets of Manhattan until four in the morning, but not in L.A. There are coyotes--not that they're going to hurt you, I know, but it's their eyes. I'm chicken.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: Despite the miniskirts-and-boobs mentality in L.A., you were cast in the 2002 flick Moonlight Mile, for which you won star-is-born reviews by playing the girlfriend who helps Jake Gyllenhaal deal with his fiancée's death.

Ellen Pompeo: Weeks before I auditioned for that, I had met Jake by chance on the street. He wasn't Jake Gyllenhaal then. He came over and said, "Hi, how are you?" We talked, he said I was beautiful, and I said I was an actor. He kind of didn't want to say he was an actor. Then it got awkward. I wasn't going to ask for his phone number, and he wasn't going to ask for mine. I didn't know what else to say, because he'd come over with these compliments and he's much younger than I am. I just said, "Well, maybe we'll work together someday," and that was it. But two weeks later I walked into this audition and he was there. It was clearly meant to be.

Q 11

PLAYBOY: Does it bug you that more people didn't see you in the movie, especially considering the good reviews you received?

Ellen Pompeo: It was a fantastic lesson. Nothing in life should be about end results. That's too self-serving. Moonlight Mile was about the experience I had with Jake, Dustin Hoffman and writer-director Brad Silberling. I worked for five days on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and all my scenes were with Jim Carrey because I played his ex-girlfriend, from before he meets Kate Winslet's character. I was cut out of the movie completely, but I got to work with Carrey, who was phenomenal, so who gives a shit what happens?

Q 12

PLAYBOY: When you were making Old School, did you ever wish your character would cut loose the way Will Ferrell's or Vince Vaughn's did?

Ellen Pompeo: I would have been too self-conscious. Making that movie was great because I didn't have a lot of responsibility but still had the joy of seeing all those guys carry on and have so much fun. I took Grey's Anatomy because I felt I was getting strictly girlfriend and wife roles. I was ready for something more.