Taylor Swift hadn’t met Ellen Pompeo before inviting her to appear in the “Bad Blood” music video. She was a longtime fan of the show, though, and wanted Pompeo to be a part of the shoot. Pompeo said she had one request when she met Swift. Swift agreed, fulfilling the request to a degree that stunned the actor. 

Taylor Swift wrote Ellen Pompeo a check after meeting her

In 2014, Pompeo joined the large cast of people in the music video for “Bad Blood.” She didn’t know Swift beforehand but looked forward to appearing in the video.

“Taylor is such a good girl,” she said on The Jennifer Hudson Show. “I didn’t know her and she invited me to be in the video and I thought, ‘Oh, that will be fun.’ And I went and did the video. Honestly, it was the easiest thing. It was like an hour or two.”

At the time, Pompeo was volunteering her time to a program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

“At the time, [husband Chris Ivery] and I, we do a lot of volunteering for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles here,” Pompeo said. “They have an amazing program at Children’s where they make music for the babies in the NICU. For the parents who have to go to work all day and they can’t be with the kids, they record their voices singing nursery rhymes or telling them stories and they play it for the babies in the day when the parents can’t be there. The babies respond to it and it makes their outcomes more positive.”

Shortly after meeting Swift, Pompeo asked her to donate to the program. Swift agreed and quickly wrote a big check.

“It’s a really nice program, but they need money to run it,” she said. “So I asked Taylor, ‘Could you write me a big old check for Children’s?’ and she knew me all but 20 minutes and that girl wrote me the biggest check without blinking an eye.”

Ellen Pompeo once said ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ was a success because of Taylor Swift 

Grey’s Anatomy has been one of Swift’s favorite shows for years.

“I love Grey’s Anatomy because I think it’s the best example of dry, sarcastic humor I’ve ever seen mixed with drama, because in life there’s humor and there’s drama,” she said, per People. “You know, when you’re watching comedies, it’s like, that’s awesome and makes you laugh and it’s light, but you know, when a breakup happens on a comedy — and they’re all just laughing about it all the time, and they don’t ever feel it — it’s hard for me to buy that because in real life, like you laugh about some things, but you cry about other things.” 

Pompeo once joked that Swift’s vocal love of the show is one of the reasons why it has been on the air for 21 seasons.

“[Creator] Shonda Rhimes is a great writer,” Pompeo told People. “Second, Taylor Swift named her cat after Meredith Grey! Just kidding. It is because of our awesome fans.”

The singer once performed for Shonda Rhimes

Swift also met with Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes in 2008. She performed her song “Love Story” for her.

“I remember she was an interesting artist. It’s so funny because back then, she showed up in my office with bare feet. She went off and played ‘Love Story’ and was like, ‘I really love your show,’” Rhimes told People. “I had no idea who she was. I was like, ‘This kid’s adorable. Like, I love this song. The song was really good.’” 

Rhines praised Swift’s music.

“Over the years, she’s produced so much music. Really produced so much music. And it is kind of the voice of what that generation is in people’s heads.”

Swift’s songs have been featured on the show.