‘Not happy for you’: Alex Cooper and Ellen Pompeo share money double standard

A very famous star has opened up about the phone call she got that changed everything.

A candid salary conversation between Ellen Pompeo and Alex Cooper has exposed the double standard women face regarding money.

Pompeo, who played Meredith Grey on the beloved medical drama Grey’s Anatomy for 19 seasons, sat down with Cooper on her wildly successful podcast Call Her Daddy, and the conversation quickly turned to salaries.

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Ms Pompeo, 55, who grew up working class in Chicago, explained that from an early age, she understood that people with “money had power,” and she observed that it was always men with wealth and influence.

In 2018, it was reported that Pompeo was earning $20 million per year on Grey’s Anatomy, which also included production fees, signing bonuses, and other extras as her character in spin-offs associated with the series.

Ellen Pompeo was on Greys Anatomy for 19 seasons. Picture: Instagram/Ellen Pompeo

Alex Cooper is worth millions. Picture: Instagram/AlexCooper

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Ms Pompeo said on the podcast that her manager called her when the salary information came out and asked, “Are you ready to be unpopular?”

The actor explained that the question hit her like a “tonne of bricks”, but she immediately knew he was right.

Her manager went on to explain that he didn’t want the actor to think everyone was going to “cheer” for her and think she was the “dopest thing ever” because she’d scored an eye-watering salary.

“There’s going to be a lot of people that are not happy for you,” he said.

Ms Pompeo confessed that backlash had never “occurred” to her, but once she heard it out loud, it made sense. She said his advice was to do some “good prep” for the response she might face.

Ms Cooper, 30, who recently signed a $125 million deal with SiriusXM, leaving her $60 million deal with Spotify, said it is hard to prepare for the response.

“My first contract, I remember when the number got leaked, I was like whoa, and I was like, ‘so proud that people know it is there, because it stands for so much in [my] mind,” she said.

Cooper said there’s negative backlash that comes when woman earns lots of money. Picture: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for SiriusXM

She opened up about the salary response. Picture: Backgrid

The 30-year-old explained that, in some ways, she was happy for her salary to be out there because she thought it was great for women to see how much they could earn, but the response wasn’t only positive.

“You get this wave of negativity. Men just don’t experience this level of scrutiny when it comes to money,” she argued.

“You have Jeff Bezos and Elon and Trump, they just get to s**t money in front of our faces, and everyone thinks it is hot and powerful.”

Ms Cooper said that when women become part of that money conversation, the response is wildly different.

“Then it is like, ‘Oh, she doesn’t deserve it, or she’s a b**ch, or she found a way to maneuver it because she’s not worth that,” she said.

Cooper argued that men like Elon Musk are celebrated for being rich. Picture: Instagram/CallHerDaddy

She argued that money is power. Picture: Neilson Barnard / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Ms Pompeo said the response is “patriarchal”, and there’s some clear “misogyny” at play, especially when you compare it to how men are treated when their salaries are made public.

“Sports players are celebrated for their contracts, crazy contracts, it is not saying they’re not worth it, but I mean it is okay for them to celebrate it,” she said.

The television star said she’s learned to separate herself from the conversation that is clearly not about her and far more about double standards. Instead, she focuses on what earning a lot of money can do.

“When you make a lot of money as a woman, you have power. So how can I take that power and do good with it? How can I amplify someone else?” she said.

“F**k what people think of me. You can’t control that but you can use your power for good.”

Originally published as ‘Not happy for you’: Alex Cooper and Ellen Pompeo share money double standard