Ellen Pompeo reveals she 'got in big trouble' for tweeting that 'Grey's Anatomy' made a doll in her likeness last season

• "Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Thursday night.
• Pompeo told the host she got in "so much trouble" for tweeting that a doll in her likeness was made.

"Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo told Jimmy Kimmel on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Thursday night that she got a talking-to for revealing some tricks of the trade to her fans on Twitter.

During season 17 of ABC's hit medical drama, Pompeo's character Meredith Grey was in a COVID-19-induced coma for most of the episodes. She assured Kimmel that she did not have to visit set for many of the scenes that featured Meredith just lying in her hospital bed in Seattle.

A doll in her likeness was made to stand in her place, and Pompeo told the host that she'd actually "got in big trouble" for tweeting about that doll. She said she was asked to take the tweet down, though she did not reveal who made the request.

"They said, 'You're ruining the illusion for the audience," Pompeo told Kimmel. "And I said, 'The audience can't possibly think that's me.'"

The actress explained that the prop was a "latex doll" that was "brutal" to have made because they "cover your head in latex and paper mache." She said that lights and heat on set caused the doll to lose its shape over time, so by the last episodes of the season, "the doll kept looking worse and worse."

Pompeo joked that it was clear that "Meredith's not looking so good" but she wanted people to know it wasn't really her. "That's a doll, that's not me. I'm gorgeous," she joked to Kimmel.

Kimmel joked that the doll would make a very scary Halloween prop, but Pompeo said she didn't get to keep it, adding, "My kids might be scarred for life."

"Grey's Anatomy" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.