However, Grey’s creator Shonda Rhimes supported her as she advocated for pay equality with her male costar.

“I said to her, ‘I’m gonna go in and ask for this much. Are you cool with that?’” Ellen explained. “Just because I don’t wanna be disrespectful to her, I don’t wanna come off crazy, and I wanna let her know what moves I’m making, because I do respect her. I am grateful to her. And she was like, ‘Yeah, no one’s gonna give it to you, you have to ask for it.’”

And now, Ellen hopes to use her platform to empower other women, too.

“Once you get to a certain level, you can advocate for other women on your platform or in your workplace,” she shared. “If you know that you are getting this much and all the other women are well beneath you, you can’t just be OK with that. You really do have a responsibility to look and see what everybody else is making and use your power to say, ‘Listen, I appreciate what I got. But I really think that all the women deserve a bump.’”