Ellen Pompeo has good news for Grey’s Anatomy fans about Arizona and April

It turns out that Lexie Grey, Derek Shepherd and George O'Malley have a lot in common.

Beyond being former Grey's Anatomy characters that met some grisly ends, that is. Ellen Pompeo, who has starred on the medical series for 14 seasons, recently hinted that a character's exit from the show depends on the behaviour of the actor. The 48-year-old made unusual claim during an interview with Entertainment Tonight, ahead of Jessica Capshaw and April Drew's exits from the long running drama. Both actresses, who have each spent almost a decade as series regulars, were announced to be exiting the drama earlier this year. Capshaw has played Dr Arizona Robbins for 10 seasons, nine as a series regular; while Drew has played Dr April Kepner for nine seasons, eight of them as a series regular. And while it looks like Arizona may get a happily ever after, fans had become increasingly concerned about April's exit - more specifically, that she would end up dying. However Pompeo, who plays Meredith Grey, assured fans that neither character will be meeting a horrific end. In fact, she compared their exits to how Christina Yang - played by Sandra Oh - left Grey Sloan in season 10. She explained:

"You only get killed off when your behavior is bad. If you're a nice actor, you die nice. "[Sandra Oh] left in the most amazing way. She gave everybody so much notice. "She knew 10 seasons was all she wanted to do and they don't get much classier than Sandra Oh. "But yeah, these endings aren't tragic."

She also said that the finale - which is due to air on May 17 in the United States - is a "classic Grey's finale." She added:

"It's gonna be devastating. And then we're gonna pull you out of devastating and make you smile."