Gasp! Portia de Rossi Reveals Why She's Quitting Acting on ‘Ellen’

Portia de Rossi is finally opening up about why she’s trying (and somewhat failing) to say “ta-ta” to the small screen.

On today’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, de Rossi discussed her decision to quit acting nearly two years ago and admitted that her retirement isn’t going as planned (to our advantage).

She said, “I made this decision about 18 months ago. Shonda Rhimes wrote me off Scandal.  I called [Arrested Development creator] Mitch Hurwitz…and I said if there is a season five, I won’t be doing it because I quit acting, and he seemed really understanding and he totally got it. We had a great conversation and then he wrote me into five episodes. Don’t know how it happened, but yes I am on season five.”

But just because she “quit acting” doesn’t mean de Rossi is planning on becoming a full-time couch potato. In fact, the 45-year-old also revealed the applaudable reason she’s stepping away from the spotlight, saying, “I just kind of was wondering is there something that I could tackle now that I’ve never done before that would be really challenging and different? I kind of knew what acting would look like for me for the next 10, 20 years, so I decided to quit and start a business.”

We fully support this. Meanwhile, season five of Arrested Development hits Netflix on Tuesday, May 29.

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