Shonda Rhimes On How “Grey’s Anatomy” Changed Her + What Her Daughter Thinks About Her Shows

Shonda Rhimes

Shonda Rhimes On How “Grey’s Anatomy” Changed Her

If you have no clue who Shonda Rhimes is, you’ve probably been living under a rock. Business is booming for the 46-year-old TV producer, writer and creator of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder and the newest hit Notorious. Recently, the network asked her company Shondaland to produce a legal drama “sorta” like a Grey’s, but with “brand-new lawyers” instead. In a new interview, she dishes on the journey of becoming writer. Peep a few excerpts.

On how she became a screenwriter:

I don’t think there was a time I ever thought of myself as anything but a writer. I thought I was going to be the next Toni Morrison. She already had that job so you can’t get that job.

Telling her skeptical parents that getting into USC Film School was harder than getting into Harvard Law School, she set off on the path to Hollywood. But, she explained,

I was mostly trying to find a way to stop working and go back to school.

On what film school taught her:

Toiling in film for a time wasn’t a lot of character development. That’s genius. That’s where you can really develop characters.

On how Grey’s Anatomy changed her life:

You’re in your pajamas by yourself and type one script a year and suddenly you have to run a writers’ room. It was like going from 0 to 3000. I learned everything you could learn, as fast as possible.

On what medical knowledge has she learned from creating the show:

I’m probably very dangerous. I know just enough to be scary but not enough to save anybody’s life.

Scandal Cast

On the hit show Scandal:

Things the writers come up with end up being real which can be eerie.

In a clear reference to Donald Trump, she mentioned Hollis Doyle,

Outspoken, crazy Republican character who’s done some appalling things.

On what does her daughter thinks of her work:

My daughter thinks my shows suck.

By -@OctaviaNakia