Shonda Rhimes

April 2008

Grey’s Anatomy premiered in March 2005 and took the medical-drama genre to a whole different level, not with splashier special effects or more gruesome cases, but with honest portrayals of people: interns, doctors and patients, and the relationships between them. The series has sold around the world and its writer and creator, Shonda Rhimes, who also created Private Practice, talks about her craft.

WS: You started your career by writing feature films. What made you switch over to television?

RHIMES: I reached a point where I felt like all of the really interesting character development was happening on television. I really enjoy writing movies a lot, but you have plot points you have to hit to write a major commercial film and in television you can explore aspects of the characters that there just isn’t time to explore in film.

WS: A TV series is written by a group of writers. How do you oversee the writing process?

RHIMES: For me it has been simple be-cause I have very clear ideas of who the characters are and what direction they are going in. So for me it’s about making sure that my writing staffs [on both shows] understand what it is I am interested in and where it is we are going to take the characters and what’s going to happen, story-wise. And each person writes his or her episode based on that.

WS: Then, do you oversee the scripts?

RHIMES: Almost all the scripts pass through my computer at some point. But it is really about making sure that the story line stays true to what we were going for in the first place.

WS: How do you get the best out of your writers?

RHIMES: If everybody feels as if their contribution is important and valuable and creative, and everybody feels like they’re being heard and given a chance to express, I feel like we do good work. The best way to make it work is to have a collaboration, where everyone enjoys coming to work.

WS: What environment do you want the actors to be in?

RHIMES: I really like it when the actors feel like the characters are a part of them as well. The most exciting times for me are when Sandra Oh [Dr. Cristina Yang on the show] or Chandra Wilson [Dr. Miranda Bailey] come to me and say, I have an idea for this character, because that’s when things get really collaborative and really interesting. For me, as long as everybody feels invested, and there is something they feel strongly about, we are on the right track.

WS: Does any one of the characters reflect more of who you are than any other?

RHIMES: I don’t know. In a weird way, they are all pieces of me. The five interns feel a lot like the different aspects of my personality simply because they’re really where that whole idea for the show originated.

WS: What’s been most rewarding for you about Grey’s?

RHIMES: Creatively there is something wonderful about writing and then having the immediacy of seeing what you intended on the screen. But also just hearing people relate so strongly to the characters is incredibly rewarding, because you know it’s all the stuff that is mixed up inside your own head and you don’t necessarily think that anyone else is thinking or feeling the way you’re feeling. And to find that people relate so strongly to the characters really is astounding.

WS: Do you think about the characters only when you are writing or overlooking scripts or do they inhabit your head?

RHIMES: I definitely would say they in-habit my head on an ongoing basis. That’s been the toughest part for me—they don’t go away! They feel like they’re a part of my life and in a very strong way I feel like I have these friends, who are doctors, who live in this world in this hospital and I spend a lot of time [with them] and nobody else spends that kind of time [with characters]. So in a weird way there is this whole imaginary world that is very, very real to me.

WS: Grey’s cast is one of the most racially diverse on prime-time television, if not the most racially diverse. Was that by design?

RHIMES: It probably happened because I am the person that I am, but also I wanted to cast the best actors for the roles whoever they were. I didn’t assign race to any of the characters when I was writing and we literally cast the person who walked into the door who was the best actor. So, for us it was a simple choice to do that.

WS: How do you think this aspect of Grey’s will impact future shows?

RHIMES: I hope that it convinces other people to cast in a color-blind manner as well. I like to watch television and see a world that looks like the world I know. I like to watch television and see people who look like me. That doesn’t happen very often and I hope that changes.

WS: Was the idea for Private Practice creatively driven or did the network ask you to do another show?

RHIMES: No, I was the one who went to them and said I wanted to do it and they were very protective and kind of hesitant, but openly very supportive and excited to have another show out there. I’ve heard that some people [like Private Practice more than Grey’s]. Part of it is simply that it’s a different generation of characters. Grey’s is high school and this feels a little more adult.

WS: How do you balance working on both shows? What is your involvement in each?

RHIMES: It’s pretty equal. It’s a lot of work! I write both shows. I edit both shows. I deal with the production aspect of both shows. It’s incredibly busy and I don’t think I knew how busy it would be until I started doing it. But I also find it really, really rewarding.

WS: As a parent, do you have a different approach to your work or to what you write?

RHIMES: I don’t know that I have a different approach as a parent. I do worry about stuff that’s out there and what sort of images we are [portraying]. I try to make the women strong because I have a daughter, but I also make women strong because I am a woman and I feel like women are strong. So I try to stay true to what I think is real.

WS: As a mother of a daughter, do you think it’s better if she sees you work as opposed to being a stay-at-home mom?

RHIMES: I absolutely believe that the best thing that can happen for this generation of girls growing up is that they take it as a fact that women work. That women work outside the home and that women can have careers. That there is not a sense that it’s a sacrifice that they made as much as it is they have just as much a right to have a career as anybody else.

WS: When you were growing up, what shows did you enjoy?

RHIMES: I didn’t get to watch a lot of television when I was a kid. I remember really strongly watching Good Times. I watched a lot of Little House on the Prairie, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The Cosby Show was huge for me when I was growing up just because it was the first time I had seen anything like that on television.

WS: You said that the casting in Grey’s Anatomy was color-blind. I always thought The Cosby Show was color-blind in that sense as well.

RHIMES: Absolutely. I think that was part of [Bill Cosby’s] genius.

WS: What do you enjoy most about what you do?

RHIMES: My favorite moment is when an episode is done and I’m watching it and I feel surprisingly moved. I am surprised by something that an actor has done or by something that’s been said or how it’s been directed. Those are the moments that are most satisfying for me: to see the finished product.