• 7 months ago
Writer and producer, Shonda Rhimes, guesses lines from some of her hit television shows and movies including, 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'Scandal,' 'Queen Charlotte,' 'The Princess Diaries 2,' and 'Private Practice.'

Category

People
Transcript
00:00Don't ever ask a man to pick you, choose you, love you.
00:02It's not a good idea.
00:04It's a great line, cause I wrote that for sure.
00:06Am I right?
00:07Yeah.
00:08Holy crap.
00:08There we go.
00:13All right, everybody.
00:14It's a beautiful night to save lives.
00:16Let's have some fun.
00:17That is the pilot of Grey's Anatomy said by Derek Shepard.
00:21All right, everybody.
00:22It's a beautiful night to save lives.
00:25Let's have some fun.
00:27You know, I've always loved medical shows.
00:29And so creating Grey's Anatomy was really a chance
00:32to get to play in that world.
00:33And I love to watch medical documentaries.
00:35I was kind of a medical junkie.
00:37So it was really exciting to sort of come up with a world
00:39where I could play with that and learn along with everybody
00:42cause there were interns
00:43who didn't know what they were doing.
00:44For Grey's we treat every season like it's the last season
00:47so that we can really leave it all on the floor
00:49for the audience.
00:50So we're not trying to hold anything back.
00:52We really shape every season as if it's the first time
00:55we've ever done the show if we can,
00:57to keep it fresh and new.
01:00You have to be twice as good as them
01:01to get half of what they have.
01:02That is the season three premiere of Scandal.
01:05And that is Papa Pope yelling at Olivia Pope.
01:08You have to be what?
01:11Twice as good.
01:13Twice as good as them to get half of what they have.
01:18You know, I didn't have any actress in mind
01:20when I wrote the part.
01:21And what was fantastic was to get to meet someone
01:24like you, and to get to meet you.
01:26And I think that's what I'm most proud of.
01:28To get to meet someone like Carrie,
01:30who I actually had thought of was kind of the opposite
01:32of the part in my original thinking.
01:34And then to discover how right she was.
01:37And the more you watch her play that role,
01:39the more powerful it is.
01:40I mean, I think we spent maybe 20 minutes together
01:42before I knew like, yeah, she's Olivia Pope.
01:45I try really hard not to write series
01:47with any particular person in mind.
01:49It was great to be able to write Queen Charlotte
01:51because I already knew who the queen was
01:54and I already knew who Agatha was,
01:55so that was really helpful.
01:57But in general, no, I try not to do that
01:59because the actors surprise you.
02:01The people who come in surprise you.
02:02And you end up putting people in roles
02:04that you never imagined.
02:05And it's so much better that way.
02:12I don't know this one.
02:13Nepotism belongs in the arts, not in plumbing.
02:17I don't know what that means.
02:19It is a film?
02:21Oh, maybe this is Princess Diaries 2?
02:24This might be Princess Diaries 2.
02:25It sounds like a Princess Diaries 2 line.
02:28Nepotism belongs in the arts, not in plumbing.
02:32I watched the first film and Debra Martin-Chase,
02:35who's the producer,
02:36approached me about writing the second one.
02:38And I thought that would be a really fun thing to do.
02:40And it turned out to be great.
02:41I mean, I always think it's funny now
02:43because I'm working with Julie Andrews now in Bridgerton,
02:46but I also spent time writing her as a queen in that movie.
02:50And so it was kind of great to get to work
02:52with her both times,
02:52but it's also sort of come full circle in a weird way.
02:55There's a scene that got cut out of the movie
02:57that was pretty much one of my favorite scenes
02:59because it was this moment where Julie Andrews says
03:04she's just had her heart broken.
03:06And some staff comes in
03:07and they're starting to ask her a question.
03:09And she screams, like,
03:10do I never get a moment to myself?
03:12And it's such an amazing moment, the way she played it,
03:15the elegance in which she did it.
03:16And it was really about the pain of being a queen,
03:18that she did so well.
03:19But in general, honestly,
03:20she's the nicest person you will ever meet.
03:23And she was so nice to me.
03:24I was nervous to meet her.
03:25I was shaking.
03:26So lovely.
03:28Oh my God, these are getting scary.
03:32I'm on a road trip with a killer
03:33and you're telling me not to be upset.
03:39Part of me wants to say this is Crossroads.
03:41Part of me wants to say it's How to Get Away with Murder,
03:44but I don't know.
03:45It's Crossroads.
03:46There we go.
03:47I'm proud of myself.
03:48I'm on a road trip with a killer
03:49and you're telling me not to be upset?
03:51You know what was great is
03:53she was a kid.
03:54She was hugely popular at that time.
03:56I've never met anybody so professional.
03:59Like she was on point, rehearsed, practiced,
04:03honed, ready to go every single time.
04:04And she worked so hard.
04:06I think for her,
04:07it was like kind of a little bit of a freer time
04:08because she wasn't in front of an audience all the time.
04:10It was very much a small safe space.
04:13And I thought that she was great.
04:14We had a lot of conversations.
04:16She seemed like a very ambitious,
04:19ready to go person at the time, which was wonderful.
04:21I don't know that I have a Crossroads 2 movie in me.
04:24I don't know.
04:25Maybe they'll do it without me.
04:26I don't know.
04:26I mean, I'd love to see what they're doing next.
04:28Like at this point,
04:29I'd love to see where those characters are.
04:31They were very fun to write,
04:32but yeah, I have no idea.
04:35Men fail upwards all the time.
04:37I kind of want to say this is every show I've ever written.
04:40I'm sure that Meredith has said it
04:41or Christina has said it
04:42or Private Practice Gang has said it
04:44or it feels very scandalous that it's not a specific show.
04:48It's all the shows.
04:49Which one?
04:52It's Inventing Anna.
04:53See, that's even better.
04:55Men fail upwards all the time.
04:57I never met the real Anna.
05:00And I did that on purpose
05:01because I knew that if I met her,
05:03like she's such a charismatic person
05:04and people were so polarized.
05:05People in New York were so polarized about her.
05:07So I knew that I would either love her immediately
05:10and then be super biased while trying to write,
05:12or I would loathe her
05:14and then be super biased while trying to write.
05:15So I just wanted to stay neutral on that topic
05:17and really go through the interpretations
05:20that other people had of their time with her
05:22because that was the best thing.
05:23You're never really going to know Anna.
05:24You're never going to know her.
05:26So it was great to see how other people felt they knew her.
05:29I felt like, A, if she'd been a man, by the way,
05:32it would have been very simple.
05:34Nobody, she wouldn't have gone to jail.
05:35Nobody would have been upset.
05:36They probably would have called her smart and savvy
05:39and brilliant for like, look what you tried to pull off.
05:41It's not that different
05:42than what a lot of men do all the time.
05:45Hers just didn't happen to work out.
05:47But I think because she was a woman
05:49and she kind of had that audacity
05:51and she wasn't a hot chick, which I find gross, but true,
05:54people felt like she should be punished
05:56for not being the thing that she was.
06:00And I thought that was really interesting.
06:06Every day is a damn poll day, starting right now.
06:13Feels like this might be
06:14Hot Chocolate Nutcracker Dance Dreams,
06:16but I don't know.
06:17What is this?
06:19Yes.
06:20Okay, every day is a damn poll day, starting right now
06:21is from Station 19, the pilot episode.
06:24Yeah.
06:25Every day is a damn poll day,
06:29starting right now.
06:31You know, it felt really natural to us
06:32to intertwine the storylines between Station 19 and Grey's.
06:35They were living in the same world
06:36and it felt like such a natural path.
06:38We took some characters from Grey's
06:40and put them on Station 19.
06:41Bailey went back and forth.
06:43Meredith went back and forth.
06:44I think it was a really big deal
06:45because it also allowed us big event episodes
06:48that really got to do something
06:49and showcase a different kind of medicine.
06:51We had a little bit of a hard time
06:52because Station 19, right now, comes after Grey's.
06:57And when it was coming before it,
06:58it made it easier
06:59because you go from an ambulance to a hospital.
07:01So we had to get creative
07:02when we started going from a hospital to the ambulance.
07:04But it still worked really well.
07:05We had a great time.
07:10I will stand with you between the heavens and the earth.
07:11I will tell you where you are.
07:13Do you love me?
07:15This almost makes me cry
07:16because it's one of my favorite things I've ever written.
07:18And it was in Queen Charlotte.
07:19And it was the final episode.
07:23I will stand with you between the heavens and the earth.
07:25I will tell you where you are.
07:26Do you love me?
07:27I love you!
07:28You know, there's something about Queen Charlotte
07:30that really felt personal to me.
07:32I don't know, I always act everything out
07:34while I'm writing it.
07:35So something about this just felt, I don't know, intimate.
07:38And to see it on its feet with the actors doing it
07:41just elevated it so much.
07:42I was really proud of that one.
07:43You know what's wonderful is we got to work
07:45with real amazing historians
07:47who were consulting on Bridgerton
07:49and who have been consulting with us
07:50to really get inside that history.
07:51We had like a Queen Charlotte expert talking to us.
07:55So we did a lot of research into what was really there,
07:57but we also knew that we weren't telling the history
07:59of the actual Queen Charlotte.
08:01We were telling the history of Queen Charlotte
08:02as she's portrayed in Bridgerton.
08:04So it allowed us some leeway,
08:05but I really wanted to honor her wherever we could.
08:09I do not want to be just another notch
08:10in your acupuncture table.
08:12That is Addison, I'm pretty sure, Private Practice.
08:17I do not want to be just another notch
08:21in your acupuncture table.
08:23The fans of that show were so amazing and so supportive.
08:26And it's still like, I think, huge in Brazil.
08:29If I do comfort watching, sometimes I like to stick my head
08:31in and see what's going on at private practice.
08:33Okay.
08:34This is a really good line and I don't know who said it.
08:36Guess I wasn't black enough to lead the tribe.
08:39I don't know who said it, but it's really good.
08:42Whoever did.
08:45Is this introducing Dorothy Dandridge?
08:47That's why it's all, well, then it's a great line
08:49because I wrote that for sure.
08:52Guess I wasn't black enough to lead the tribe.
08:55Getting to work with Halle Berry was amazing.
08:57She was a great person.
08:59She was a great person.
09:00She was a great person.
09:01She was a great person.
09:02She was a great person.
09:03Getting to work with Halle Berry was amazing.
09:04She was very dedicated to this role
09:07and threw herself into it.
09:08And we had such fun on the set.
09:10And in a weird way, I became the de facto historian
09:12because I was the one who had done all the research
09:14and read all of the stuff and done all of the interviews.
09:17So really getting to be on set and go, nope,
09:20she said it exactly, no, she said it this way,
09:22or she was lying that direction
09:24if you want it to be perfect, was great.
09:26It was a great experience.
09:29Look, boy, don't go put me on no stand.
09:33I don't answer to nobody.
09:34You know, I love the idea that she was sort of
09:36the first black movie star.
09:38I mean, she wasn't the first black movie star,
09:40but in terms of being nominated for an Oscar.
09:42And I love the story of her and Otto Preminger.
09:44And I got to write in the Nicholas brothers
09:47and all of these people from old Hollywood
09:49that maybe weren't as known to people.
09:51And for me, it was a great experience.
09:56Oh, please.
09:57So pick me, choose me, love me.
10:00Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy.
10:02Couldn't tell you which episode exactly,
10:03but I might want to say season two, episode five.
10:08Am I right?
10:08Yeah.
10:09Holy crap.
10:10There we go.
10:11So pick me, choose me, love me.
10:17I'm always amazed that this is the line
10:19that sticks out to everybody.
10:20I mean, I think a lot of it had to do
10:21with Ellen Pompeo's amazing performance,
10:23but I'm always amazed that this is the line that sticks out.
10:25And I want to tell women, don't ever ask a man
10:28to pick you, choose you, love you.
10:29It's not a good idea.
10:30Don't be a pick me girl.

Recommended