{"id":142196,"date":"2025-09-14T08:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T08:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/142196\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T08:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T08:53:16","slug":"shonda-rhimes-confronted-abc-president-over-greys-anatomy-casting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/142196\/","title":{"rendered":"Shonda Rhimes Confronted ABC President Over ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Casting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTelevision\u2019s longest-running medical drama almost didn\u2019t happen due to Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/a> creator Shonda Rhimes<\/a>\u2018 determination to cast a diverse ensemble.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Shondaland<\/a> boss recently recalled standing up to the president of ABC<\/a> during the casting process of her TV debut, which premiered in 2005, as she didn\u2019t want the series to be \u201can all white show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019d done something, I guess, people didn\u2019t do. I hadn\u2019t written anyone\u2019s race into the script,\u201d Rhimes said in the HBO documentary Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring auditions, Rhimes \u201ckept saying, \u2018Where are all the actors?\u2019 They would keep sending us these actors who all look the same, who were white. I remember standing up in the room and looking at the president of the network at the time and saying, \u2018I\u2019m not going to have an all white show.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Golden Globe winner\u2019s concerns were apparently heard, as \u201cthis flood of actors started coming. It was really wonderful. We got to see all these actors who had never been considered for roles other than very small parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Shonda<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tShonda Rhimes<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just knew that I was not going to make a show that I would\u2019ve been embarrassed to put on TV,\u201d she added. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to make a show that I was going to turn to my parents and go, \u2018Yeah, it has an all white cast, but that\u2019s how TV\u2019s made.\u2019 How was I going to say that to my dad?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRhimes said, \u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to be creative in a world in which you are afraid, I think a fearlessness is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHeading into Season 22<\/a>, which premieres Thursday, Oct. 16<\/a> at 10pm on ABC, Grey\u2019s Anatomy has featured such actors as Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Sara Ramirez, Jesse Williams and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Television\u2019s longest-running medical drama almost didn\u2019t happen due to Grey\u2019s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes\u2018 determination to cast a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2655,64,63,447,66483,134,24996,96805],"class_list":{"0":"post-142196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-dei","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-greys-anatomy","15":"tag-shonda-rhimes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}