Willie Geist shares throwback interview with Shonda Rhimes where she credited motherhood for TV success

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: 'Today' host Willie Geist has shared his throwback interview with ‘Bridgerton’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ creator Shonda Rhimes during which she revealed that she owed her career in television to motherhood. 

Before making her mark in Hollywood, Rhimes was living in Chicago, dreaming up what she wanted to do in the future. In 2005, she launched the immensely successful medical drama ‘Grey's Anatomy’, which is now set to return for its 20th season.

Despite her early success in film with screenplays for movies like ‘Crossroads’ and ‘The Princess Diaries 2’, Rhimes initially didn't anticipate the long-lasting impact of her venture into television.

During the Sunday sit-down interview, she said that it was only after becoming a mother that she pivoted to television, ultimately reshaping the landscape with her creative prowess.

Willie Geist shares Shonda Rhimes's revelation about her career

During her sit down with Willie Geist in May, Shonda Rhimes shared her life before having a career in TV.

She said while laughing, “At first, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to work in politics, all of those things, which I finally realized, 'No. I don’t want to do any of those things. I just want to write about them.’”

She continued, “Because it’s much more fun to build the world, yourself. And so I did."

Rhimes further told Geist, “I wrote a medical show that’s not what other people were thinking of as being, like, correct medical shows. It didn’t take it too seriously. And it wasn’t about the patients; it was how the doctors felt about the patients, it was about their lives."

She told Geist, “I wasn’t going anywhere, suddenly," expressed the mother-of-three and added, "And I was watching a lot more television. And I realized, ‘This is where all the character development is really happening'."

Rhimes, with ‘Grey's Anatomy', set out to depict women on television authentically, mirroring the complexity and depth she observed in real-life women.

She said, “I didn’t see any women who were fully rounded and three dimensional, who got to be selfish, who got to be powerful, who got to be greedy, who got to be loving, in the same way that you see male characters doing it.”

“And to me, I just wanted to see people who were like the people I knew,” she added.

Shonda Rhimes's career in Hollywood

Shonda Rhimes swiftly rose to prominence in Hollywood, solidifying her status as a formidable figure.

In 2017, she inked an exclusive, multi-year development deal with Netflix, reportedly valued at $100 million, making her the "self-proclaimed highest-paid showrunner in Hollywood," according to Forbes.

Renowned for her hit series like ‘Bridgerton', ‘Scandal', ‘How to Get Away with Murder', ‘Inventing Anna', and ‘Queen Charlotte', Rhimes acknowledges that, like many writers, she still contends with challenging days.

She humorously admits, "I think, like, 'No. Nobody wants to watch this.' Every writer has bad days."