Television’s longest-running medical drama almost didn’t happen due to Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes‘ determination to cast a diverse ensemble.
The Shondaland boss recently recalled standing up to the president of ABC during the casting process of her TV debut, which premiered in 2005, as she didn’t want the series to be “an all white show.”
“I’d done something, I guess, people didn’t do. I hadn’t written anyone’s race into the script,” Rhimes said in the HBO documentary Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television.
During auditions, Rhimes “kept saying, ‘Where are all the actors?’ 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, ‘I’m not going to have an all white show.’”
The Golden Globe winner’s concerns were apparently heard, as “this 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.”
“I just knew that I was not going to make a show that I would’ve been embarrassed to put on TV,” she added. “I wasn’t going to make a show that I was going to turn to my parents and go, ‘Yeah, it has an all white cast, but that’s how TV’s made.’ How was I going to say that to my dad?”
Rhimes said, “When you’re trying to be creative in a world in which you are afraid, I think a fearlessness is necessary.”
Heading into Season 22, which premieres Thursday, Oct. 16 at 10pm on ABC, Grey’s Anatomy has featured such actors as Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Sara Ramirez, Jesse Williams and more.
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