Shonda Rhimes Shares Which Of Her TV Characters Need A ‘Year Of Yes’

Shonda Rhimes is a beloved determine within the leisure trade, recognized for creating a few of the most iconic TV reveals, together with “Gray’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” “Personal Apply,” and “The best way to Get Away with Homicide.” Rhimes, 55, can be recognized for penning a few of the most dramatic storylines which have stored viewers on the sides of their seats for many years.

Throughout a dialog with Robin Roberts on the Shonda Rhimes in Dialog occasion, the TV producer and mom of three opened up concerning the tenth anniversary of her 2015 memoir, “12 months of Sure: The best way to Dance It Out, Stand within the Solar and Be Your Personal Individual.” Together with the e-book, Rhimes dished on which of her well-known characters may gain advantage from having their very own “12 months of sure.”

Based on Rhimes, Olivia Pope, the political fixer recognized for wreaking havoc throughout Washington, D.C., within the drama “Scandal,” is the one character who wants her personal “12 months of sure.”

Rhimes admitted that Pope, performed by the legendary Kerry Washington, all the time had loads on her plate throughout the present’s preliminary run. “She’s had a troublesome life. I feel she might actually profit from a ‘sure.'”

For these unfamiliar, Rhimes’ memoir, “12 months of Sure,” is concerning the author’s one-year journey of claiming “sure” to something that made her barely nervous or fearful—from talking engagements to having “uncomfortable conversations.”

In actual fact, Rhimes informed Roberts that the latter is one lesson she’s stored near her coronary heart through the years, primarily as a result of she grew up as an individual who was afraid of battle. As she’s gotten older, nonetheless, Rhimes said she discovered herself in stickier conditions by not saying what she meant the primary time. “So now, 10 years later, … I say the exhausting factor first, as the primary a part of the sentence,” she said.

For Rhimes, popping out of the gate swinging with probably the most difficult a part of what must be stated has helped her navigate robust waters tremendously. “I say it, you recognize, whether or not it is, ‘You possibly can’t work right here anymore,’ or, ‘This relationship’s not working,’ or ‘You’ve got requested for an excessive amount of too many occasions,'” she stated. “Or to my daughter, ‘You are not getting a nostril ring it doesn’t matter what you say.'”

Lately, Rhimes launched an prolonged model of her “12 months of Sure” memoir, including seven new chapters based mostly on her lived experiences since its preliminary launch. Whereas transforming the publication, Rhimes admitted to getting emotional when trying again at what she’d written the primary time.

“Identical to anyone else who hadn’t learn the e-book in a very long time, I sat down and I reread what I had written, and my coronary heart went out to that individual,” she stated. “My coronary heart went out to that girl who was so closed off and so shy.”

Rhimes added that the girl who wrote the primary model of the e-book in 2015 is not the identical individual in 2026. “I might really feel the ache that I clearly was feeling at the moment, and it made me understand that there is been a lot happening within the 10 years since that I nearly do not acknowledge the individual on the finish of the e-book,” she stated.

Rhimes defined that individuals as we speak can discover the author’s demeanor has fully shifted. “Folks say to me that I appear lighter and extra … simply extra snug in my very own pores and skin, I feel. And possibly I am having much more enjoyable,” she stated.

In 2024, when Washington—who additionally has credit in “Little Fires All over the place,” “Django Unchained,” “The Simpsons,” and extra—obtained her star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame, the actress and mom of three opened up about how taking part in Olivia Pope (the primary Black girl lead in a community TV drama in 40 years) had a significant affect on her.