There may be a handful of Westporters who don’t know who Shonda Rhimes is. You may even be one of them. But not for much longer.
Her star, firmly affixed to the Hollywood universe, Venn-diagrammed itself to our celestial sphere a few years ago. Since then, it’s only gotten (impossibly) brighter.
Shonda is the writer/producer behind Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Inventing Anna, Bridgerton, and more. Her unexpected and diverse characters, including strong women and handsome men (we’ll get to that later), have made her a darling of the streaming industry (is that what we call TV now?)
Now, “darling” both belies and describes her. She’s an unapologetically successful and powerful woman with an easy friend-next-door approachability. You’d enjoy chatting with her at a dinner party and be surprised, but not that surprised, to learn she graced the Oscars in Carolina Herrera the night before.
You’ll see her in bookstores (her memoir Year of Yes and novel Queen Charlotte written with Julia Quinn) and in ad campaigns (spokesmodel for St. John) and, of course, around town.
WLM: You’re the new face of St. John in their #OwnYourPower campaign. Past “faces” of the brand are Gisele Bündchen, Angelina Jolie, Karen Elson. How does it feel adding “model” to your resumé?
SR: “I don’t think I knew I was following a bunch of supermodels. The brand has been good to me - with clothes of all sizes, and versatility. I love that they’re an American company, and that they were female-founded. And I also love the fact that they are size inclusive. I wore St. John on the cover of Time (January 2022) and I think that’s why they wanted me.”
WLM: I am SO on board with a good prequel. Bridgerton is sprinkled with so many great “What the…?” Charlotte moments. Did you know you’d do Queen Charlotte all along?
SR: “No, the idea came from watching the show as it came together. Golda, who plays Queen Charlotte, is fantastic, I was obsessed. I wanted her tone in there.”
WLM: One of my favorite moments in Bridgerton was in one of the very first scenes. At Lady Danbury’s ball, the three inelegant Featherington sisters enter at the same time and get stuck in the doorway. I laughed out loud - was that your idea?
SR: “No, it wasn't my idea. It was literally one of those physical things the director and the actors come up with in the moment. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.”
WLM: Do shows always come out the way you envision them, or do they change as you go along?
SR: “I’ll have an idea for dialogue or an idea for a scene and I have to tell someone to see if it feels right and authentic. I perform all of my scripts while I write them. It’s fun - I cry when I’m supposed to cry, I laugh when I’m supposed to laugh. Susan [Shonda’s assistant] must think I’m crazy”
WLM: You also wrote a memoir, Year of Yes. How was that process?
SR: “I wanted to write a book that felt as open and honest as the characters in my show. Like, I couldn't gloss over things or make things feel fake; it had to be the stuff that I thought, and it was an amazing learning process for me. Writing a memoir is like you're writing your life and so you're thinking about what things mean and how they play out, and you get a new perspective.”
WLM: In Year of Yes, you wrote about a friend who decided you were her personal wellspring of money. How do you determine who’s genuine and who wants you for jobs and cash?
SR: “That’s really hard. And I often say I might be bad at it. I always think people are coming into everything with the best of intentions. I'm in a space in my life, my career where everybody's nice. My friends and my sister are my sounding boards because people will be really nice to me and not realize my sister's my sister. And then they're really rude to her.”
WLM: You’ll soon be moving to a new house across town. There was a lot of buzz when this house was being built and now there’s buzz about Shonda Rhimes buying it. What drew you to it?
SR: “You know what was interesting? I wasn't looking, I wasn't looking for another house. It didn't occur to me that I would ever want to live there with my three kids. Like, that's insane. But the more I went to see the house, the more I could see it. There's space to work, there's space for my guests. There’s space for the kids to have their own space, so it became possible.”
WLM: Other than the beach and the schools, what drew you to Westport?
SR: “You know, [Westport] hadn't been my top choice. I thought was going to look in Bedford or something. But one of my friends who lives here told me to check it out. So I came down and immediately understood it as a place I definitely wanted to live. I grew up in a small town outside of Chicago. It has the exact same community feel and I want that for my kids.
“I've been to see every Staples musical for the past two years, and that place is amazing. I haven't seen a high school production that looked like that ever.”
WLM: They’re amazing.
SR: “Oh, wait, can I say one more thing about the house that I bought?”
WLM: Of course.
SR: “I was really excited that it was on Ashford and Simpson’s original property. And [the home’s original owner] was told that Chaka Khan recorded “I’m Every Woman” there. It was written there, too. And Maya Angelou went there to record the one album she did.”
WLM: I didn’t know that! Thanks for sharing! Okay, question about Grey’s Anatomy. I have to hear it from you: McDreamy or McSteamy. Who’s the hotter one? You can also answer Simon Bassett [Bridgerton]
SR: (Laughs) “Yeah. I don't know that I could say which one's hotter. I think character-wise, McDreamy was sort of perfect. But McSteamy had the furthest to go and really developed into a human versus this very shallow person when we started. His ability to change the character, I thought that was sexy.”
WLM: I was disappointed to not see Simon Bassett in the second season. He’s dashing.
SR: He and I talked about it - we finished what we wanted to do with that character. I mean, what was going to happen then? He was going to stand around in the background of somebody else's love story?
WLM: Yes.
SR: (Laughs)
WLM: Is there anything else you’d like to share?
SR: “Well, my parents moved here as well. and have the same thing to say about Westport that I do, which is that everyone we’ve met is incredibly welcoming, and incredibly friendly. You have the safety and comfort of a place that feels like it's full of community. I mean, I think that's the most important part.”
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