Shonda Rhimes Compares Her Early Fame to 'Being Stung by a Thousand Bees' — Here's Why Charlotte Phillipp, Tabitha ParentDecember 1, 2025 at 2:30 AM 0 Manny Carabel/Getty Shonda Rhimes attends 'Shonda Rhimes in Conversation with Robin Roberts: The Year of Yes at 92NY.' Shonda Rhimes said she felt illequipped to deal with her early days of fame The Grey's Anatomy creator spoke about her fear of being famous at the start of her TV career during a 92NY event in October "It was really startling and shocking to me to be in a position where I was in a corner writing things for other people who shoul...
- - Shonda Rhimes Compares Her Early Fame to 'Being Stung by a Thousand Bees' — Here's Why
Charlotte Phillipp, Tabitha ParentDecember 1, 2025 at 2:30 AM
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Shonda Rhimes attends 'Shonda Rhimes in Conversation with Robin Roberts: The Year of Yes at 92NY.' -
Shonda Rhimes said she felt ill-equipped to deal with her early days of fame
The Grey's Anatomy creator spoke about her fear of being famous at the start of her TV career during a 92NY event in October
"It was really startling and shocking to me to be in a position where I was in a corner writing things for other people who should be famous, to discover that people wanted to talk to me or pay attention to me," Rhimes recalled
Shonda Rhimes felt ill-equipped to deal with her early days of fame.
During the Shonda Rhimes in Conversation with Robin Roberts: Year of Yes panel at 92NY in October, the television mogul, 55, opened up about when she first began to gain notoriety as a producer, soon after the premiere of Grey's Anatomy.
"It's so hard to do," Rhimes said of being in the public eye. "I mean, my job was to imagine things."
Challenging the audience to "name a TV showrunner or TV creator who you know their name on sight," she continued, "There's not that many."
"So it was really startling and shocking to me, to be in a position where I was in a corner writing things for other people who should be famous, to discover that people wanted to talk to me or pay attention to me," Rhimes added.
"It was like being stung by a thousand bees for me. It was really stressful," she further explained. "I just didn't have the equipment or the skill to get there."
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Manny Carabel/Getty
Robin Roberts (L) and Shonda Rhimes.
The writer, who is responsible for hit TV shows including Scandal, Private Practice and more, said she eventually confronted her fears of fame by diving in headfirst.
"I really tried to do small things," she recalled. "I've always said, 'Do the thing that you're afraid of, because the act of doing it undoes the fear really strongly.' "
"I think my first yes was getting a commencement speech in front of 10,000 people, which sounded like the craziest thing I'd ever come up with," Rhimes continued.
According to the showrunner, another one of her first major public appearances came when she went on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
"I let myself go on television and just do the thing," she said. "It was terrifying the whole time. And yet, when I was done, I was like, 'Oh, that wasn't so bad.' "
"It was a lot of me reminding myself — the worst thing that could happen is that I'd fail. You know?" continued Rhimes. "But there are a million other things that can happen that are better than failure that could have happened."
She added, "So, if the worst thing that happens is that you fail, why not do it anyway?"
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Shonda Rhimes on the set of 'Grey's Anatomy' in 2005.
With two decades of TV experience and fame under her belt, Rhimes said she feels more equipped now than she did at the beginning of her writing career.
"I get more and more comfortable every time, but I think the first time I did an interview where I felt like I was truly being myself was an interview for [the 2015 release of her book, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person] and it was with Oprah [Winfrey]," she recalled.
"I went to her house, I went to the Promised Land, which was the most intimidating thing in the world," continued Rhimes. "And I sat with her, and we did this interview."
According to the producer, that interview marked one of the first times that she truly felt comfortable in what she was saying.
"In that interview, for the first time, I'm just me," she said. "I'm not stressing over what I'm saying, I'm not rethinking everything in my head as I say it."
"I'm not so stressed that, like, I almost can't hear the questions, which was a thing," Rhimes added. "That has been a journey from there. Like, that was the first time I was comfortable, but it wasn't the last time I was a mess. ... We go back and forth — two steps forward, one step back."
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Source: Entertainment
Published: December 01, 2025 at 06:09AM on Source: MARIO MAG
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