Shonda Rhimes was crazy-nervous about her Jimmy Kimmel interview, but she did it BECAUSE SHE’S A GLADIATOR
Shonda Rhimes is one busy lady. It’s hard to keep track of how many shows her company, ShondaLand, is producing this year on top of ABC’s entire Thursday night lineup. Somehow, between captivating pretty much the whole world with her television work, she’s also written a book called The Year of Yes. This past Thursday alone, Shonda spent the day editing episodes of Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy and running a Scandal table read before heading over to guest star on Jimmy Kimmel Live! You’ll never guess which of those activities intimidated the Hollywood powerhouse the most.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel … What?!
Apparently, Shonda used to be too stressed to accept invitations to do things outside of her office. She revealed to Jimmy that a year ago, her sister called her out for not taking advantage of all the cool opportunities coming from her success. “My sister said … all you do is work,” Shonda shared. “You never have any fun. And I thought, well ok, then for a year, I’m going to say yes to every terrifying thing that comes in my way.”
The first terrifying thing that Shonda said yes to was joining Jimmy on his show to promote Scandal’s season finale with an episode called, “Behind the Scandalabra.” Even though the experience was incredibly nerve-wracking for Shonda, she stuck to her guns and spent the entire year saying yes to things that “scared the bejesus” out of her. She gave a commencement speech at Dartmouth to 20,000 people and did a cameo on The Mindy Project. Her newfound sense of bravery inspired her new book, which documents her 365 days of following her sister’s advice.
Though Jimmy acted fake insulted that Shonda was so scared to work with him, he couldn’t help but take some credit for jumpstarting her year of yes. “So, in a way,” he said, “you would say I changed your life dramatically and for the better?”
Shonda laughed and doled out maybe the best compliment the world has ever heard:
Year of Yes? More like Year of YASSSSS!
You can watch the full interview here.
