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The 4 Most Revealing Quotes From Shonda Rhimes' Hollywood Reporter Profile

Will Shonda Rhimes ever get to a point where she doesn't have qualifiers as part of her resume? In a lengthy interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Grey's Anatomy and Scandal showrunner responds to the infamous New York Times article that described her as an "angry black woman." Rhimes says she's been trying for years to remove the words "black" and "female" from her description as a showrunner.

liz-raftery.jpg
Liz Raftery

Will Shonda Rhimes ever get to a point where she doesn't have qualifiers as part of her resume?

In a lengthy interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Grey's Anatomy and Scandal showrunner responds to the infamous New York Times article that described her as an "angry black woman." Rhimes says she's been trying for years to remove the words "black" and "female" from her description as a showrunner.

"They wouldn't say that someone is 'the most powerful white male showrunner in Hollywood,'" Rhimes tells THR. "I find race and gender to be terribly important; they're terribly important to who I am. But there's something about the need for everybody else to spend time talking about it ... that pisses me off."

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At the same time, Rhimes says she doesn't support what many have requested — that the article be retracted. "In this world in which we all feel we're so full of gender equality and we're a post-racial [society] and Obama is president, it's a very good reminder to see the casual racial bias and odd misogyny from a woman written in a paper that we all think of as being so liberal," she notes.

Here are four more revealing quotes from Rhimes' Hollywood Reporter interview, about her woes on the early years ofGrey's Anatomy, her "No Heigls" policy and more:

1. On how she balances her career with raising three children as a single mother: "I don't. ... If I am at home sewing my kids' Halloween costumes, I'm probably blowing off a rewrite I was supposed to turn in. If I am accepting a prestigious award, I am missing my baby's first swim lesson. If I am at my daughter's debut in her school musical, I am missing Sandra Oh's last scene ever being filmed at Grey's Anatomy. If I am succeeding at one, I am inevitably failing at the other. That is the trade-off." (Also, she notes, that question "drives me nuts.")

2. On ABC executives' numerous edits to early episodes of Grey's Anatomy"I think the term that was used to describe me to my face was, 'If you think you're funny, you're sick.' I was stunned."

3. On butting heads with former ABC President Steve McPherson, who left the company amid a sexual harassment inquiry: "He said really horrible things to me," she says, declining to reveal anything more than: "I literally started keeping a list of how many times he said a certain swear word to me."

4. On the camaraderie among the Scandal cast members: "There are no Heigls in this situation. ...I don't put up with bullsh-- or nasty people. I don't have time for it."

Read Rhimes' full interview here.

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