Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey’s Anatomy, revealed that some of the character deaths on the show have “horrified” her and compared those scenes to a “snuff film.” While Rhimes is one of the key writers, she said that she hasn’t “really watched the show.”
Shonda Rhimes reveals what really ‘horrified’ her during Grey’s Anatomy rewatch
On the Call Her Daddy podcast, Shonda Rhimes, who’s also a producer of the popular medical drama, was asked about the gruesome deaths of Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) and Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) during the early seasons.
“You have to think about the fact that I haven’t really watched the show,” Rhimes revealed. “So I recently went back and I started watching select pieces of episodes. I watched that episode, and I was horrified. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is like a freaking snuff film.’ Like, what the heck?” she recalled.
“During the time when I’m doing it, I’m inside the story,” Rhimes continued, explaining her process. “I always think my job is to be keeper of the story, not keeper of the actors, not keeper of the show, not keeper of the fans. My whole job is to just be true to the story,” the Scandal writer explained.
She further added, “I watch it back now, and I was like, ‘I can’t believe that actually happened, and that people survived watching that. That was horrifying.”
Following a plane crash, both Lexie and Mark died in the Season 8 finale and Season 9 premiere, respectively. However, it was another central character from the early seasons that “broke” the Crossroads writer.
“George was really… That character is so beloved,” she revealed, referring to George O’Malley, played by T. R. Knight. “T.R. is such a lovely guy. That was such a hard thing to do. He was so… T.R. was so amazing cuz there was no, like, he didn’t need to lay on that table. But he was like I’m going to do the role even though you’re never going to see my face the whole nine years. He was wonderful.”
“I mean, it broke me, so I knew that the audience would respond to it, but I really loved it,” Rhimes added.
Grey’s Anatomy kicked off its Season 22 on October 9, with new episodes arriving every Thursday.
