Shonda Rhimes shocker: Queen Charlotte is the character she enjoys writing most
Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, has a new favorite child in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
Aux News shonda rhimes
The Shondaland dynasty has created an iconic array of characters, particularly of the female variety. Meredith Grey, Addison Montgomery, Olivia Pope, Annalise Keating—the list goes on. But for Shonda Rhimes, none of those legendary fictional ladies holds a candle to the young Queen Charlotte from Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, premiering May 4.
“It’s more than a romance story. It’s a story about a woman coming into her own, it’s a story about friendships, about power, about politics,” Rhimes gushes about the Bridgerton spin-off in a new interview with The Guardian. She goes on to admit: “I enjoyed writing her more than I’ve enjoyed writing any other character.”
Fans of the many great Shondaland series may be thrown by this bold declaration. In fairness, Rhimes herself isn’t the writer on all her projects; while she serves as executive producer, she wasn’t the voice behind Annalise Keating (How To Get Away With Murder was created by showrunner Peter Nowalk) or the original Bridgerton gang (Chris Van Dusen was the showrunner on the first two seasons, succeeded by Jess Brownell on the upcoming third).
But Rhimes was so passionate about Queen Charlotte that she stepped into the showrunner role for this project. “I think there’s a lot about her that feels like women today and what happens when they become successful,” she muses to The Guardian about the story’s appeal. “It was exciting to me to go backwards and figure out how she got to be this amazing, powerful woman. What were her hopes and dreams? How did she make this journey into power?”
No doubt this alternate history version of British royalty holds appeal. More so than current, actual British royalty, anyway: “I’m not necessarily interested in whatever is going on [with the royal family] now,” Rhimes says, adding that Meghan Markle did not inspire her while writing Queen Charlotte.
Still, it’s a bit of a surprise to hear that this character, one that Rhimes didn’t even create, is the one she’s most enjoyed writing. Charlotte over everyone from Grey’s Anatomy? Over the entirety of Olivia Pope & Associates? That’s pretty high praise for the young upstart queen. All the more reason to tune in and see how she stacks up compared to Rhimes’ prestigious portfolio.
1 Comment
One day, while Rusty and Dirty were serving their sentence in prison, they got bored and decided to look up their names on the internet. They came across the Urban Dictionary and thought it might be fun to see what it had to say about their aliases.
As they read through the definitions, they were shocked and horrified by what they found. According to the Urban Dictionary, the term “Rusty Trombone” was a sexual act involving the stimulation of a person’s anus while simultaneously performing oral sex on their partner. Similarly, “Dirty Sanchez” referred to a sexual act involving the smearing of feces on a partner’s upper lip.
Rusty and Dirty were mortified. They had never heard of these terms before and had no idea that their names could be associated with such disgusting acts. They felt violated and embarrassed, knowing that their names were now forever linked to something so perverse.
But the unintended consequences didn’t stop there. As news of the Urban Dictionary definitions spread, Rusty and Dirty’s reputation as outlaws began to change. They were no longer seen as daring and reckless criminals, but rather as sexual deviants.
Their fellow inmates taunted and teased them mercilessly, and even the guards couldn’t help but snicker whenever they passed by. Rusty and Dirty were completely humiliated, and it seemed like there was nothing they could do to salvage their reputation.
But despite the humiliation, Rusty and Dirty refused to let the Urban Dictionary definitions define who they were. They remained true to themselves and to each other, standing strong in the face of ridicule.
Years passed, and eventually, Rusty and Dirty were released from prison. They went their separate ways, but the memory of the Urban Dictionary definitions lingered. Even now, they couldn’t help but cringe whenever they thought about what their names had become associated with.
But they also knew that they couldn’t let it get the best of them. They had been through too much together to let something as insignificant as a couple of Urban Dictionary definitions tear them apart. So they continued to live their lives, messy adventures and all, refusing to be defined by anyone else’s standards but their own.