00:00Please welcome Shonda Rhimes!
00:15Hello, everybody. I'm a writer, so I've written it down.
00:21Early on, right after she was cast, Ellen and I had a lunch.
00:25And after that lunch, I went home and I literally wrote in my journal, I actually looked it up.
00:30This girl is a spitfire. She will lay you out with the truth up, down, and sideways.
00:35I was absolutely thrilled and a little bit terrified.
00:39Because it's rare to meet somebody like her. Very few people actually are who they present themselves to be.
00:45But Ellen is exactly who she says she is, and you're one of a kind.
00:49In so many ways, Ellen and I grew up together in this business.
00:53We started in TV together, we realized success together, we found our power as women in the industry together,
00:58and we built Meredith Grey together.
01:00I created Meredith Grey, but I want you to understand the importance of this.
01:03Ellen is Meredith Grey. And not just on the sound stage.
01:10That is because she's so good at playing her role.
01:12In her hands, Meredith embodies a kind of flawed, good, broken, brilliant person we all recognize in ourselves.
01:18So for season after season, fans around the world have adored Meredith.
01:22They've spent Thursday nights with Meredith. They've wept, laughed, and loved with Meredith.
01:25And that means Meredith Grey is who the world sees when they see Ellen's face.
01:29And Ellen wears Meredith Grey quite well.
01:31But for all the Meredith you see, for those of us who have the honor of knowing her, the person we see is Ellen.
01:37And that is the most important role she can play.
01:40She's at her best when she's simply herself.
01:43She's fierce, and funny, and thoughtful, and caring.
01:46She's a businesswoman, a talented actor, a kind friend, and a great mom.
01:50And I don't care who you are, I don't know, even if you're the most powerful showrunner in TV,
01:54if you step out of line, Ellen will tell you about yourself.
01:57Up, down, and sideways.
02:00She lives and breathes in the truth, and it's come to be my favorite thing.
02:03That intelligence and that savvy and that fearlessness in her are why we are here today celebrating her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
02:10And people, she has earned this star.
02:13She has hard earned this star.
02:15And it's not just because she plays a character that we love.
02:20It is that in doing so, Ellen has worked tirelessly to build a career as a leading actress in a crazy global hit primetime TV drama
02:28that has been going for 21 seasons and counting.
02:31She leads the longest-running show in ABC history, and she leads the longest-running medical drama in all of TV.
02:38Those stats are absolutely not possible without her work and her presence and her drive.
02:45And because she was brave enough to know she deserved it, Ellen fought for and received her due,
02:50becoming the highest-paid actress in a television drama.
02:53She broke glass ceilings for actresses everywhere.
02:58She's a director, she's a producer, she's a feminist touchstone for women,
03:02and she's a role model for so many people pursuing their career in the scientists.
03:05Y'all, she is all the things.
03:07So, we're here celebrating her, and before we do, after all these years, I feel the need to turn the tables
03:13to lay Ellen Pompeo out with a little bit of truth to your face, up, down, and sideways.
03:18Don't be scared.
03:19Ellen, it's been a lifetime of honors getting to write for you and work with you.
03:23You have taught me important lessons that I didn't even know I needed to learn.
03:27I am grateful every day for the magic that you bring to Grey's Anatomy,
03:30and I know the TV landscape is forever changed for the better by having you shining in it.
03:35Girl, you are a living, breathing icon, and while you don't need a star to tell you that,
03:40it sure is nice to see the truth written in stone. Congratulations, my friend.
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