- So "Gray's Anatomy" is--
How many years has it been on the air?
- Oh, we're in season 12. - 12. 12 years, that's--
[cheers and applause]
Amazing. - Yeah.
- And "Scandal." - "Scandal" is in season five.
- Wow, so you--yeah.
[cheers and applause]
Created "Gray's," created "Scandal,"
and produced "How To Get Away With Murder."
- Yep, produced "How To Get Away With Murder."
- So-- [cheers and applause]
I have to-- [cheers and applause]
Before we get into the book, I know how she is as a wife,
but how is Portia as an employee?
[audience laughter]
- She's pretty fantastic. - She is, really.
- Yeah, she's pretty great. - Yeah, good.
- I really enjoy it. - Good.
- Before we get started, I brought you something.
- Okay. - I brought you a present.
I brought you something that, even though
she works on the show, she could never possibly give you.
Actually, nobody has one of these.
- Is it a kitten?
[audience laughter]
- It's not a kitten. - No?
- Nobody has one.
It is...an Olivia Pope white hat.
- What? [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
- Had it specially made. [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
- Wow! - Yeah.
- Nobody has one of these? - Nobody has one of those.
Had it specially made for you. - Thank you so very much.
I gotta give you something. I don't know what it is,
but right now, I'm going to give you a bunch of compliments.
Thank you so much. That's so kind.
Okay, so let's talk about the book.
You say you were, like, terrified--
terrified to the point of-- of--
it's amazing you're here, by the way, because--
- Yeah. - This is a big accomplishment
to be in front of people.
- And not to be panicked and having a heart attack.
- Yeah, and you just decided to say yes to anything
no matter much it frightened you.
- Yeah, I decided to say yes to everything that scared me,
everything that made me feel like I was going to
have a heart attack and pass out,
I was just going to say yes to doing it.
- And how long did it take before--
was it the commencement speech, or when did it--
when did it kick in that you're starting to, like,
go, "Oh, I can do this"?
- I gave a commencement speech at Dartmouth College,
and it was in front of thousands of people,
and I think that was the moment when I thought,
"Okay, I'm not dying, so I'm doing okay,"
and that was the start of me starting to feel okay about it.
- Then you accomplished so much by saying yes,
you also, in this year, lost like 100 pounds or something.
- I did, I did, yeah.
[cheers and applause]
It was a-- [cheers and applause]
It was a crazy by-product somehow of doing this.
It was like the more stuff-- more fears I conquered,
the more I thought, like, "Oh, wait, I can do this, too,"
or, "I can do that, too."
It was exciting. - Yeah.
And I decided, "Well, I'm going to try doing that,"
and so yeah, I lost weight.
- Yeah, it's amazing because you were--
you said--I don't know how you phrased it,
but you were hiding behind this, you know,
"I am not my body, my body just carries around my brain..."
- Yeah. - And "No one's going to tell me
I'm supposed to look a certain way,"
because obviously, you know,
you're a feminist, and you're strong,
and you don't want to, you know, conform to society,
and then you realized, you could be happier and healthier.
- Right, it really was about the fact
that I have a 3-year-old and a 2-year-old
and a 13-year-old, and I kind of wanted
to be around for them, like, be healthy.
And it wasn't about--I mean, I really am, I'm super feminist,
and I'm like, "Everybody should be whatever shape
"they want to be--how dare anybody tell anybody anything,"
and then I thought, like, "I'm going to fall over,
'cause I don't feel good." And so it was really about that.
- And it's--you tell a story that it kind of dawned on you
one day when you were trying to buckle a seatbelt,
in an airplane, and you couldn't.
- I got on an airplane--
I was going to New York from L.A.--
And it was like a first-class seat.
You know, they're bigger, and I was like,
"This is going to be really comfortable."
I got in my seat, I took off my shoes.
I pulled out my book. I went to buckle the seatbelt
and it wouldn't buckle.
And I thought to myself, "Well, something's wrong
with the seatbelt, it's broken."
And it wasn't the seatbelt, it was me.
And I thought, "Well, I could get a seatbelt extender.
"I could ask the airline attendant
"to give me a seatbelt extender or I could die,
"and not have a seatbelt extender.
"Maybe the plane'll crash
or I'll fly out of my seat when we take off."
And I decided that I would risk it,
and just fly out of my seat,
'cause I wasn't going to say anything.
- Yeah, I think a lot of people have that guilt
of like, "I've accomplished so much
"and I'm powerful and I'm wealthy and I'm all this,
"and well, maybe if I'm overweight
that'll counterbalance everything."
- Yeah, I do think-- I do think you think that.
It makes it feel like you're less,
I don't know, threatening or something,
and you feel less--I don't know, you feel more comfortable.
- Yeah, but see, now? It's just like--
- Now I'm terrifying, I know.
- Well, you're perfect now.
But it's so funny, 'cause you know,
I talked to Bill Clinton, who's been on the show,
and he is--he loves everything you do,
as he mentioned on the show,
and I know that meant a lot to you.
And you're--somebody made a shirt for you.
- My assistants made me a t-shirt
that literally says, "Bill Clinton loves anything I do."
'Cause he said that on this show.
- Right. Well, um,
I am a huge fan, and I have been for a long time,
even before, obviously, Portia was on the show.
Please don't fire her or kill her.
[audience laughter]