People in the news

Kim Raver

“Grey’s Anatomy” has long championed women’s rights and female leadership on and offscreen — not only does the longrunning hospital drama cover contentious topics like abortion, but it also offers women on the show a chance to expand their roles behind the scenes.

Kim Raver is the latest cast member in that spotlight, playing both the new hospital chief in front of the camera and a first-time director behind it. Raver, who portrays surgeon Teddy Altman, has directed “Training Day,” an episode airing Thursday with a storyline that discusses reproductive rights.

This season, the series has not shied away from addressing the conflict between anti-abortion and abortion-rights advocates stirred up by the overturning of Roe v. Wade last June, and the resulting change in abortion access. At the start of season 19, the gynecology staff at Grey Sloan Memorial swapped from pink scrubs to black, as one character explained: “the female body has become a war zone in this country and pink is a peacetime color.”

“I feel fortunate that we can bring these stories to light. They’re not easy,” Raver said in a recent interview.

She believes that show creator Shonda Rhimes has always had the power to deliver hot topics — “hot not like trendy but hot that kind of ignite very extreme feelings on both sides.” Then the audience is left to decide for themselves how they feel.

“That’s really important in storytelling and that we have that, that we have that freedom to approach different uncomfortable storylines where we’re all bound to, you know, disagree,” Raver said. “But I think it’s discussions that we need to have.”

For the actor, directing is the accumulation of over three years’ work shadowing directors on set and being mentored by actor, director and executive producer Debbie Allen, who plays Catherine Fox.

“There’s this thing that we say on ‘Grey’s’ in terms of in medicine, ‘see one, do one’ and that’s what doctors do, right? That’s what the interns do with the attendings,” Raver explained.