Sara Ramirez
Entertainment Weekly has featured Sara Ramirez in their “5 Things You Should Know About” section. Here’s what you should know about Dr. Callie Torres.
1) She plays a doctor on TV and has the brains to back it up.
Born in Mazatlan, Mexico, and raised in San Diego, Ramirez — the daughter of an actress/singer/educator mother and an oceanographer/professor father — had orginally considered a career in engineering.2) Her character on Grey’s is as self-assured as she is.
“(Dr. Torres is) a tall, full bodied Latina, who is being portrayed not as a victim of her tallness or her size. (Creator) Shonda Rimes wants to make Callie sexy,” says Ramirez, who is 5′9″. Latinas — we’re in touch with our sensuality.”3) Thanks to Grey’s, Ramirez is more comfortable with her own anatomy.
“I was pretty much naked last season…They put me in my underwear, for God’s sake. I felt intimidated and fat. I said to (Rimes), ‘Girl, there is so much cottage cheese up in this set.’ She smiled and said, ‘Work it.’ She would not entertain my insecurities. It was a beautiful thing.”4) If she can make it there, she’ll make it anywhere.
In New York City, at age 17, “I lived in a 10-by-16 room with a loft bed at the top of a walk-up brownstone. The bathroom and fridge were in the hallway, (which) I had to share.” Things began looking up when she entered Julliard’s drama program; upon graduation, she landed her first film role, as the grocery cashier who takes Meg Ryan to task (”Cash on-ly”) in 1998’s You’ve Got Mail.5) Someday she’ll return to the Great White Way.
She’s been in four Broadway musicals, including Paul Simon’s The Capeman. “Theater is my home,” she says, but “I never thought I’d be in a (TV) show of this caliber.”
Sara Ramirez, Shonda Rimes, You’ve Got Mail
November 7th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
I’ll admit that Callie took a while to grow on me, but now I really like her. There’s no way that I could walk around half-naked like she’s been doing, so I say good for her! I love it that she’s not super-skinny, but she’s still really sexy and very confident. We need more people like Callie (sorry…Sara Ramirez) on the big and little screen.