Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with Higheart Radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is crazy, you guys. You guys, we have.
Speaker 1: Our family's here, our original family is here.
Speaker 2: Gladiator in a Suit. Yes, this is a very very
Speaker 2: special episode. It's a standalone, it's a episode.
Speaker 1: This is the first time we're in a studio with
Speaker 1: this podcast because of this man.
Speaker 2: And we were like, we've been wanting to get Columbus
Speaker 2: Short on Unpacking the Toolbox for a while, I say,
Speaker 2: like two years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we're saving it too because we.
Speaker 2: Wanted to do in person, and we were so psyched
Speaker 2: that you're open to it and into it, and we're
Speaker 2: very happy to see you, happy.
Speaker 4: To see you.
Speaker 3: And they're going to flip their wigs. Remember when I said,
Speaker 3: y'all will flip your wigs. This is why. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: you guys.
Speaker 2: This is the man, the myth, the legend who literally
Speaker 2: said do you want to be a gladiator in a suit?
Speaker 4: To you?
Speaker 2: To me and your face like this is crazy, Like
Speaker 2: I could get emotional about it. To Columbus Short, first
Speaker 2: of all, thank you for doing this. Let it be
Speaker 2: known gladiators that Columbus We're going to get into questions
Speaker 2: and have a good time. But also you brought the
Speaker 2: most funnest friends you brought Neo.
Speaker 3: Neo came and saying Happy birthday to Carrie.
Speaker 2: Washington because of Columbus short Neo came saying happy birthday,
Speaker 2: and I gave him a hug and I was like,
Speaker 2: that's the most cologne I've ever smelled on.
Speaker 5: His And it smelled so good, and he.
Speaker 2: Was so talented, and I all day I would like
Speaker 2: to catch a whiff of it on my sweater and
Speaker 2: I'd be like, that's near cologne. Yeah. Wait, can you
Speaker 2: first take us back, like where were you when you
Speaker 2: booked the part, because didn't you were an offer or
Speaker 2: you had to audition. Tell us how you got this
Speaker 2: part and where you were in your life career.
Speaker 4: So Shanda had the couple of years before had said
Speaker 4: to me, offered a private practice, and I was like,
Speaker 4: I do not want to do television. I want to
Speaker 4: be a movie star. That was my idea. I was like,
Speaker 4: I want to be a movie star, like I'm I'm
Speaker 4: on a movie.
Speaker 2: Star track and at the time those were different trail.
Speaker 4: And I said, but you know what, there's a guy
Speaker 4: named Tate Higgs to be appropriate.
Speaker 3: No way, yeah, suggested love. That's because that's my guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, and he's down, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: he's down for the child. I wasn't so then that
Speaker 4: I'll never forget the night C A A messaged the
Speaker 4: you know when back in the day when they message
Speaker 4: sent messengers.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah
Speaker 2: yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah. You would have to go.
Speaker 4: I gotta go get the script out, yes, yeah, And
Speaker 4: they sent it wasn't called scandal, it was damage.
Speaker 3: There it is.
Speaker 4: And I was like, all right, man, let me see.
Speaker 4: And I read it and she had me at free. Well,
Speaker 4: first of all, I didn't read it. I put it
Speaker 4: on my my night stand and I was like, I'm
Speaker 4: not going to read it. And I told C I
Speaker 4: A and Real Steen Entertainment Partners my team. I said, nah,
Speaker 4: I'm not going to do no TV. And something woke
Speaker 4: me up in the middle of the night and I
Speaker 4: and I woke up. It was like two o'clock in
Speaker 4: the morning, and I picked up the script and I
Speaker 4: just said, let me read. I said, I will give
Speaker 4: it ten pages. And first thing they had me.
Speaker 1: Hell yes, hello, wait did you did you have the
Speaker 1: first line in the script right.
Speaker 3: Now a date?
Speaker 6: And then he says, I'm not here to bring you
Speaker 6: on a date.
Speaker 3: This is not a day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is not a date. What are you drinking martini?
Speaker 2: But like, this is not a date.
Speaker 4: And I had just three days before that watched so
Speaker 4: by the way, I had like done Studio sixty with
Speaker 4: Aaron Sorkin, right, and you know, Josh Molina comes from
Speaker 4: the Aaron, so it's always paced and you can't.
Speaker 3: You got to do that, drop that ball, don't drop me.
Speaker 4: So I was like, okay, I'm going to put this
Speaker 4: and on it and me and Katie it was like,
Speaker 4: what's the movie for Social Network? Came out and I said,
Speaker 4: I want to do this scene. We have to pace
Speaker 4: it like Aaron. We have to do it like that,
Speaker 4: and boom, and we did it. And I remember Wilmer
Speaker 4: Vodama came to.
Speaker 1: Visit yet that day, Brun, you brought all the stars, dude,
Speaker 1: Well didn't you bring Madonna?
Speaker 3: You should have brought Madonna. We'll get into that.
Speaker 4: So Wilmer came and he was just like, do your thing,
Speaker 4: and I was so ship.
Speaker 2: I was so nervous, but cameos, which you don't get nervous.
Speaker 2: You're not like that. And I remember picking you up.
Speaker 2: We shared a trailer in the pilot. After the pilot,
Speaker 2: you guys shared a double banker, but in the pilot
Speaker 2: we shared a double banker. And we're there and we
Speaker 2: know we're about to shoot the Quinn Harrison scene that honestly.
Speaker 3: The opening scene.
Speaker 2: And he says, you will slay dragons. You will love
Speaker 2: the fight more than anybody else. And you got to
Speaker 2: say it, say it, and I go, say, what gladiators do?
Speaker 2: You want to be a latter? I want to be
Speaker 2: a gladder in a suit.
Speaker 5: Boom scam.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, so that's the scene we're all talking about.
Speaker 2: I pick you up, I knock, and I remember, like
Speaker 2: so vividly. We walked to the location, which was downtown,
Speaker 2: and you were like nervous, which you're not. We had rehearsed,
Speaker 2: we had done readings of the pilot for the studio
Speaker 2: and network, like you had it, but you were like, yeah, that's.
Speaker 4: A good wood. I felt like what we're doing is
Speaker 4: about to either when it's just gonna either fall in
Speaker 4: space or it's going to be fantastic. It's going too,
Speaker 4: and I remember that moment and you were so Katie, like,
Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you from you know, Shoshana Bean
Speaker 4: has spoke highly of you. Camilla Martin has spoken high Broadway.
Speaker 4: I'm talking about equity Broadway. They love you, right, So
Speaker 4: when I'm talking about her, I'm like, Okay, I didn't
Speaker 4: know who she was.
Speaker 2: Well, that's because I was a babysitter. Wait, can I
Speaker 2: ask you one other thing? This is the other thing
Speaker 2: I remember. I remember walking there and being like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I think he's nervous. I was nervous too,
Speaker 2: but like obviously I hadn't done shit, Like I was nervous,
Speaker 2: but you were like shouldn't. I mean, it was good
Speaker 2: that you were nervous. And then we did the scene.
Speaker 2: And the other memory I remember so well is after
Speaker 2: your coverage, they flipped the camera on you and you
Speaker 2: do your monologue and I remember everybody in video village
Speaker 2: standing up and giving you a standing applause. Do you
Speaker 2: remember that?
Speaker 3: Reason?
Speaker 2: I never did that again.
Speaker 3: Because I had to sit.
Speaker 4: And the reason Wilmer was there is because I needed
Speaker 4: some like support, emotional support, because I was like, this
Speaker 4: might be the moment of my career. And I sat
Speaker 4: there and I had to sit there and look at
Speaker 4: this woman, this one. And I was like, no, Quinn,
Speaker 4: this is.
Speaker 3: Not a day.
Speaker 4: And and and so what happened after that? We created
Speaker 4: scandal pace true or not true?
Speaker 3: True?
Speaker 4: From that day, I just said, spit it out as
Speaker 4: fast as you can and get it out of your
Speaker 4: mouth and be done with it. And and I did that,
Speaker 4: and and and and and.
Speaker 1: I mean you knew because that makes every scene, every
Speaker 1: every time I've been in a film or a TV
Speaker 1: show in the pace and it's paced up, it's it's better.
Speaker 4: It makes it better.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wait, so do you call Shanda? Take it back really quick?
Speaker 2: And said, I woke up in the millen ighty two
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning. I read the first time pages
Speaker 2: I'm in what did you do?
Speaker 4: So let me tell you what happened. Yeah, So I
Speaker 4: went over there and I walked in the room and
Speaker 4: it's Betsy Beers, Jeff's wife, Linda. And it's Linda Jeff, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean Linda, Betsy Beers, Mary Howard, Yeah, there sitting
Speaker 4: there like the queens, right, And I was like, I
Speaker 4: sat down and I was like boom, okay, okay. We
Speaker 4: had the meeting. We talked and I said, okay, well
Speaker 4: it was that and I'm getting out of the room
Speaker 4: all my way out, but I said I had one
Speaker 4: more question. I said, who is going to play Olivia Price?
Speaker 2: Remember I don't remember that Price and Harrison right? Was
Speaker 2: a Harrison right?
Speaker 4: It was something else wrong, but so so so Olivia Price.
Speaker 4: I said, who's playing Olivia Price? And then it's Olivia Pope.
Speaker 4: It's Kerrie Washington. I love you for the rest of
Speaker 4: my life. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: And then I feel like we all got super close
Speaker 1: because we rehearsed the pilot like a play, Like I
Speaker 1: all rehearsed it for like two weeks, right, yeah, so
Speaker 1: we all got super close, which is rare because you'll
Speaker 1: get close shooting a show.
Speaker 3: But you were the start. You were not as I
Speaker 3: wasn't know you were you were? You were? You were?
Speaker 1: Yes, I was feeling, yeah you were. If you remember,
Speaker 1: I had like one line in the pilot and then
Speaker 1: were very last and that's it. And then last minute
Speaker 1: they wrote Shanda wrote that monologue in the bathroom, but
Speaker 1: I don't think I ever rehearsed that in the when
Speaker 1: we were rehearsing in that rehearsal room.
Speaker 3: That wasn't even rehearse that. I don't believe. So I
Speaker 3: don't think so that wasn't Rentil Later.
Speaker 2: Well, because at the Studio Network table read, the only
Speaker 2: note that Shonda got was we want more gear, we want.
Speaker 3: We want more of him. And I had a few scenes.
Speaker 1: I remember I walk in with the with the rings
Speaker 1: for Henry ian Cusick was this Stephen for Steven?
Speaker 3: So what happened? So you left the lot? Okay? I
Speaker 3: left the lot. Jeff Perry was moving furniture. He was, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is true story. I said peace out to Jeff Harry.
Speaker 2: As he was just moving a microwave into his wife's office.
Speaker 2: He was just being a good husband.
Speaker 3: Being a good husband. Yeah, And I was like boom.
Speaker 4: I get in the car. I get a call from
Speaker 4: c I A. They're like Columbus, she got the part.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, holy shit.
Speaker 1: I remember Shanna telling me that she uh, we were
Speaker 1: at her house at some gathering watching the show, and
Speaker 1: she said that she that you were the only person
Speaker 1: that didn't audition, and that she called Jeff Jeffrey Dean
Speaker 1: Morgan got vouch for you.
Speaker 3: Yes, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Come on, dude.
Speaker 2: Shawn had a policy on our show that she called
Speaker 2: people's previous bosses to sort of check in if they
Speaker 2: were my boss.
Speaker 3: He was my boss as a loser. I was in
Speaker 3: the losers, okay with them.
Speaker 4: With Joel Silver, Uh just me Zoe's al Donna, Jeffrey
Speaker 4: and he was the leader of our cores right and
Speaker 4: he had, by the way, whatever his role was on
Speaker 4: Grey's Anatomy was like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who got me?
Speaker 4: Who got me?
Speaker 2: Vouched for you?
Speaker 1: But also but also Shonda loved you, like I think
Speaker 1: he could have vouched for you, and Shaun could have
Speaker 1: if she didn't like your work and like who you were,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't just for do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Let me just say though we on part of this podcast,
Speaker 2: we have to go back and rewatch episodes, which I
Speaker 2: have not done, like when we watched it together, when
Speaker 2: we were live tweeting, you couldn't really watch like trying
Speaker 2: to be with the Gladiators and all this. Now that
Speaker 2: g and a lot of time has passed, we go back,
Speaker 2: we watch the episodes and you are, Oh my god, Columbus.
Speaker 3: We talk about you so much talk about you.
Speaker 2: So much on this podcast. Your acting work is so unbelievable.
Speaker 2: It was based on you, guys, but you thank you,
Speaker 2: but you are like the gladiator.
Speaker 5: You make it look I don't know how.
Speaker 2: You do phone and flips and like.
Speaker 3: Let's let's explain that.
Speaker 2: So when I wor answer as.
Speaker 4: Well, First you know that business as an actor, right,
Speaker 4: So uh, Laurence Fishburne Morpheus always told me.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 4: I was doing this movie called Armored, right, and I
Speaker 4: saw this man pick up a box like a case
Speaker 4: and like put it and it was like with no dialogue.
Speaker 4: It was the most incredible thing I'd seen.
Speaker 3: Like choreographed. Yeah, it was like how I grabbed it
Speaker 3: and he said.
Speaker 4: Son, He's called me grasshopper, and he said always make
Speaker 4: business business right, right and put that thing down and
Speaker 4: everything something.
Speaker 3: So I was like wow.
Speaker 4: And so everything that I didn't scandal, I wanted to
Speaker 4: all of those tools, all of those notes they were
Speaker 4: they were they were coming from the ones that you know,
Speaker 4: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, from Jeffrey Wright to Lawrence fishburn to
Speaker 4: Matt Dillon to Jon Renaud.
Speaker 3: Not Matt Dillon, I love yah were giving me cheat
Speaker 3: codes and you were just you were wide out to.
Speaker 5: Know I was shot out of a cannon I was doing.
Speaker 2: I go back and we watch the episode. We have
Speaker 2: a part of our podcast where it's really not Gemo.
Speaker 2: It's Katie and Gemo's cringe worthy acting moments. It's really
Speaker 2: just me complaining about what I'm doing in the episode
Speaker 2: because I hope and pray that I've come a long
Speaker 2: way from that. But like, you were so confident, so cool,
Speaker 2: Like you knew exactly what the show was, You knew
Speaker 2: exactly what the tone was, Like you were in the
Speaker 2: pocket of like you are the quintessential like Gladiator scandaled
Speaker 2: to me and watching it back, you're like, yeah, but.
Speaker 1: You're also you're also a dancer, right, so all that
Speaker 1: all that business, like to make that look good, like
Speaker 1: you made it look good. It's hard to teach that advantage.
Speaker 1: What we talked about all the time.
Speaker 4: We would talk about, like Madonna in my time with Brittany,
Speaker 4: how hard it is to teach human beings how to walk,
Speaker 4: Like to.
Speaker 3: Teach a human how to walk?
Speaker 4: Why knew how to oh yeah, like walk that then
Speaker 4: she poked it out on this shore.
Speaker 2: It doesn't know how to walk. We shot pilots the
Speaker 2: pilot for nights seven pm to seven am for three
Speaker 2: weeks straight or something. And here.
Speaker 6: Was its really fucking cool but super pointing saddle shoes
Speaker 6: and they were pointing and the hallway was long because
Speaker 6: it was it was on a stage and he's going
Speaker 6: up and down like for a thousand hours. You were
Speaker 6: limping like if you could off.
Speaker 5: Your feet were like the front of pointed.
Speaker 2: Feet point in that shoe. You had some couple I
Speaker 2: was waddling.
Speaker 3: I will, let's talk about your boobies.
Speaker 2: No, not boobies, because I.
Speaker 4: Agree that that was no boobies.
Speaker 3: The what's it.
Speaker 2: Called the wrapank spanks?
Speaker 3: We were span you were spanked up. You were.
Speaker 5: It was because I to Ben the sausage skirts.
Speaker 3: It was a fucking everybody can't breathe for her.
Speaker 1: I just I remember every every morning coming onto set
Speaker 1: and Carrie would you know, greet everyone, and we'd bang
Speaker 1: on the table and say what episode it was? Yeah,
Speaker 1: just like this is episode three ten or.
Speaker 3: Whatever it was. But you always walked in with like
Speaker 3: with sunglasses on and your chunk.
Speaker 1: Litas like looking like you'd had like a real night
Speaker 1: chunk late like sandals like.
Speaker 2: Slides, but you would always have to be cool, sneak.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but but in the morning, before he got
Speaker 1: into costume, you would have your chunk litas on right
Speaker 1: for sure, to rest those feet that were gonna climb
Speaker 1: into those.
Speaker 4: Come on.
Speaker 1: But you were such a rock star, such a movie star,
Speaker 1: walking on into the into O p A just every morning,
Speaker 1: And I just remember looking at you and just thinking
Speaker 1: you were so and so amazing and so when your
Speaker 1: energy was just so beautiful and so happy, and you always.
Speaker 3: Brought so much happiness to say, you know what on
Speaker 3: the worst day. Yeah, but I.
Speaker 4: Would see Germo with the sitting do you guys remember
Speaker 4: I used to cut my hair for the first two seasons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, by myself my hair till they finally.
Speaker 4: But Germo would be sitting and relaxing with those things
Speaker 4: under his eyes on.
Speaker 3: Inside like under them, use them. I want those things.
Speaker 3: I use them almost a yeah, to do that. Those
Speaker 3: were so bad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you have any.
Speaker 4: Yes, I've watched every episode except when I died.
Speaker 3: After I died, it was over.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well in more ways than one, it was
Speaker 1: a group of after you died.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, this show was.
Speaker 1: Just never the same when when you left me it
Speaker 1: wasn't no disrespect.
Speaker 3: You get there.
Speaker 2: We will be back with more after than break. What
Speaker 2: are you some of your favorite keeping it like highlights
Speaker 2: of acting, stuff that you got to do, Like do
Speaker 2: you have any memories for me? It's obviously glad I
Speaker 2: in her suit. Also you slow dancing with Abby.
Speaker 1: That's another thing I remember about that story.
Speaker 4: Well, no, no Columbus short and Darby Stansfield is another
Speaker 4: storyline because Darby is by the number. She's by the book.
Speaker 4: She's so by the book and she could never figure
Speaker 4: out how I was stumbling into work sometimes and I
Speaker 4: couldn't remember lines, and she was strung and all right
Speaker 4: if I was late are These are things that we'll
Speaker 4: talk about later. But Darby Stansfield, I loved those moments,
Speaker 4: the the the episode with the billionaire. Yes, I just
Speaker 4: got that's my girl. But I'm doing Remember the microfiche
Speaker 4: episode when I'm like, we're doing things on the microfiche,
Speaker 4: you know, in the library.
Speaker 3: Remember microfiche.
Speaker 4: Okay, first of all, guys, let's just put it on.
Speaker 3: Do you guys remember this?
Speaker 4: Forget episodes when we had to have a meeting, a
Speaker 4: securities meeting and the guy came and broke down everything
Speaker 4: how to secure Yes, yes.
Speaker 3: He was like from Disney, know what was happening. I
Speaker 3: remember it, but I didn't know what.
Speaker 2: Was happening, Like if someone says scary ship to you online,
Speaker 2: like let us.
Speaker 4: How to use our phones to go through. It was
Speaker 4: a full securities and I was like, I remember that?
Speaker 4: Did you guys?
Speaker 3: Do ever?
Speaker 4: I was like, I don't remember what he said, but
Speaker 4: I look back like damn should wait.
Speaker 2: My other thing was remember this part where you go
Speaker 2: that's big office talk or something for Henry and c
Speaker 2: Sick's office, because.
Speaker 4: He and I got the office.
Speaker 3: And you got the office.
Speaker 2: But you did it because you're oh you remember, I'm
Speaker 2: having flashbacks of your scene something. He throws you on
Speaker 2: your on the back. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was so mad. Oh let's talk about that.
Speaker 4: I've always been taught you'll not ever lose a scene, right,
Speaker 4: don't lose it. I was like, he gotta body me,
Speaker 4: so I was like, I gotta have something I can do.
Speaker 4: But you did the aftermath he does this like super theatrical,
Speaker 4: like turning up off the table that I was.
Speaker 3: He was like, I don't know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Were you trying to do that to be like I'm cool,
Speaker 2: I'm cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the way it came on. So you did.
Speaker 3: You ended up winning the scene, yo. But another another scene.
Speaker 1: That stuck out for me is the seven fifty two
Speaker 1: episode when Harrison goes into the room and sits with Huck,
Speaker 1: who is log saying the numbers. Oh, I watched it
Speaker 1: again last night, said, just to refresh my memory.
Speaker 3: Who was who directed that episode? What's her name? Alison
Speaker 3: lay Brown? Aliston, You're incredible director. She took time with
Speaker 3: all all.
Speaker 4: Of us had big monologues in that episode except me.
Speaker 4: I just kept saying, you were tripping, and it was
Speaker 4: like what I was saying is what I could say
Speaker 4: for real? Is that was the realist monologue of my life.
Speaker 4: So good. I spoke to my life and respeks to
Speaker 4: what it is right now.
Speaker 1: Like you're a talker, like talk talk to, talk talk to,
Speaker 1: You're a door, yeah, you're you're say man, You're you're
Speaker 1: an action man, you're a man yeah, and I'm outside.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So that's getting with me.
Speaker 1: But but then also Columbus at the end, you say,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do now, Like I don't
Speaker 1: know what to do in this situation because me talking
Speaker 1: is not going to help you.
Speaker 4: So I'm just.
Speaker 3: Gonna sit here with you and wait for as long
Speaker 3: as it takes and wain right here with you. Just
Speaker 3: broke my heart. And you guys were also. Do you
Speaker 3: remember that during the rehearsal for those monologues.
Speaker 1: Shanda came down, rose it on down to set and
Speaker 1: set in.
Speaker 3: The chair and watched you guys monologue. Oh my god, I.
Speaker 5: Got mine at six pm.
Speaker 2: I was up the first at six am. That's the
Speaker 2: ship they used to do to me, because I was
Speaker 2: and I deserved it. I was the rookie. That's fine,
Speaker 2: throw me in.
Speaker 4: I will say this and I'll put this on everything
Speaker 4: I love from Josh Molina, Jeff Jeffrey Wright, Tony Golden, you, Darby, you, everyone,
Speaker 4: our carry Of course, what we showed up when.
Speaker 3: It was time.
Speaker 4: We knew, I don't care what was going on in
Speaker 4: our lives personally, but when they said action, we had
Speaker 4: to show up, and we did put it down.
Speaker 1: It also felt like it was something special, something rare
Speaker 1: that doesn't happen often. Are are all of us coming
Speaker 1: together and being on the show.
Speaker 4: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And then when when the pieces start getting some pieces
Speaker 1: get removed and shifted around Bellamie, Oh my god, so great.
Speaker 1: Then then it starts to become something else, not necessarily bad,
Speaker 1: but it just becomes something different. But there's nothing like
Speaker 1: those first like three seasons.
Speaker 2: We want back, like we haven't gotten there yet. But
Speaker 2: there's something about like the Gladiators in O p A.
Speaker 2: It's us and yeah and carry that just feels so good.
Speaker 2: Stuff like it's just the most fun and the soundtrack
Speaker 2: and the music and the moves and your songs and
Speaker 2: you're so weird and I'm such a dork and Abby
Speaker 2: so tough, like it was just like.
Speaker 4: Maybe it was really the off camera, so like, if
Speaker 4: we're gonna be honest, like we spent most most more
Speaker 4: time together then we spent with our family.
Speaker 2: Together hours on hours weekly, millions of hours.
Speaker 4: I mean sometimes we did remember Friturdays.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Saturdays, Yeah, Saturdays, Oh my god, I love you.
Speaker 3: I'm like, how a rapping Saturday morning, five in the mornings.
Speaker 2: It was really crazy crazy and then we'd be back
Speaker 2: five am Monday morning. It was barely any time. So
Speaker 2: you got questions okay, yeah, okakay, favorite, uh fave costume.
Speaker 2: Did you take a suit or seven?
Speaker 4: Oh, it's the one I took a picture with geramo in.
Speaker 4: It's my favorite suit. It's a three piece suit. It's gray,
Speaker 4: and I had a vest to vest suit and I
Speaker 4: had a clock like she gave me a time. Do
Speaker 4: you remember, Oh yeah, yeah that was I was.
Speaker 3: On television. But check it out.
Speaker 1: You also wore suspenders really well, like you wore suspended you.
Speaker 1: You had an episode where you wore pink suspenders and
Speaker 1: you looked so freaking you were.
Speaker 5: I remember there being like I was, and.
Speaker 4: Then the pants got tighter. It was the same thing.
Speaker 4: It was like but the same. It was like she
Speaker 4: had to start letting things out, like letting it. But
Speaker 4: I was squeezing Magee and I was squeezing and some
Speaker 4: of those squeeze it.
Speaker 3: In the season three high, Moode was right, I.
Speaker 2: Think favorite actor to work with I can't.
Speaker 3: I can't.
Speaker 4: I have a favorite actor to work with is my
Speaker 4: entire Scandal cast. And I put that on everything because
Speaker 4: we played together the right way. That's it felt like
Speaker 4: Jeffrey writes, my favorite actor, Wow, I would you know?
Speaker 4: He pushed me. I can name a bunch of actors
Speaker 4: but the way we worked, we got we were a
Speaker 4: team and it was just I don't know, it was
Speaker 4: just it's just.
Speaker 3: And you're right, it felt like it felt like one
Speaker 3: one like.
Speaker 2: One of those scenes we had to nail where each
Speaker 2: person would get a line or a paragraph and I
Speaker 2: remember being like, oh my god, we're gonna get We're
Speaker 2: gonna get it where no one would flub because it
Speaker 2: would be like, you're not.
Speaker 3: Allowed.
Speaker 4: So what I what what Shonda was writing and all
Speaker 4: the writers, kudos to them, all the writers on Scandal.
Speaker 4: They were writing a symphony. And so when you're writing
Speaker 4: a symphony, everybody has to do their part to execute
Speaker 4: the scene. Hell yeah, And as we were doing that,
Speaker 4: there was music in the language, right, and all we
Speaker 4: had to do was live in that.
Speaker 3: Way, the orchestra each other.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, hold on, before we get into some deeper stuff.
Speaker 2: We normally do gear moot six Degrees of Horror.
Speaker 3: Which upset Yeah, well and really quickly.
Speaker 1: The movie Quarantine that you did with Jennifer Carpenter is
Speaker 1: one of the greatest freaking horror movies the dollar round.
Speaker 4: To them.
Speaker 3: What was that like working on that film?
Speaker 4: I was freak the funk out.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry the time. I don't. I don't watch horror
Speaker 3: because I don't.
Speaker 4: Like to in my spirit, right, I'm with you, not
Speaker 4: a horror guy. Friends that are like yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: you're you know daging, you're VASKI, oh my guys like
Speaker 4: they love horror.
Speaker 3: I was. I was scared.
Speaker 4: I was like, I was like, we're in this studio,
Speaker 4: uh stage we on Sony Lot were on stage twelve
Speaker 4: and they built this apartment and like, there's real zombies.
Speaker 3: Like I was just like, I gotta because you got
Speaker 3: to tell the truth. Yeah, tell the truth that it's
Speaker 3: an actor. But I was I didn't have to act.
Speaker 3: I was scared. They scared into a zombie.
Speaker 4: Like I got my net and I turned into a zombie.
Speaker 4: And then I was like, how do you play a zombie?
Speaker 3: I was really committed.
Speaker 2: You were so good.
Speaker 3: He was so good.
Speaker 1: But also a moment yeah, but also in that movie,
Speaker 1: you worked with Jennifer Carpenter, who is in the Extorcism
Speaker 1: of which.
Speaker 4: I saw first.
Speaker 3: Yo, you saw that and you don't like movies. That
Speaker 3: is the most horrifying.
Speaker 4: When I got the movie, when I got them, we
Speaker 4: Clint told me Clint Clint Culpepper Joe k.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So wait, so Clint says, go see I said.
Speaker 3: The Exorcism of Emily.
Speaker 4: When he gave me the movie, he said, go see
Speaker 4: this movie, this is the Girl. And I said all right,
Speaker 4: and I went to right there on our Victory and
Speaker 4: Laura Canyon this movie theater by myself and I saw
Speaker 4: the movie and I was crazy.
Speaker 1: I can never watch it again. And I love horror movies.
Speaker 1: She's and it's based on a true story of a
Speaker 1: girl that gets possessed, Yeah, by by your demon?
Speaker 3: You're not watching it? Yeah, well check out this segue.
Speaker 3: This this slick segue. Going from.
Speaker 1: Going from six degrees six degrees of Horror, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go to six degrees of Britney Spears.
Speaker 3: Because because we both had our run ins with.
Speaker 2: Me Spears so very lovely.
Speaker 3: You have to, you know, and.
Speaker 1: List your first got both of my bees.
Speaker 5: Okay, really messed up.
Speaker 1: But Columbus choreographed the on its hotel tour, right Columbus,
Speaker 1: I did, I did you need?
Speaker 5: What in the world?
Speaker 3: How did you book that? Like? How did that come about?
Speaker 4: It was so weird? Okay, So, so I was on
Speaker 4: tour with Stomp. I was on broad right, right, that's right,
Speaker 4: Like I'm making sounds with the objects, like with your feet.
Speaker 1: Was like, that's why the feet were jacked up, because
Speaker 1: you were stomping for years before scandal.
Speaker 4: So I said, I can't. I had a layoff. Do
Speaker 4: you guys know what a layoff is on Broadway? If
Speaker 4: you're on a Broadway tour, you get layoffs. So we
Speaker 4: had a seven week layoff. They give you money to
Speaker 4: sit down and chill until we pick up again on
Speaker 4: whatever tour we're on. And this was right before September eleven.
Speaker 4: I was in Temple, Florida, and I was high on Molly. No,
Speaker 4: not Molly, Molly didn't exist. It was ecstasy, yeah. And
Speaker 4: I saw Brittany with a PEPSI can and I was
Speaker 4: with my friends and I said cast mates, and I said,
Speaker 4: I'm getting up for one day. They were like, you're
Speaker 4: freaking crazy. Anyway, come on for the layoff.
Speaker 3: I got.
Speaker 4: I get this house. I got seven thousand dollars, So
Speaker 4: I put four thousand dollars down on this house. And
Speaker 4: I'm living with these dancers and they're all dancers. I'm
Speaker 4: just chilling, right, but they're you know, helping me pay
Speaker 4: the rent in New York and they're going to dance
Speaker 4: auditions and stuff, and I was like, I want to.
Speaker 2: Do that, and of course you could do it.
Speaker 4: I want to do that. So I started going to
Speaker 4: dance auditions and Wade.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, Michael Jackson to music.
Speaker 4: So here's the correlation. I was producing music with my partner,
Speaker 4: Kevin tant Rohan, who was Wade's assistant, and so he
Speaker 4: was like, we were making music. We're producing music where
Speaker 4: we're writing and producing for artists that are in the game.
Speaker 4: And he says, come to this audition and I got
Speaker 4: cut in the first round. I didn't have with Brian Friedman.
Speaker 4: I couldn't do that.
Speaker 3: I was, I don't believe I didn't have this.
Speaker 2: I don't believe Okay, okay.
Speaker 4: Okay, And so I got cut and I was like, man, someday.
Speaker 3: So I worked.
Speaker 4: So what I started doing was it takes ten thousand
Speaker 4: hours to be a master of air craft. So I
Speaker 4: was like, I'm going to go to class every day.
Speaker 4: So I started obsessing.
Speaker 3: I quit the tour, quit my job. I quit my job.
Speaker 4: Well, I said, I'm not coming back. September eleventh, I
Speaker 4: was supposed to be in Boston flight United. Wow, maybe
Speaker 4: not the same flight, but still I pivoted and I said,
Speaker 4: I'm in the five six.
Speaker 3: Every day.
Speaker 4: And then a year later, a year later, I was
Speaker 4: working with Jamie King on a Nike industrial Jamie and
Speaker 4: the Tallawego brothers and these people.
Speaker 1: Jamie King, who produces and for Madonna has done a
Speaker 1: bunch of tours of Madonna.
Speaker 4: So and breaking off the plane, we do a Nike
Speaker 4: Industry on Japan. Where were we Japan or somewhere? And
Speaker 4: he and we land back in l A and X
Speaker 4: and he goes, tomorrow, I needs you to meet me
Speaker 4: in Chicago. I said, meet you in Chicago. He said,
Speaker 4: your flight's already booked. I'm literally getting my bag from
Speaker 4: the thing. I go to Chicago and all of the
Speaker 4: legendary choreographers are in Chicago, and I'm like, oh, what
Speaker 4: is happening?
Speaker 3: I said, what's happening? I know I'm about to tell you.
Speaker 4: I said, what's happening Jamie? And he it's Oprah. We
Speaker 4: gotta do Oprah. It's it's Oprah. We have to do
Speaker 4: the gap campaign. What's happening? Madonna and Missy? Oh?
Speaker 3: Yes? Remember remember? Yes?
Speaker 2: Of course?
Speaker 4: So he goes in back in the back of the stay.
Speaker 4: So I'm looking at Gil, I'm looking at brand Friedman.
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean like all.
Speaker 3: Of the top of the game, the legendary choreographer.
Speaker 4: And he goes, I need six eight counter right now.
Speaker 4: Columbus teach it to them and we're going on stage
Speaker 4: in fifteen minutes. I said, So, I looking at hi guys,
Speaker 4: love you guys man, I'm a big fan and five
Speaker 4: six seven and I created something out of out of nowhere.
Speaker 4: Boom We've got on stage. We did the Oprah I
Speaker 4: booty bumped with the Oprah. Awesome moment shut and and
Speaker 4: when I landed back in La, he goes, I want
Speaker 4: you to be on the Brittany tour.
Speaker 3: What Yeah?
Speaker 4: And I'm doing the Brittany Tour. So I got the
Speaker 4: Brittany tour one day while we're due I'm at rehearsal
Speaker 4: for two weeks. I'm doing rehearsals with Brittany as a dancer,
Speaker 4: just as a dancer. And you're high and my partner
Speaker 4: Kevin tan Rowan, we are, who's a really stope director?
Speaker 4: Now shout out keV and he's like, Columbus, we have
Speaker 4: a session tonight and what are you doing. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm at Brittany reheards the dude. He's like, be here
Speaker 4: at six o'clock. It's like, boom, get to the studio.
Speaker 4: I'm at the studio, said, who's our session with? And
Speaker 4: he's like, wait for it, waiting for it. The gate
Speaker 4: opens and it's fucking Brittany. Brittany, it's me. He didn't
Speaker 4: tell me it's Brittany.
Speaker 3: They come.
Speaker 4: She comes in the.
Speaker 3: Student with Felicia, with Felicia.
Speaker 4: Remember Felicia, Flicia Felicia.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, who is a bunch of the documentaries, an
Speaker 1: old family friend.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, Brittany and Felicia.
Speaker 4: Truck big, big rob It was big, No, it's big
Speaker 4: Mike to get truck boom and she's like.
Speaker 3: Oh my lord, Columbus, what you're dying?
Speaker 4: I said, what are you doing here? And she's like,
Speaker 4: you're up. I was like, yeah, I'm believe.
Speaker 3: What song did you guys do me against the music? Oh?
Speaker 3: My god? So wait with Madonna? Is that the woman Donna?
Speaker 4: Let me tell you that I'm finishing the story. So
Speaker 4: Brittany goes, We're in the studio, we're working, we're doing
Speaker 4: remixes all the like cool remixes for the tour, like
Speaker 4: to make certain numbers, invent certain numbers. Oops, I did again.
Speaker 4: You know, you know slave, you know we're remixing stuff.
Speaker 4: And she goes, I really hate and Larry Rudolph, never
Speaker 4: forget Larry Rudolph is there and he and and she goes,
Speaker 4: I there the single they want Me to do is
Speaker 4: called outrageous by R. Kelly, and she goes, I don't
Speaker 4: like this single. I don't want this to come out.
Speaker 4: I don't want me against the music. I said, so,
Speaker 4: what's the problem with me against the music? I heard
Speaker 4: the record, Me and Kevin listen to the record, and
Speaker 4: I said, I'm just sitting there and I rocked for
Speaker 4: a couple of seconds, and I said, I got an idea.
Speaker 4: Didn't you just kiss Madonna last week on the Movie Awards.
Speaker 4: Swear to God, I said, didn't you just kiss Madonna?
Speaker 3: She said yeah.
Speaker 4: I said, call Madonna right now, get her on this record.
Speaker 4: You get Madonna, You get Madonna on this amazing, I
Speaker 4: swear to God, this is how it went down. I said,
Speaker 4: if you get Madonna on this record, she says, you said,
Speaker 4: I said, call Madonna right now, right now, there's nothing. Note,
Speaker 4: don't put off tomorrow. What you can do right now?
Speaker 4: Call Madonna. She called Madonna. Madonna's like, I want to
Speaker 4: hear it. I want to see it. So Madonna flies
Speaker 4: to LA. The next day, I set up a rehearsal
Speaker 4: at Culver City Studios with all the dancers to show
Speaker 4: her the presentation.
Speaker 2: And Madonna's sitting and did you choreograph what you showed?
Speaker 4: Of course, So Madonna was like, yeah, I mean, next
Speaker 4: thing I know. I hired Paul Hunter, the direct video
Speaker 4: Hunter and boom At an MTV dude the video. We
Speaker 4: did all this stuff and then we made the video.
Speaker 1: And then cut to me doing the I Want to
Speaker 1: Go video with Brittany.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't know how the hell I got that. That
Speaker 3: was just chance.
Speaker 1: The director was a fan of Weeds and Half Baked,
Speaker 1: and so in the beginning of the video, I stand
Speaker 1: up and she says, you know, fuck you, fuck you
Speaker 1: You're cool from Half Babe, and I'm the guy that
Speaker 1: when she says you're cool, she points to me, and
Speaker 1: I stand up and give the thumbs up.
Speaker 3: That's all I was supposed to do in the video.
Speaker 3: And then the night so psyched. Oh yeah, but not close.
Speaker 3: Madonna was coming to come to our set. You kid, you.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't have survived. He would not have.
Speaker 4: I was working on it, so like trying to get
Speaker 4: Madonna to just come in one day and just squeeze,
Speaker 4: you would have died.
Speaker 2: Died. Rae was a regular on Scam. Yes, she came
Speaker 2: and she was like, Ellen DeGeneres is having Madonna as
Speaker 2: a guest tomorrow. We're going to get g on it.
Speaker 2: He's going to be the guest.
Speaker 3: J I got showed him.
Speaker 2: I showed her my show.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I showed him my tattoo of her.
Speaker 1: She doesn't know. And I got down on my knees
Speaker 1: and bowed. And the look on Madonna's face was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly where you should be.
Speaker 3: Why isn't everyone else on their knees.
Speaker 1: But anyway, this isn't about Madonna, it's not about Brittany,
Speaker 1: It's about Columbus short.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But it's the best.
Speaker 5: This is crazy, That's what I mean.
Speaker 2: Like you brought all of that to Harrison is how
Speaker 2: I like the moving and the musicality of Harrison. It
Speaker 2: is not lost on me that no one, none of
Speaker 2: us could do that, because none of us were choreographing
Speaker 2: for fucking Britney Spirits or asking Madonna to be on
Speaker 2: one of her songs.
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, we already talked about this part.
Speaker 2: Okay, deep questions, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back. Guys.
Speaker 2: I don't even know where to start with this, but
Speaker 2: like I'm trying to even remember, like where when it
Speaker 2: started to fall apart.
Speaker 4: So I would I would whisper in Gierramo's ear because
Speaker 4: you know, I was struggling, guys like I was. You know,
Speaker 4: my marriage was was toxic, it was terrible, and I
Speaker 4: was using drugs to try to battle whatever I was
Speaker 4: going through with my marriage and all this stuff. But
Speaker 4: I just or the one thing I knew my life
Speaker 4: could be in shambles, The one thing I knew was
Speaker 4: not let you guys down. So I'd come and to
Speaker 4: Garramu and tell him stuff like man, this this heaven,
Speaker 4: this is what's going on. You know, I was showing
Speaker 4: up late work, unprofessional I was doing. I just started
Speaker 4: to fall apart because I had my life became unmanageable
Speaker 4: and and and I didn't and I wanted to protect
Speaker 4: myself from shame and also shanda and Mary. I thank
Speaker 4: you guys, Betsy, I thank you guys. They were trying
Speaker 4: to protect me too, and I but when it came,
Speaker 4: when it became too, when I wasn't being honest with
Speaker 4: things and wasn't like, what's really going on? Are you
Speaker 4: with your wife or you're not with your wife? We
Speaker 4: told you to get out of that situation. You're not,
Speaker 4: You're still in it. You're doing all these weird things,
Speaker 4: blah blah blahm. And then once it was over, well,
Speaker 4: I remember the call. So I was in this ten
Speaker 4: thousand square foot house and.
Speaker 2: I remember you getting that.
Speaker 4: Yep, And I'm in this ten thousand square foot house.
Speaker 4: I knew Season four, I'm about to get paid. We're
Speaker 4: about to get paid, right, we were about to get paid,
Speaker 4: and I boom trumped out here. But I had already
Speaker 4: made my private decision to remove myself from the toxicity.
Speaker 4: But they were the person the individual, wasn't They were like, oh,
Speaker 4: he really is doing that. And then it was headline,
Speaker 4: out of nowhere, out of nowhere, this is true, out
Speaker 4: of nowhere. I had like Shanda calls me with Betsy,
Speaker 4: Mary Paul Lee ahead of.
Speaker 3: On the phone.
Speaker 4: That's a tough call all the agencies. But everybody's on
Speaker 4: the phone and they're like, Columbus, we need no more headlines.
Speaker 4: I said, I swear to God there will be no
Speaker 4: more headlines. I'm trying to stay out the way. So
Speaker 4: I dipped Arizona and I dipped that Arizona. And two
Speaker 4: weeks later, TMZ dropped the headline that I that I
Speaker 4: ransacked my house or some some some headline. I don't
Speaker 4: remember it, but it's something like that. You gotta know
Speaker 4: what it's just. It was strategic.
Speaker 3: So that happens, I.
Speaker 4: Go into a spiral because I get the call, I know,
Speaker 4: Monday morning. This happened on a Friday. I said, Monday,
Speaker 4: I'm gone. I'm gone. No, I know it for sure.
Speaker 4: So I was just praying. I was like, but they
Speaker 4: called me. I was like, they said, but as they said,
Speaker 4: you know, we're gonna we can't move forward Columbus like this,
Speaker 4: and we were going in the season four. Guy, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I was so broken hearted and I went into I
Speaker 4: went into a dark, darn place for years and and
Speaker 4: because not only were you guys my family, it was
Speaker 4: my livelihood, of course, my you know my name, and
Speaker 4: when it was not you know, I had my own issues,
Speaker 4: but the issues that were being named in the public
Speaker 4: were not my issues.
Speaker 3: So I was just like, you know.
Speaker 2: No, no, yes, drugs were an issue, marriage was an issue,
Speaker 2: but there were things that came out in the press.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never abused no women like that. This I
Speaker 3: was the first meet to guy.
Speaker 4: I started it before it was even me too, wasn't
Speaker 4: even it was just me.
Speaker 2: It was okay, so it was But the drugs and
Speaker 2: things like that, that was like in because I remember, yeah,
Speaker 2: like one in two.
Speaker 3: You guys supported my son's football team. You guys that
Speaker 3: money in That's right, that's right, super yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean.
Speaker 5: Yeah, whatever, So I and I, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 2: I didn't mention it, but I remember, you know, you're
Speaker 2: such a stand up guy in your heart, Like I
Speaker 2: remember you're complaining about your feet hurting so bad, and
Speaker 2: we're wrapping at seven o'clock in the morning and you're
Speaker 2: like rushing home to go straight to like take your
Speaker 2: kid to school, you know what I mean. Like you
Speaker 2: were like and then I don't know when it shifted
Speaker 2: whatever happened in season three. I don't know what drugs keeping.
Speaker 4: Thing secret from you guys. Yeah, like I Giermo was
Speaker 4: my secret squirrel, Like for real, he knew about ida
Speaker 4: with my wife, you know, he knew that was happening early,
Speaker 4: the little small little della when.
Speaker 1: We were we were trailer mates too, like where we
Speaker 1: shared a trailer.
Speaker 4: But yeld me just tell me the truth. I was
Speaker 4: so ashamed of course life. Yeah, it was raggedy. My
Speaker 4: life was raggedy. And I just want to say I
Speaker 4: was making mistakes. So imagine I've for since I was
Speaker 4: a kid. The only thing I knew was entertainment. The
Speaker 4: only thing I knew how to do was to dance,
Speaker 4: to sing, to play the mute, play drums, play keyboard, playing,
Speaker 4: sing and act. That's all I knew how to do.
Speaker 4: I didn't know how to do anything when the rug
Speaker 4: was perverbally a slip from underneath me. So I went
Speaker 4: into a spiral and I kept making stupid ass mistakes.
Speaker 4: I was doing it on purpose. I was making dumb,
Speaker 4: dumb decisions. And tell my wife, thank you to my
Speaker 4: wife who was my friend before she was my wife,
Speaker 4: And was like, Columbus, you are better than this. You
Speaker 4: are you can and I and she and then we
Speaker 4: and she got pregnant and then with Denzel and I
Speaker 4: named him Didnzel, And from the moment Denzel was born,
Speaker 4: it was like, let's go, let's get it back. Things
Speaker 4: starting to happen. Yes, yes, and I'm just it was
Speaker 4: just a change in my life. And life's not perfect.
Speaker 4: But when you of course not when you're when you're
Speaker 4: walking with the proverbial scarlet letter on your back or
Speaker 4: this this, this misnomer.
Speaker 3: Or this dark cloud. It's hard.
Speaker 4: It's hard, and the hardest part of it if anything
Speaker 4: was missing you guys, I put that on everything I
Speaker 4: love for us, letting you guys down. I knew you
Speaker 4: guys couldn't talk to me. I knew Carrie couldn't talk
Speaker 4: to me. I knew it was I knew what it
Speaker 4: was that you don't have to even say that. It
Speaker 4: was just like Columbus is boom bomb ostraciz is type thing.
Speaker 1: But it was awful, you know, Yeah, you know how
Speaker 1: hard it was to shoot that scene where where Harrison dies,
Speaker 1: Like we were all like sobbing that day, everybody, even Oliver,
Speaker 1: I remember Oliver miss Man.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was that was one of.
Speaker 2: The hardest watch honestly, Like, as your friend but also
Speaker 2: as an artist, it was just like, I mean, it
Speaker 2: was really hard to watch someone mess up who has
Speaker 2: more talent in his finger than anybody you know. And
Speaker 2: it was like even you on your worst day, if
Speaker 2: you're late, or you had had at night or whatever,
Speaker 2: it was like you, even then your acting was phenomenal,
Speaker 2: still brought it to watch some unacceptable it's not professional,
Speaker 2: not excepting, but I'm just saying, you're such a talented
Speaker 2: human being and to watch you, for whatever reason, sabotage
Speaker 2: and make the choices that I get yourself out was
Speaker 2: hard to be like, oh my god, like please please don't, don't. Don't, don't,
Speaker 2: don't don't. We've got such a good thing going.
Speaker 4: Like linch, I don't want to get emotional because I
Speaker 4: remember the day when you guys are you and Darby
Speaker 4: Gus pulled up on the van when it was all
Speaker 4: going down that day, I was I was having a
Speaker 4: nervous breakdown and I just had to get through the
Speaker 4: day right And we got through the day, and you know,
Speaker 4: I pushed through all of that and man, I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna do this today. I'm not gonna get
Speaker 4: emotional today. But you guys don't even know, like I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Katie, I'm sorry, Gammook, like I'm from the
Speaker 4: bottom of my heart. I'm sorry man, because you guys
Speaker 4: were my team and I was a team leader, and
Speaker 4: I'll let you guys down and I deal with that
Speaker 4: every day.
Speaker 1: You're so good man. If anything it you know you.
Speaker 1: I never felt like you let me down. I felt
Speaker 1: more pissed off and upset and so sad that you
Speaker 1: weren't going to be there anymore and you were letting
Speaker 1: yourself down.
Speaker 3: More than anything. I never felt like the fuck.
Speaker 1: It was more like where's Columbus, Like he's gone, that's
Speaker 1: not there, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: I let Carrie down.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Have you ever talked to them since?
Speaker 4: No, I've talked to Carrie, but I have not been
Speaker 4: able to say I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And you know, through all you know, therapy and the
Speaker 4: groups and the classes and all the stuff that I've done,
Speaker 4: it's about making amends and not just like I've been
Speaker 4: able to make amends to the closest alligators to the boat,
Speaker 4: but I've never been able to This is the first time.
Speaker 4: If Seanda's hearing this, if Carrie's hearing this, and I'm sorry, Tony,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Jeff, I'm sorry, Me, I'm sorry. You know
Speaker 4: what I mean. Like that, that's it I say about that.
Speaker 1: Listen, every time we all speak and we get together
Speaker 1: and you up, it's it's it's nothing but love, like
Speaker 1: it is always likes.
Speaker 2: Always it is always like and like it is like
Speaker 2: I've never heard anybody truly like It's what Gierma was saying.
Speaker 2: Everyone was like, we don't want to lose you, and
Speaker 2: we felt like we had this. You know, it was
Speaker 2: so crazy being on a Judy Smith Olivia Pope show
Speaker 2: because I think actually, maybe you were going down way
Speaker 2: earlier than any of us kind of knew. And we
Speaker 2: were so good at like keeping shit under wraps almost
Speaker 2: because you were fixers that Like I think like even
Speaker 2: before you know, I don't know what was going on
Speaker 2: in your personal life, but stuff was going on. I
Speaker 2: don't know if Judy helped.
Speaker 1: You or that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I feel like I don't know if that
Speaker 2: was for better or for worse.
Speaker 4: Who you know and you know so so part of it.
Speaker 2: It's a long time ago now. And again, like GiMA said,
Speaker 2: no one ever said bad shit about you.
Speaker 4: Say this and closing is that I didn't know the
Speaker 4: impact of me being an African American male number two
Speaker 4: on the call sheet. After Steven left second season, we
Speaker 4: were in our bubble. We all we did was worked.
Speaker 4: I was all work in Twitter. That's what I didn't know.
Speaker 4: I didn't know how I was really impacting a culture
Speaker 4: that's a lot of.
Speaker 3: I couldn't until I was fired.
Speaker 4: And then it was like this one time Dave Chappelle,
Speaker 4: I went twitch to the laugh Factory and Dave Sapelle
Speaker 4: there and I had done I got on stage because
Speaker 4: I don't know if you guys know I do stand
Speaker 4: up on the you know, I've been started in stand
Speaker 4: up early. And so anyway, Dave. I went up before
Speaker 4: Dave and Dave they goes Columbus short, This's crazy, this is.
Speaker 7: He said, he was this, This man was on scale
Speaker 7: of Harrison right. He said, how did you fuck up?
Speaker 7: Right in front of everybody? And I was just like
Speaker 7: he said, and he just it was such a dope.
Speaker 7: He killed me, but he was killing me with.
Speaker 4: Love and and and you know, from that day I
Speaker 4: just was like moving through earth, like journeying through earth
Speaker 4: with a with a with a with a cloud and
Speaker 4: it's like every move I was making, I was like,
Speaker 4: I got how am I gonna? I almost gave up
Speaker 4: a few times, multiple times, gave up on life, not
Speaker 4: committed sudicide. But I'm saying just like I'm gonna this is,
Speaker 4: I'm done, and I don't know what else to do.
Speaker 4: I don't I'm not And and thank you, Thanks be
Speaker 4: to God for my wife, from from my kids, inspirations
Speaker 4: that come from multiple sources. And I prayed for this day,
Speaker 4: the day that I could look at you and say
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, and look at you and say I'm sorry
Speaker 4: you and and have this one moment to make a miss.
Speaker 4: And this is a blessing right now.
Speaker 3: So that's all I want to feel that way.
Speaker 2: I'm like you've been. We were like, can we get
Speaker 2: Columbus on here, Like do you think he would be
Speaker 2: open to like hanging out and talking about it? Because honestly, dude,
Speaker 2: you're such when we watch it back like you're the show.
Speaker 2: It's just like you're.
Speaker 3: So we were the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, where did you get like tell me about now,
Speaker 2: like ten years later or however long it is. I
Speaker 2: think it's even longer longer. I don't know how did you.
Speaker 2: I know, thank God your wife and your kids like
Speaker 2: set you straight and clean and things like that. But
Speaker 2: was there, like what else helped you? Therapy? You said,
Speaker 2: have you done?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I started going to twelve Steps and going to group
Speaker 4: meetings with you know, people that have struggled with all
Speaker 4: kind of things, and through that, I'm becoming, believe it
Speaker 4: or not, an avoc like an ambassador and an advocate
Speaker 4: and a leader in these spaces where I'm like, these
Speaker 4: people are broken, these people are struggling, and and and
Speaker 4: it's it's every week I just I get something else.
Speaker 4: And uh so I've been doing that for a while
Speaker 4: and it's changed my life in terms of interpersonal relationships
Speaker 4: and even me and my wife couples therapy, like I
Speaker 4: want our marriage to thrive, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: You know what I mean. It's good like shop, you
Speaker 4: got to deal with you, right, you gotta do you go,
Speaker 4: so we got to deal with humans and and through
Speaker 4: that when my life was completely goal oriented, my goals
Speaker 4: now are peace in my home, peace with my kids,
Speaker 4: their productivity, education, surrounded by love, non toxicity in the home.
Speaker 4: All of these things, these are the things that those
Speaker 4: are the things that are important to me and to
Speaker 4: in my life. And so that's and and let me
Speaker 4: just say this, even though those are the things that important,
Speaker 4: don't think that I don't miss being at the highest
Speaker 4: level of the game. Of course, because this is my craft.
Speaker 4: I miss it.
Speaker 2: So tell me about that. Have you been acting lately?
Speaker 2: Like what's going on?
Speaker 4: And now?
Speaker 3: Well, I was relegated to the two V movies and BT.
Speaker 4: Plus minus b A T minus and all of those things.
Speaker 4: So I was doing those, was keeping food in my mouth.
Speaker 3: Listen, I can name a couple of things. I am
Speaker 3: so proud of about thing. So I started a tech
Speaker 3: company and play a lot of golf.
Speaker 2: And I started athlete.
Speaker 4: Yeah I'm an athlete, and I was right, I know, so,
Speaker 4: so play a lot of golf. So I started a
Speaker 4: tech company called ORCA United Society ORCA United. We're dealing
Speaker 4: in tech, but we're Web three, Web four, we're dealing
Speaker 4: with sports entertainment. We are in multi media, the new
Speaker 4: Web three multimedia UH entertainment company. So with that has
Speaker 4: come multiple opportunities as we're leading the way. In understand,
Speaker 4: I was on, I was, I was, I was dealing
Speaker 4: with AI before SAD was dealing well right, And that's
Speaker 4: what I was doing all the low. Did you get
Speaker 4: into this magical mystery? And but I'm blessed and so
Speaker 4: yeah and so. But but what the core is I
Speaker 4: want to make product. I want to continue to make
Speaker 4: good television, continue to make good film, continue to put
Speaker 4: athletes in positions to be successful on the golf course,
Speaker 4: on the football field, on the basketball court, any in
Speaker 4: any avenue. And and that is kind of the conglomorate
Speaker 4: that's been kind of brought to me. But one of
Speaker 4: the things that was hyper important. And I'll bring it
Speaker 4: back to one. Until home got right, Nothing that I
Speaker 4: do it was going to be right. And this is
Speaker 4: us getting it right. Yeah, I love you, Love you
Speaker 4: so much.
Speaker 3: To Columbus.
Speaker 4: I am content and happy where I am in life. Obviously,
Speaker 4: you know, I believe that great things are ahead for
Speaker 4: all of us. And you know I'm always going to
Speaker 4: have for you. I'm always going to have your back.
Speaker 4: I'm going to always tell you over a cliff and
Speaker 4: that's period, point blank. I live by that.
Speaker 2: Hell, you look at this guy, yo.
Speaker 1: But here here's a fun question. Did you ever think
Speaker 1: about how you would have liked Harrison, how you would
Speaker 1: have liked his story to end on Scandal because I
Speaker 1: mean the way it ended.
Speaker 4: Was you know, it was tragic. It was tragic, and
Speaker 4: it was thought that post and the guy I watched
Speaker 4: like three or four episodes, you know a yeah, like
Speaker 4: I'm talking about season four. Season four was tough even
Speaker 4: and Cornelius, you did a wonderful job. Cornelius, you did
Speaker 4: a wonderful job. You know that was you were you were,
Speaker 4: you were stellar, coming in solid as a rock. But
Speaker 4: it was it was tough for me to see that
Speaker 4: I wasn't on my team. Can you imagine a football player.
Speaker 4: Imagine Travis Kelce not being able to be on the
Speaker 4: field with Patrick Mahomes and you know, the rest of
Speaker 4: his team playing them for the Super Bowl. That's what
Speaker 4: I felt like. I felt like an injured player on
Speaker 4: the field and it was so I couldn't watch. But
Speaker 4: when I did watch, was you guys holding it up
Speaker 4: and holding up the standard and doing it the right way,
Speaker 4: and and I was like, they're good, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean?
Speaker 3: Hell yah?
Speaker 1: So wait, so did you say how you would have
Speaker 1: liked Harrison's story to end.
Speaker 4: I would have liked Harrison to eventually have been with Katie,
Speaker 4: how we started.
Speaker 3: Like in like in a relationship.
Speaker 4: It was it was Nonslieve came in, but but you know,
Speaker 4: and I was mad by the way, how you get
Speaker 4: a sex scene before me?
Speaker 3: What the hell was listen? I was shocked to Darby
Speaker 3: get a second. Y'all, y'all was having sex. Y'all was
Speaker 3: having sex. I was having no sex. I don't have sex.
Speaker 2: I remember like three when things were starting to.
Speaker 3: Go, they waited.
Speaker 1: I didn't have no Yeah, taking off, like taking shirt off,
Speaker 1: like taking shout.
Speaker 4: My wasn't ready.
Speaker 2: I still used to say, though, I remember like you
Speaker 2: were upset right like, and you were upset that they
Speaker 2: were and giving you a ton.
Speaker 3: Of storyline no storyline, And I'm sending her emails.
Speaker 2: Like, but that's because season three four, wasn't she saying?
Speaker 2: Am I making this up? I don't know my memory.
Speaker 3: I was faulty as a human.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she was saying, prove that you can do it, yes,
Speaker 2: and I'll give it to you.
Speaker 3: Yes. That was it. That was it.
Speaker 2: I remember you were pissed so you would go to
Speaker 2: table reads and it wouldn't be like a real Harrison
Speaker 2: Juicy story.
Speaker 4: You were just late three times ready to do it.
Speaker 4: You were late three times last week, and how am
Speaker 4: I going to give you a storyline? You were late
Speaker 4: last month? Darby's complaining. This person's complaining. This is you know,
Speaker 4: you're not showing, You're not showing up and doing trust
Speaker 4: you with more, and you're not doing the job right.
Speaker 4: And even though the ratings were right, numbers are right
Speaker 4: for Life, but they were Harrison Ryan, but the Life
Speaker 4: was Harrison wrong wrong.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So you know, since then, as a producer, as
Speaker 4: I'm producing projects just like you do, just like you
Speaker 4: guys do, Like I never realized the responsibility of like
Speaker 4: you know, time is money. This is this Like I'm like, dude,
Speaker 4: when people showing up late to my set, I'm like, gosh,
Speaker 4: what are you doing this? And I'm like, I have
Speaker 4: to stall myself out with certain actors, young actors that
Speaker 4: I'm like being hard on them. But I was doing
Speaker 4: the same stupid ship and so I'm like, man, now
Speaker 4: I look back, if I could have did it again,
Speaker 4: oh man, I would have did it different. But everything
Speaker 4: that I went through, everything that I did, all the mistakes,
Speaker 4: has led me to the man that I am. To him,
Speaker 4: I'm proud of the man I am.
Speaker 3: No regrets man, no regrets.
Speaker 2: What are your acting roles right now? Like where do
Speaker 2: you where would you love to I.
Speaker 4: Don't have dream acting roles. I played Martin Luther King recently.
Speaker 4: That was one of the dreams. My dream is to
Speaker 4: be able to put other actors and tell good stories,
Speaker 4: not black stories, not like you believe it or not.
Speaker 4: When I'm the director and the studio, when I'm Lou Wasserman,
Speaker 4: the movie I want to make, I want to make
Speaker 4: The Diary and Frank you know, those are the movies
Speaker 4: I want to make. I love that story.
Speaker 3: Definitely.
Speaker 4: You know there's a story of there's a story of
Speaker 4: Japanese soldiers in World War Two that nobody talks about,
Speaker 4: the nis A soldiers. Those are stories I want to tell.
Speaker 4: It's not about you to direct, direct, produce and act.
Speaker 4: But really, if I know that, if I can I
Speaker 4: have the infrastructure to put actors in positions to make
Speaker 4: successful stories and tell truthless stories, then I'm doing the
Speaker 4: right drop period, point blank album. I got an album.
Speaker 4: I'm not doing an album to win Grammys necessarily or
Speaker 4: to sell go platinum. I'm forty one years old. I
Speaker 4: just want to make for I have to finish the
Speaker 4: the assignment. And you know my album's done, it's coming out.
Speaker 4: You're singing, Yeah, yeah, my album.
Speaker 2: Can you tell us what it's called and where we
Speaker 2: can find the headlines? When does the drop?
Speaker 4: We're gonna drop it in the spring. Yeah, it's coming out.
Speaker 2: It's coming in hot Okay. In closing, yes, is there
Speaker 2: anything that you feel like you have not said or
Speaker 2: want to say or anything? I don't feel like that,
Speaker 2: but I just want you to leave feeling.
Speaker 4: The only thing I want to leave saying is I
Speaker 4: am sorry and over a cliff. Hell.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it always man. Thank you for doing this.
Speaker 4: Yep, appreciate you doing it.
Speaker 2: We're happy.
Speaker 4: Love you guys.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for joining us on Unpacking the Toolbox.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe, share with your friends, rate,
Speaker 1: or leave us a review.
Speaker 8: Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, Alex Alcea, Lauren Homan,
Speaker 8: Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is
Speaker 8: Vince de Johnny, with music by Chad Fisher.
Speaker 1: Scandal is a production of ABC Signature, and you can
Speaker 1: follow along by rewatching Scandal on.
Speaker 8: Hulu Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio
Speaker 8: in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio,
Speaker 8: visit the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you subscribe to your
Speaker 8: favorite shows.