Speaker 1: This episode was recorded prior to the sag After strike.
Speaker 2: Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 2: partnership with Higheartradios and Katie Wos.
Speaker 1: I wish they would have hot dogs at premieres. I'm
Speaker 1: always like, oh, you know, hot dogs. It just have
Speaker 1: popcorn and so or water.
Speaker 3: Stak gass hot dog with everyone stresses and fancy ass clothes.
Speaker 1: And you're like stuff in your mouth with popcorn.
Speaker 3: Oh, I've never eaten so much popcorn in my entire life.
Speaker 3: My mouth is so shrended today, and I'm so hungover
Speaker 3: when I'm sick or hungover, and I have a regular
Speaker 3: Coca Cola, like this is the most delicious thing the planet.
Speaker 1: Especially like a Mexican coke.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, my mouth is watering my kid sometimes if
Speaker 3: it's special and like Mommy and Daddy having cocktails. I
Speaker 3: make him like a mocktail. Oh yeah, and it's like specially.
Speaker 3: I make him like ice water. I mean ice ginger ale,
Speaker 3: some sprite and then it splash of grenadine and a cherry.
Speaker 1: It's like Temple. Yeah, I used to love Shirley Temples.
Speaker 3: What origin story of why a Shirley Temple is Temple?
Speaker 1: Can we look this up right?
Speaker 4: Idea?
Speaker 3: Look, the drink was named after iconic child actress Shirley Temple.
Speaker 3: Legend has it that when she was out to dinner
Speaker 3: at a nice restaurant with her parents and other Hollywood
Speaker 3: types who were all enjoying cocktails, the bartends and made
Speaker 3: her a special alcoholic drink so she could feel fancy too,
Speaker 3: which is what I do for my kids. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: feel bad because it has soda in it, and I
Speaker 3: really don't let my kids have soda. So it's like
Speaker 3: once in a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little treat, a treat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a little it's a little treat. Well, today's exciting.
Speaker 3: This is a very exciting episode for so many reasons,
Speaker 3: you guys.
Speaker 1: Like people have no idea, who the fuck is about
Speaker 1: to come on?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Who the fuck is about to come on?
Speaker 1: A BOS?
Speaker 3: But also it's like my favorite number. We're talking about
Speaker 3: episode two two two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, since the last episode of season.
Speaker 3: Two, last episode of season two, and there was only
Speaker 3: one person that we could even remotely like, it was
Speaker 3: so clear who the guests should be for this episode.
Speaker 3: It was it was not not a competition, it was
Speaker 3: not not an argument like, there's only one person we
Speaker 3: could bring our gladiators today, am I right?
Speaker 4: Gie?
Speaker 1: And we were lucky enough that he said yes, and
Speaker 1: he's here.
Speaker 3: He's here today, and you might know him for the
Speaker 3: plethora of work of oh my god, of acting performances
Speaker 3: that this person has delivered throughout that.
Speaker 1: Can I just rattle off a few of his credits
Speaker 1: right quick and see if people might guess? So he
Speaker 1: made his Broadway debut and hair. He was nominated for
Speaker 1: Tony in nineteen seventy four for Raisin in the Sun.
Speaker 1: He was check these credits out, mash Sanford and Son,
Speaker 1: what's happening? The brother from another Planet? Who's the boss?
Speaker 1: Justice League? A different world? Speed one and two? And
Speaker 1: most recently, God friended me, Oh my god, he is
Speaker 1: and of course wait wait wait, but of course the
Speaker 1: fucking Terminator to Judgment Date, which is one of the
Speaker 1: best movies. It's better than the original ever.
Speaker 3: I mean this actor. When he started coming around, we
Speaker 3: were like, I mean, I think Kerry Washington gets starstruck
Speaker 3: never and I'll never forget him coming to our first
Speaker 3: scandal table read because she was full loor. Yeah, he
Speaker 3: is the one and only people. He is. There is
Speaker 3: no other. He is all scandal. He is our king,
Speaker 3: He is the one. He is the only Opa Pope.
Speaker 5: Y'all.
Speaker 1: Joe, what hello, Joe Martin? How are you, good man?
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm doing great?
Speaker 1: Jo Morton, Oh my god, thank you so so much
Speaker 1: for doing this with us?
Speaker 4: Are you kidd And I would have not What am
Speaker 4: I gonna do?
Speaker 3: We just did like the biggest drum roll and g
Speaker 3: was talking through your credits.
Speaker 1: First of all, Hi, Hello, we missed you man. It's
Speaker 1: been forever.
Speaker 4: It has been forever.
Speaker 3: Listen to that voice. It is like voice. I mean,
Speaker 3: if he could just break into a popa pope monologue
Speaker 3: right now, I could the lines that have stuck in
Speaker 3: my head of I am the hell and high Water.
Speaker 1: Yes, I would veno you money right now if you
Speaker 1: did that.
Speaker 3: You couldn't afford it.
Speaker 1: I couldn't afford it.
Speaker 5: I know.
Speaker 3: It's like three hundred and fifty bucks. Like strike, y'all, Yeah,
Speaker 3: we're on strike. Joe has not aged ever, Like, what
Speaker 3: in the actual hell is going on? I don't understand this.
Speaker 4: I mean, well, I keep telling everybody I have this
Speaker 4: painting in my.
Speaker 3: As like when I wrote Scandal from ten years ago.
Speaker 3: I you know, me and g look very different. You
Speaker 3: look exactly the same every episode.
Speaker 5: God, no, you have not changed. And the only thing
Speaker 5: different about Yoma was the beard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very true, very very true. Wait, Joe, can
Speaker 3: you tell us how in the heck this came to be?
Speaker 3: Because I don't even think I really know this story.
Speaker 3: I don't want either here how you got the part,
Speaker 3: and also that you were acting with all of us
Speaker 3: for months, I mean not me, I didn't realize need
Speaker 3: to do in Gida neither. But and you knew who
Speaker 3: your character was. We know. Tell us how the part happened?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 5: So I came out to La. It was a pilot season,
Speaker 5: so I was looking for a gig, and I went
Speaker 5: out specifically looking for a very smart bad guy. Since
Speaker 5: most of my career I purposely have been playing good guys.
Speaker 5: So I get to California. I opened up my computer
Speaker 5: and I had not yet seen Scandal. I knew about Carrie,
Speaker 5: I knew about Scandal, I hadn't seen it. So I
Speaker 5: turned it on, watched the first season and thought, oh
Speaker 5: my god, this is a great show. So I thought
Speaker 5: to call my agent and said listen, could you, you know,
Speaker 5: let's get ahold of ABC. Let's see if we can
Speaker 5: get like a you know, a six episode arc or whatever.
Speaker 4: Before I made that call, O man, before I.
Speaker 5: Made that call, my agents called me and said, ABC
Speaker 5: wants to talk to you about Scandal. What I thought,
Speaker 5: Oh my god. All right, so I forget which producer
Speaker 5: was called me on the phone. We started talking about
Speaker 5: the show, and he said, so, what's going to happen
Speaker 5: is if you decide to take this gig, is that
Speaker 5: the very last episode of season two will make it clear,
Speaker 5: by the very last lines of that episode that you
Speaker 5: are Carrie's dad. I said, you got, I'm in. He said,
Speaker 5: but you cannot tell anybody. You can't tell anyone. You
Speaker 5: can't tell anyone. So, I mean, after I got the gig,
Speaker 5: I really thought I was going to just kind of
Speaker 5: end that season. I actually I had actually made plans
Speaker 5: to go back, come back to New York and do
Speaker 5: Romeo and Juliet on Broke. I was supposed to play
Speaker 5: Juliet's dad. So we start, you know, shooting the show,
Speaker 5: and Carrie used to I'm up to it all the time,
Speaker 5: and said, you know, I've never called I mean, I've
Speaker 5: never called my parents and said, you know so and
Speaker 5: so was on the show.
Speaker 4: He said, You're the first person I've ever done that with.
Speaker 4: She said, so, I just hope we have some scenes together.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that is Hilaierus cannot even Carrie knew
Speaker 1: carried it no either, No.
Speaker 4: Tom knew.
Speaker 5: Obviously, Seanda and Betsy knew, but they were the only
Speaker 5: ones who knew. And so at one point Scott and
Speaker 5: I started to become really good friends. And I told
Speaker 5: him about going to Broadway and said, so, when you're done,
Speaker 5: you're going to go back to Broadway And said, well,
Speaker 5: maybe not.
Speaker 4: I think something.
Speaker 5: More interesting has come up. And he said, I said,
Speaker 5: but I can't tell you what it is. So and he,
Speaker 5: you know, being Scott, didn't pursue you just left it alone.
Speaker 4: And of course by the time we got there. But
Speaker 4: the time we got to that last do you remember
Speaker 4: the table?
Speaker 1: Oh talk about it all the time.
Speaker 3: Carrie doesn't know, and she says, Dad, in my head,
Speaker 3: in my memory of it, And of course I don't know.
Speaker 3: Did she like jump up and start running around the table,
Speaker 3: like what happened? How did everyone errupt?
Speaker 5: I remember all I remembers everybody started screaming. Everybody started screaming.
Speaker 5: I don't know that she she may have run around
Speaker 5: the table or maybe given me a hug or whatever.
Speaker 5: I don't remember.
Speaker 1: I really somebody has to have that on tape, right,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm sure there were several people taping that table.
Speaker 5: Read we got to get our hands on somebody. Yeah,
Speaker 5: Betsy may may have something on tape. I mean, I'm
Speaker 5: sure we have the footage of the fox read yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 5: sag but but yeah, that's that's how that all happened.
Speaker 3: Wow. And the first when we first see you all
Speaker 3: of season two, like did you ever ask? Like who?
Speaker 3: Because right now we've been recording all the episodes of
Speaker 3: season two and it's always like Joe Morton as mysterious
Speaker 3: man credit, like and did you know?
Speaker 5: No? The credit was? I forget what they called me.
Speaker 5: I think they oh, well, they probably used.
Speaker 1: Out is it Albatros?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Albatross was somebody else?
Speaker 5: Because all I remember, really, all I did before we
Speaker 5: got to the very end was sit on the bed
Speaker 5: and hand Yeah. If older supposed to Jeff, go kill
Speaker 5: this person, go kill And that's really all I did.
Speaker 5: But knowing what was coming. So when we finally got
Speaker 5: to shoot that scene at the end of season two,
Speaker 5: we shot it several different ways because neither Carrie or
Speaker 5: I knew what our relationship was.
Speaker 4: We didn't know.
Speaker 5: Whether we were estranged, whether he had been in contact
Speaker 5: with one another.
Speaker 4: We had no idea what was going on.
Speaker 5: And so Tom, who directed that episode, you know, we
Speaker 5: shot different kinds of ways and obviously led it up
Speaker 5: to Tom and Shonda and the editor to figure out
Speaker 5: what this was all about.
Speaker 3: That's right. I remember carry being like the one word dad,
Speaker 3: Like how many different variations you can be? Like do
Speaker 3: we love each other? Or am I pissed to see him?
Speaker 3: Am I sad to see him?
Speaker 1: How long has it been since I've seen him?
Speaker 5: All?
Speaker 4: Exactly?
Speaker 3: Oh my god. So then we've talked about this, I
Speaker 3: think a number of times on this podcast, but we
Speaker 3: need to talk about it with you, so we I
Speaker 3: don't know, was it the sag After? Where was this
Speaker 3: huge public reading of this thing?
Speaker 4: That was that sag after at that theater?
Speaker 5: And it was the same day that episode was going
Speaker 5: to play, because remember we all sat in the and
Speaker 5: we watched it.
Speaker 4: Play in New York.
Speaker 5: That's great, and I don't know how they did it,
Speaker 5: but they managed to keep I guess people were not
Speaker 5: watching it on their phones whatever in the audience. And
Speaker 5: so when we came out to do the phone reading
Speaker 5: and that moment came up at the end of the script,
Speaker 5: the audience did exactly what we all.
Speaker 4: Did at The audience leaped to its feet, screamed and hollered.
Speaker 5: And I remember who screamed and hollered the loudest.
Speaker 4: Do you remember who that was?
Speaker 1: I think I know was it was it DA or
Speaker 1: the initials DA?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, absolutely absolutely she screamed the lad.
Speaker 3: She did.
Speaker 1: I remember. I remember seeing staff members in the back
Speaker 1: of the theater cheering and coming out to see the
Speaker 1: last little bit of that table read, and they were
Speaker 1: so excited too, and there were people that were working
Speaker 1: there in the theater. It was mayhem.
Speaker 3: It was just like collective goosebumps. Right now talking about it,
Speaker 3: she says, Dad, the whole audience erupts into screams and
Speaker 3: to their feet, and then we are like screaming back
Speaker 3: at them. And I just remember, like it was just like, yeah,
Speaker 3: two minutes, which is a very long time of just
Speaker 3: like screaming and clapping and shock and it was just like,
Speaker 3: I don't think anyone everyone I know who's even in
Speaker 3: the audience that night, doesn't forget that moment. It was
Speaker 3: so wild. Wait, have you'd worked with Debbie Allen a
Speaker 3: million times before? Right?
Speaker 4: Well we met well, gosh, nineteen seventy three. Well, when
Speaker 4: we first met, she was in Raising.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh that's right, and she was in the chorus,
Speaker 5: but she was the understudy for Beneath It. By the
Speaker 5: time we got to New York, she was playing the
Speaker 5: part of beneath It. So we go back that far
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you were nominated for a Tony for
Speaker 1: that play, right.
Speaker 3: I was, yes, the one, the only Joe Morden. Okay,
Speaker 3: so Joe, now we know you're her dad. And the
Speaker 3: part develops how it developed, which is just I mean,
Speaker 3: top five most amazing written. What a gift an actor
Speaker 3: gets to play a part like this, I mean on television,
Speaker 3: it's just so wild.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, When you look back at all the seasons, are
Speaker 3: there things that stick out of like favorite scenes or
Speaker 3: favorite lines that you just really looked around and were like,
Speaker 3: this is this is a rare thing.
Speaker 5: There were so many things, I mean, obviously that first
Speaker 5: episode of season three, which I always call my audition
Speaker 5: because if you remember now, they all at the end
Speaker 5: of season two, all I did was, as I said,
Speaker 5: sit on a bench, hand out folders and say go
Speaker 5: kill this person that person. And then suddenly at the
Speaker 5: end of season two she says, you know, I say hello,
Speaker 5: and she says hi, Dad, everybody goes crazy. So the
Speaker 5: first episode of season three, I have a two and
Speaker 5: a half page monologue. Oh that's where that no, that's
Speaker 5: where that hell and the high water comes from monologue,
Speaker 5: because we continue on we're in the car. We're in
Speaker 5: the car, and we drive to the airport, we get
Speaker 5: out of the car, and that's when I do that
Speaker 5: that speech.
Speaker 4: So when I got that speech, first of all, I
Speaker 4: was I can't tell you so.
Speaker 5: Over the moon about the show and about what she
Speaker 5: had written. I mean, I'd done a lot of television
Speaker 5: by that point, and no one had ever written a.
Speaker 4: Two and a half page monologue for me to do.
Speaker 5: And then that whole thing we mapped out of walking
Speaker 5: around her and then walking her to the airplane, and
Speaker 5: the Helen high Water comes.
Speaker 4: Out and blah blah blah blah blah. It was.
Speaker 5: I think, of all the episodes that I did, I'll
Speaker 5: never forget that particular.
Speaker 4: It was amazing.
Speaker 1: There's a point where you get down low, like, you
Speaker 1: get like down under her like sort.
Speaker 5: Of well she puts, she gets, she gets sheepish, right,
Speaker 5: and and that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Don't look at me.
Speaker 5: Yes, well, let's know it's it's I want to make
Speaker 5: sure you understand exactly.
Speaker 4: What I'm taking.
Speaker 5: Guys.
Speaker 3: We're getting an acting class right here, right now. Scandal
Speaker 3: got down low, down low. What Joe Morton gets to do?
Speaker 3: I don't know if I Oh my god, you never
Speaker 3: saw the episode, so of course I did. I just don't.
Speaker 3: We haven't done season three yet, so we just have
Speaker 3: only rewatched seasons one and two.
Speaker 1: The only reason I remembering my memory is because I
Speaker 1: was watching the last episode again for like the fifth time,
Speaker 1: and then episode the first episode of season three came
Speaker 1: on and I got so into it I couldn't turn
Speaker 1: it off. And then I saw that scene.
Speaker 3: Brilliant this, like, I think, what was so cool about
Speaker 3: Papa Pope? First of all, for everyone listening, monologues don't exist.
Speaker 4: Very much on televigience right, No TV.
Speaker 3: No, there's just I don't know, but it's not a thing.
Speaker 3: And it was a thing on Scandal, but it was
Speaker 3: really a thing for popa pope. But your cadence and
Speaker 3: rhythm was so different than let's say mine, If I
Speaker 3: got a monologue, it was like, let's just fly by
Speaker 3: the seat of our pants and talk as fast as
Speaker 3: you can, and you do Scandal pace for listeners who
Speaker 3: speak really quickly, but you also had your own popu
Speaker 3: pope thing, Like, how did you Was that intentional? Did
Speaker 3: it just occur?
Speaker 5: It's definitely intentional what I thought I was seeing, and
Speaker 5: I believe I was seeing in those monologues, but very
Speaker 5: specific rhythms.
Speaker 4: She would write very specific rhythms in a very specific way.
Speaker 4: So what I thought was, well, this is a lot
Speaker 4: like doing Shakespeare. So that's what I decided to do.
Speaker 5: I thought I'd do have a classical play whenever he
Speaker 5: got into his monologues.
Speaker 4: And it's something now I've had to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talk about that.
Speaker 4: All the time.
Speaker 3: It's like everyone says to me on every job I've
Speaker 3: booked since, like you can slow down.
Speaker 5: No one can understand it, not even it's not even
Speaker 5: the pace, it's it's that it's that kind of rhythm.
Speaker 5: I did it on our kind of people. And who
Speaker 5: was it that Mars Chestnut said to me said, why
Speaker 5: do you Why do you do it that way?
Speaker 4: I realized I'm doing I'm doing game.
Speaker 3: We all had to kind of unlearn, like you have
Speaker 3: to learn the Popa Pope. I had to unlearn the like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, I talk really really fast and I
Speaker 3: never ever ever pause and I don't ever let there
Speaker 3: be a beat. And I feel like with hawk gear
Speaker 3: that crazy.
Speaker 1: I had a specific sort of cadence too, like a very.
Speaker 3: Like you definitely speaking definitely did oh my gosh, wait,
Speaker 3: what is popa Pope's whole name again?
Speaker 2: Eli?
Speaker 3: Oh my god?
Speaker 1: Or command command Rowan God Rowan?
Speaker 3: How about Maia Pope? We gotta talk to it and
Speaker 3: you figured it out like this is gonna be your wife,
Speaker 3: like that whole fucking relationship was unbelievable.
Speaker 4: Well, Shanna said that she was gonna, you know, bring
Speaker 4: his wife on. So then we talked a couple of
Speaker 4: times about.
Speaker 5: Who I mean, I wanted, you know, Flicia Rashad because
Speaker 5: I'm thinking she's going to be the same kind of
Speaker 5: crazy that that that Rowan is and then she brings
Speaker 5: Candy on, who is a different kind of crazy altogether,
Speaker 5: and it just works perfectly because she's so oppressed with
Speaker 5: She's beautiful and she's wiry, and she's you know, she's
Speaker 5: all that stuff, and it worked perfectly.
Speaker 4: And then and then she wrote for us, I guess
Speaker 4: I kidnap her.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to, but I have her in like a
Speaker 5: hospital situation undercapture, and you see us for a moment,
Speaker 5: come together.
Speaker 4: I think the episode after that, I put her back
Speaker 4: in prison.
Speaker 1: Right, you guys didn't, Yeah, you didn't have very many
Speaker 1: scenes together together, right, we did not?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: No, you know what, Germo and I I think maybe
Speaker 3: we could be as good of actors as Joe Morton
Speaker 3: if we We talk a lot on this podcast about
Speaker 3: how much food and eating Garmo and I did at
Speaker 3: the craft service table. And I always think about how
Speaker 3: Joe is so disciplined.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you've talked about it on the podcast.
Speaker 3: Like you're so disciplined, And I think about you when
Speaker 3: I'm on set, like I think about because one time
Speaker 3: I said, well, what do you do? Like what's your
Speaker 3: behavior on set? And we started having like a lot
Speaker 3: of heavy scenes together in really long days. You would
Speaker 3: say like, oh, you know, I'm really careful, Like you
Speaker 3: would snack, but you wouldn't have huge meals because you're like,
Speaker 3: I don't want all the my entered. You know how
Speaker 3: sometimes you have a big meal and then you just
Speaker 3: want to take a fucking nap, and yet you still
Speaker 3: got to shoot for twelve hours, you know, yeah, slump.
Speaker 3: And so you were so disciplined and great about like
Speaker 3: keeping your energy up and like all of that, whereas
Speaker 3: Gemo and I are just like, oh yeah, we're just
Speaker 3: going to have like a full Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: But that's also that's also the difference between I mean,
Speaker 4: how old was I when we were doing How long
Speaker 4: ago were we all working together?
Speaker 3: And in two eighteen was set. The last we shot
Speaker 3: in March of twenty eighteen was when we went to DC,
Speaker 3: so that was.
Speaker 4: Five years ago. Yeah yeah, okay, so you have to
Speaker 4: remember so for the for the what uh how old
Speaker 4: were you guys? Oh my god?
Speaker 3: I yes, I was like thirty seven. So you're saying
Speaker 3: us youngins we could have a Thanksgiving feast, whereas like.
Speaker 4: You could, I could not no, not no more.
Speaker 5: I mean, but for me, you know, it's obviously it's
Speaker 5: an individual thing. For me, it was if I ate
Speaker 5: a large lunch, I was out for the cab for
Speaker 5: the rest, for the rest of the day. So I
Speaker 5: learned that and I thought, all right, so you know,
Speaker 5: I can have a piece of fruit here, a piece
Speaker 5: of fruit there, of small lunch and then and I
Speaker 5: can I can go all day long. You know.
Speaker 3: Well, well, I'm impressed and at Germo and I when
Speaker 3: we're still doing this podcast in forty years and we
Speaker 3: book a job, I'm gonna be like, still not as
Speaker 3: good as Joe Morton. I'm still We will be back
Speaker 3: with more after the break. Today we are talking about
Speaker 3: episode two twenty two, called White Hats Back On, which
Speaker 3: aired on May sixteenth in twenty thirteen, ten years.
Speaker 4: Ago years ago.
Speaker 1: Oh My Gosh was written by the Shonda Rhimes and
Speaker 1: directed by Tom Verica.
Speaker 3: And it was guest starring Scott Foley as Jake Ballard,
Speaker 3: Matt Lesher as Billy Chambers, Dan Bukatinski is James Novak,
Speaker 3: Joe Morton as Eli Pope. We've been reading you as
Speaker 3: a mysterious man every episode, and then Tom and Mandy
Speaker 3: is is Governor Samuel Restin, Kate.
Speaker 1: Burton is Sally Langston, Greg Henry as Hollis Doyle, Georgian
Speaker 1: Nuburn as Charlie, Charmila Davar is Lauren Wellman, and Christy
Speaker 1: Myers as B six thirteen Female Operative.
Speaker 3: And we're just gonna take you through a quick, quick synopsis,
Speaker 3: like real quick about jog all y'all gladiator's memories of
Speaker 3: what was going on in scandal pace Ready.
Speaker 1: Gee Yeah.
Speaker 3: With the news that Billy Chambers is the mole, the
Speaker 3: Hollis Melly Olivia Cyrus brain Trust brings in its newest
Speaker 3: member Fits as they try to finally put an end
Speaker 3: to defiance.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Fitz demands that he and Olivia be together as
Speaker 1: he runs for second term, and Olivia comes up with
Speaker 1: a brilliant way to fix the image for him. As
Speaker 1: long as things work.
Speaker 3: Out, Governor Resin reservices with blackmail against Fits to get
Speaker 3: onto the VP ticket, and the OPA team, with a
Speaker 3: focus on Hugg and Quinn track down Billy Chambers. Quinn
Speaker 3: takes her first spin with torture, and Abby finally puts
Speaker 3: it all together. David Rosen has the card just a
Speaker 3: light little plot twists mind their hugely chalk filled episode,
Speaker 3: like absolutely freaking massive. Gee, I mean obviously the scenes.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're gonna talk a little bit, Joe about
Speaker 3: the actual episode. This is the first episode that Quinn
Speaker 3: really tortures somebody.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's right.
Speaker 3: I barely even remember doing it. But do we get
Speaker 3: Billy Chambers on the tarp and Huck can't do it? Right?
Speaker 1: Huck, Yeah, a sort of has a mental and emotional
Speaker 1: breakdown and he just can't do it with the drill
Speaker 1: in his hand, and Quinn sort of, you know, tries
Speaker 1: to console him, and she's like, it's okay, and then
Speaker 1: she takes the drill from his hand and she looks
Speaker 1: down and she's like, I'm gonna fucking torture this guy,
Speaker 1: and she tortures him. You do it so brilliantly, and
Speaker 1: then that blood spatter on your face. I still as you're.
Speaker 3: Spatter on my face. It was so fun.
Speaker 4: Joe.
Speaker 1: Did you ever have to torture anyone on the show?
Speaker 1: Did you ever torture anyone? And I don't remember I
Speaker 1: torture anyone. I mean I remember, as Huck feeling tortured
Speaker 1: whenever I had scenes with you, because I knew how
Speaker 1: was you were command.
Speaker 5: I think probably the closest I came to torturing anybody
Speaker 5: was Scott was Scott's.
Speaker 4: Character, right, Oh but that but that was more more mental.
Speaker 5: It wasn't physical. I don't think I've ever I mean,
Speaker 5: I think I always told, you know, go out and
Speaker 5: do something. You're the one who kills everybody on the.
Speaker 1: Bus, that's right. Oh my god, Joe, I forgot about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I did a lot of that. I think
Speaker 4: the only I only killed two people myself.
Speaker 3: That was my ex girlfriend and and U Joe girlfriend.
Speaker 4: Remember she came on They were using her to get
Speaker 4: information from me.
Speaker 5: Uh and they said, you know she's so she becomes
Speaker 5: like a vulnerability and in the middle of the scene,
Speaker 5: I pull out a.
Speaker 4: Gun and I just shoot her in the head.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: We had been lovers when we were much younger. We
Speaker 5: went on digs together. That's after I get the giant dinosaur.
Speaker 4: She comes in.
Speaker 5: We are the flame is kind of restored, and there's
Speaker 5: a moment which I literally seduce her into a closet
Speaker 5: and pull out a gun, threaten threaten her.
Speaker 4: Threaten her by saying, you know, you need to tell
Speaker 4: me what's going on. Who hired you? Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 5: I find out remember that guy who was setting up
Speaker 5: he was he was blowing things up all across the country.
Speaker 1: Remember that character, right, Yes, yes.
Speaker 4: It's that same guy. So he's the one who set
Speaker 4: her up against me.
Speaker 5: He then we the three of us haven't seen together,
Speaker 5: and he makes it clear that she will always be
Speaker 5: of vulnerability in my life for the rest.
Speaker 4: Of my right. As soon as he says, I they
Speaker 4: got my gun and shooter.
Speaker 1: Hey, you did shoot her.
Speaker 4: It was Tanya Pinkins who played the part.
Speaker 1: Oh I was Oh my god, yes, from All My Children.
Speaker 1: She used to be on All My Children, which, looking
Speaker 1: at your credit, Joe, you did one episode of All
Speaker 1: My Children, didn't you.
Speaker 4: I did Another World, Yes, Another World World, And then
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 5: Because uh, Ruben Santiago had a character in one of
Speaker 5: the other on one of the other soaps.
Speaker 4: He had to go off to do something.
Speaker 5: They asked me to take his place. That's the other
Speaker 5: soap I worked on. I mean, this is we're talking about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sad soaps too. Gee, did you ever do soaps?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: I never did a soap. I auditioned for them all
Speaker 1: the time, but I never did it.
Speaker 3: Were so fun, like so fun crazy.
Speaker 5: There was a time in which the first soape I did,
Speaker 5: I was actually doing Raisin in Washington, d C. So
Speaker 5: that meant I was doing the show at night.
Speaker 3: Or are you hitting me?
Speaker 4: I did that a lot. I did that kind of
Speaker 4: thing a lot.
Speaker 3: Wow, God, Joe, what is anyone's favorite scenes of this episode?
Speaker 3: First of all, we finally get that Cyrus has had
Speaker 3: a heart attack, because there is no way that this
Speaker 3: character can exist at the level of steam coming out
Speaker 3: of his ears for this many hours and not wind
Speaker 3: up in an ambulance. Right, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: And that's well, that brings us to one of my
Speaker 1: favorite scenes is the scene when Cyrus is in the ambulance. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's amazing, and he's being so like, he's just being crazy.
Speaker 1: He's out of his mind. He even asked the one
Speaker 1: guy give me your gun, I'll shoot him, Like he's
Speaker 1: just flipping out. And he's on the phone with Fits
Speaker 1: and Olivia.
Speaker 3: You in an ambulance, yeah, and he's like yeah, whatever.
Speaker 3: It's so so so funny. We also get the end
Speaker 3: of like Jake and Olivia, you know, like that they
Speaker 3: have a beautiful storyline where Olivia is saying goodbye to
Speaker 3: Jake and that she's really choosing Fits, and but they
Speaker 3: did have something, and Jake knows that he's going to
Speaker 3: go be put in the frickin' hole. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: it's awful and it's so good.
Speaker 1: What else, g oh my god. Well, of course the
Speaker 1: torture scene, when you torture. Oh well. And one of
Speaker 1: my one of the scenes that's really stuck out is
Speaker 1: the one where Fits and Melli have a scene together. Yes,
Speaker 1: and she's like, come, let's go, honey, we're back together,
Speaker 1: like you know this is going to work, and he's like, no,
Speaker 1: it's not. And Olivia has has come up with a
Speaker 1: brilliant plan for fixing an image. Yes, yes, yes, and
Speaker 1: and and Tony Goldwin has this wonderful monologue and it's
Speaker 1: just it's so great.
Speaker 4: It's so good.
Speaker 3: This is why this show was so great. It's never
Speaker 3: ever what you expect. It is never what you expect.
Speaker 3: I mean the end of this episode when we get
Speaker 3: Fits going back to Mellie and laying his head.
Speaker 1: On her map, because of my favorite moment, it is.
Speaker 3: No man's land. I mean, he knows that Jake and
Speaker 3: Olivia we're sleeping together, now he knows that his he
Speaker 3: was never meant to be president of the United States.
Speaker 3: He is a freakin' pawn. He's a pretty boy pawn
Speaker 3: who is lost on an island with nobody, and so
Speaker 3: he goes back to Melly and puts his sad sack
Speaker 3: of a head like interlap, and it's just like Tony's
Speaker 3: got the He's got that like one. He's so good
Speaker 3: at it, like I don't think I've ever played that
Speaker 3: sort of a color, and he's really good at it.
Speaker 4: Is I think a lot of his career has been that.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, if you go all the way
Speaker 5: back to the Whoopi Goldberg film, yeah, you know, he
Speaker 5: plays the bad guy in that, but there there is
Speaker 5: that moment of kind of oh, you know.
Speaker 3: Yes, I don't he's great at it. My god, he's
Speaker 3: really really great at it. Had you two ever worked
Speaker 3: together before we did?
Speaker 5: We did some small film in New York and that's
Speaker 5: been I think that's the first time we met. It
Speaker 5: was one of the first times, because I think we
Speaker 5: met up at Williamstown once before. But in this little film,
Speaker 5: we had a couple of little scenes together.
Speaker 4: I don't really remember it, but but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Joe, do you remember that scene you had with
Speaker 1: Tony I to remember what episode it was. Wasn't he
Speaker 1: like in a chair and you like call him white boy?
Speaker 4: Oh that's the that's the boys scene, the boy?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, what is that again?
Speaker 5: That episode was called the door marked Exit, because that's
Speaker 5: what that speech was about. Is that one of the
Speaker 5: reason you're with her and the only reason you're trying
Speaker 5: to push my buttons with her is because for you,
Speaker 5: she is a door marked exit. You think that you
Speaker 5: can just walk out anytime you feel like it. And
Speaker 5: so that whole speech was, you know, your your daddy's
Speaker 5: rich and the mom's good looking, because you are a
Speaker 5: what was his last name, Fitzgerald Grant, You are a
Speaker 5: grand But it's that whole speech was putting him down.
Speaker 5: I mean talking about memorable moments for a block. I
Speaker 5: was the one who was the one in the chair.
Speaker 1: I was in you were in the chair.
Speaker 5: I was in the chair. I was in my undershirt
Speaker 5: and peopled to the chair. I'm and I'm you know,
Speaker 5: just reading him up and down.
Speaker 3: What a little nothing like a little rich boy, a
Speaker 3: little rich baby boy that can't be a isn't a man?
Speaker 5: And then that Christmas, I sent him a like a bag.
Speaker 5: It looked like a bowling bag, but honor it, said,
Speaker 5: I didn't write it.
Speaker 4: This is how I found.
Speaker 5: It was a bag, but that big a bowling bag,
Speaker 5: said boy who for Christmas wrapped it up and sent
Speaker 5: it to him.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, that's freaking hilarous' amazing, that's so crazy
Speaker 3: And also like what am I mean? Tony's not like
Speaker 3: that at all, But like I always think it's really
Speaker 3: wild that our president and vice president on this show
Speaker 3: are Hollywood royalty. Like we had Betsy Beers on for
Speaker 3: episode two twenty one and she was saying, like, you know,
Speaker 3: talking about the old studios or whatever, and You're like, yeah,
Speaker 3: remember Metro Goldwyn Mayor, I mean that is yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean Goldwyn he is Hollywood Royalty. And then our voice president,
Speaker 3: our vice president being played by Kate Burton, who's Richard
Speaker 3: Burton's daughter, who was like, I mean, it was like
Speaker 3: the two of them were totally you know, historical, just
Speaker 3: like you.
Speaker 4: I had a conversation because.
Speaker 5: I was offered to direct a film that was a
Speaker 5: black version of Eat, Drink Love, uh, and his father
Speaker 5: would have been the producer, So I actually got a chance.
Speaker 5: I brought it up to Tony said, do you remember
Speaker 5: He said, I kind of remember my dad talking about
Speaker 5: it because I figured there was another director was supposed
Speaker 5: to do it, and he passed it on to me.
Speaker 5: I met with Tony's dad, so yes, I can actually
Speaker 5: say I had with mister Goldman.
Speaker 3: That's unbelievable. One of my favorite all time memories of
Speaker 3: my life. Of my life, I had my first baby.
Speaker 3: I was coming back to work for the first time
Speaker 3: in an episode that Kerrie Washington was directing Is. I
Speaker 3: felt very supported shand the land carry directing. You know,
Speaker 3: a mom and I've been kidnapped in Papa Pope's house
Speaker 3: in the basement and were oddly and sort of beautifully
Speaker 3: like raising this baby together. Yes, And we got to
Speaker 3: dance to a Britney Spears song and they called in
Speaker 3: Debbie Allen to do a favor and just do a
Speaker 3: little choreography rehearsal with me and Joe and I'm holding
Speaker 3: in the in the shot, I was going to be
Speaker 3: holding Quinn's baby and doing this like hit me baby
Speaker 3: one more time choreography with Joe and they and they
Speaker 3: were and I was like, well, my son is here
Speaker 3: and they were like, well, you can just bring him
Speaker 3: and Debbie I was like, I can, that's allowed. Debbie
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, bring him to the rehearsal, hold him
Speaker 3: like you're going to be holding the real baby. And
Speaker 3: I had such an out of body moment where I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm dancing to Britney Spears with my firstborn child on
Speaker 3: a hit television show with Joe Morton, studying choreography with
Speaker 3: Debbie Allen, and I have a videotape, Adam. I made
Speaker 3: Adam like videotape it just so that I could have
Speaker 3: it forever, because yes, nice when it comes out, it
Speaker 3: is the most like I just was like, I am
Speaker 3: the luckiest like to get to work with you, to
Speaker 3: get to work with Debbie Allen in such a like absolute,
Speaker 3: like obscure, an amazing thing holding my kid where I
Speaker 3: was sort of transitioning into this like new identity of
Speaker 3: being a mom while still being an actress. I just like,
Speaker 3: it's one of those memories I'll take with me for forever. God,
Speaker 3: we had some crazy shit to do. I have a
Speaker 3: memory of like I had to throw a chain around
Speaker 3: your neck. I think I don't even know well that
Speaker 3: that whole episode.
Speaker 5: Right, you're down the basement, and then I'd make I
Speaker 5: make Kerry believe that I've killed you. Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 5: all that takes place in the basement. That was That
Speaker 5: was a wild episode.
Speaker 3: Seanda wrote it. It was so so so wild. Oh
Speaker 3: my god, we're gonna have to have you back on
Speaker 3: when we get there.
Speaker 5: You know why. It's making me think about it, but
Speaker 5: it makes me think of that episode that Gamo did.
Speaker 4: What you girlfriend tries to drown.
Speaker 1: You or yes, yes, yes, she puts me in the
Speaker 1: trunk of a car and pushes it off a cliff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: another crazy episode. One of the memories that sticks out
Speaker 1: is Joe and I were in an episode together and
Speaker 1: we were doing a lot of stuff together, hucking and rowan,
Speaker 1: and we were, you know, in our chairs waiting for
Speaker 1: them to set up the shot, and I was talking
Speaker 1: about I had just bought my house or I hadn't
Speaker 1: just buy a butt it like a year ago. But
Speaker 1: we just put in a pool and I was like, Joe,
Speaker 1: I have this pool in my house. But I feel
Speaker 1: almost like I don't know, I can't. I feel guilty,
Speaker 1: like I feel like I don't deserve it. So I
Speaker 1: don't go in it.
Speaker 3: In that pool for like a year. That's how mad
Speaker 3: deserve it.
Speaker 1: Joe was sitting at his chair reading his book. You know,
Speaker 1: he had a close because he was listening to me
Speaker 1: and he and I said, so, Joe, I just don't know, man,
Speaker 1: I just I feel guilt. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: deserve the pool. And he looked at me and see,
Speaker 1: he said, did you pay for that pool? And I
Speaker 1: said yeah, and he said get in the pool.
Speaker 5: And that was it.
Speaker 1: Do you remember? And I was like, you're right, you're right,
Speaker 1: You're right, And now I get in the pool all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 5: It's funny about stuff like that, how you know your
Speaker 5: life changes and you think kind of like I don't deserve.
Speaker 4: To have this. I don't deserve to be part of this. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but you know you worked hard to get there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know you're not there by mistake, by chance,
Speaker 5: you know you when you you know, I mean, I
Speaker 5: think one of my music partners we're talking about something
Speaker 5: that you know, when I got nominated for an Emmitt,
Speaker 5: you know, your tendency is to almost distance yourself from that, yes,
Speaker 5: because it feels like it's too much. It's like, oh oh,
Speaker 5: that's great. And I kept saying, but you know, having
Speaker 5: a nomination was just enough. It was fine, blah blah blah.
Speaker 5: So that when they announced my name at the it
Speaker 5: was like took me a second. Jane Lynch because I
Speaker 5: remember her face. She had no idea who I was,
Speaker 5: she said, and Joe Morton like she was shocked.
Speaker 4: I was shocked. But I think what happens is you
Speaker 4: you you distance yourself so that if something goes.
Speaker 5: Wrong, if something yes, you're not able to fulfill where
Speaker 5: you are, You're not that disappointed.
Speaker 4: So true, that's what happens.
Speaker 3: Such a great point.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back, guys.
Speaker 3: Okay, back to this episode really quick. So we find
Speaker 3: out what did David Rosen do with the Citron card.
Speaker 3: The amount of shenanigans that this Citron card has has
Speaker 3: has caused, and so I mean it is the only logistical,
Speaker 3: concrete evidence that the freaking election election, but the Citron card.
Speaker 3: We find out that David Rosen has neurotically put in
Speaker 3: fifty thousand combinations of what the safe could be in
Speaker 3: Olivia Pope's office to break in and get the card. Yes,
Speaker 3: and he in turn gives it.
Speaker 1: To Billy Chambers, who gives it to But.
Speaker 3: Then finally at the end of the episode, it is
Speaker 3: given to Cyrus, and Cyrus at his desk takes us
Speaker 3: a paperweight of Lincoln and smashes it ship out of
Speaker 3: this card and we can finally put any evidence that
Speaker 3: the election was ever rigged down the drain right.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, in the real world, which they could do that.
Speaker 3: I mean, isn't it weird? God, the Shonda Land the scandal,
Speaker 3: like secretly kind of weirdly knowing what was going on
Speaker 3: was very weird.
Speaker 5: I mean that's you know, that's a question to you
Speaker 5: guys get a lot as well as what did we
Speaker 5: end when we did? And I always think it's because
Speaker 5: of the actual election that Chanda thought, you know what,
Speaker 5: I'm done. Yeah, that that Bellamy was supposed to take over,
Speaker 5: was was going to become president once again, and then
Speaker 5: that's where the show was going to go.
Speaker 4: And then once mister t got yeah elected, I think
Speaker 4: she was done. I mean that's yeah, that was my feeling.
Speaker 1: What was crazier in real life than on our show,
Speaker 1: Like shit became crazier in real life. It's nuts, absolutely, Yeah,
Speaker 1: even now to watch to watch old episodes and they're
Speaker 1: talking about scandals that happened to you know, senators or
Speaker 1: whatever on our show, and I think that's nothing like
Speaker 1: way worse is happening with politicians in our world right now,
Speaker 1: and people are like, Okay, cool, yeah, let's make them president,
Speaker 1: no worries. It's it's nuts. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I feel the same way, Joe. I think there was
Speaker 3: like some article about other political shows that were on
Speaker 3: at the time, like Veep, like our show, and they
Speaker 3: were all sort of saying, like, when the lights are
Speaker 3: on in Washington, it's very wonderful to have a political show,
Speaker 3: like you know, the years that West Wing was on,
Speaker 3: and then as soon as the as soon as there's
Speaker 3: sort of a darkness over DC and it's very very
Speaker 3: you know, divisive, and times are tough. It's very hard
Speaker 3: to keep writing a political show and making one. Oh wait,
Speaker 3: I just read this fun facts talking about that safe.
Speaker 3: Abby states that there are twenty thousand, seven hundred and
Speaker 3: thirty six possible safe combinations. But later, when David is
Speaker 3: shown accessing the safe, he is only able to enter
Speaker 3: four digits zero to nine, which means that they're actually
Speaker 3: only ten thousand combinations that he would have tried.
Speaker 1: Who the hell thought, who the hell came up with
Speaker 1: this fun fact?
Speaker 5: That was?
Speaker 1: That wasn't even fun?
Speaker 3: No fun, it's the funnest the funds.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 3: This is the other fun fact. Given the broken chain
Speaker 3: of custody and how easy the sytron card is to
Speaker 3: hack it realistically, wouldn't have been proof of anything at all,
Speaker 3: should it have? Actually time to light btw tweets of
Speaker 3: the time and before we read some of these, Joe,
Speaker 3: you definitely joined Twitter for this show, and you definitely
Speaker 3: had quite the Twitter persona.
Speaker 1: He did so great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, that was fun.
Speaker 5: I mean I hadn't done any social media before then,
Speaker 5: and then when I joined the show, and then I
Speaker 5: found out, you know, you don't have to do it,
Speaker 5: but you could do it if it's fun.
Speaker 4: So then Christina and I just decided that what we
Speaker 4: would do for Sine is my partner.
Speaker 3: For those of you who don't know, she's the best,
Speaker 3: she is the best.
Speaker 5: So we decided we would get go as far into
Speaker 5: it as we could. Tony actually walked out to me
Speaker 5: one day he said, so, all that stuff you say
Speaker 5: about me and you just it's just fun.
Speaker 4: I said, yeah, Tony, I like you, but I'm not.
Speaker 3: Because everybody listening. It was kind of like like a
Speaker 3: pop up hope. It's like you were tweeting as if
Speaker 3: you were pop up hope.
Speaker 4: A lot of the times I was tweeting in character.
Speaker 3: It was awesome and I can't believe you could do that.
Speaker 5: It was so.
Speaker 4: Well, it made it more fun that way.
Speaker 1: That way, yeah, you know exactly, the personally, this.
Speaker 3: Is so amazing, Like some of these tweets are the
Speaker 3: times absolutely kill me? We have at Sweet and Lovely
Speaker 3: two two nine retweeted, what the fuck Billy Chambers is
Speaker 3: the male and David is his male? Oh my fucking god, hashtag.
Speaker 1: Scandal this dude's betto metro Dos tweeted if Scandal, if
Speaker 1: the Scandal story arc was anywhere near to Olivia, Pope
Speaker 1: would be dead in jail or on Fox News covering
Speaker 1: the New Black Panthers. Oh shit, hashtag hardball.
Speaker 4: Wow man, she would she would be the new Oprah.
Speaker 3: She would right, yeah, hell yeah, I agree, she would
Speaker 3: be the new Oprah. At Funkydneva, oh yeah, who used
Speaker 3: to tweet all the time. I felt so bad for James.
Speaker 3: I was distraught for a men after that scene. Miss
Speaker 3: Cyrus is a beast hashtag scandal, which is true? How
Speaker 3: James and Cyrus? How he ever stayed with him? Cyrus
Speaker 3: was a terrible husband to him?
Speaker 1: Absolutely right, okay. Miss Funky Daneva also tweeted Quinn needs
Speaker 1: to step up her fashions next season, Hunty, I'm over her,
Speaker 1: and this I'm over her and this Lauren Hill tax
Speaker 1: evasion realness, she is serving.
Speaker 3: It's so true. I agree with you, Miss funky Geneva,
Speaker 3: who's also like rolling on these fucking amazing tweets at
Speaker 3: Miss Funky Geneva also tweeted, Scandal writer season three, can
Speaker 3: Harrison have a love interest so we can get some
Speaker 3: shirtless scenes man or woman? Hine hashtag scandal and.
Speaker 1: Then moful Chronicles tweeted, I volunteer to be Harrison's love
Speaker 1: interest hashtag scandal.
Speaker 3: That's so funny. Oh this is so cute at real.
Speaker 3: Queen bees Hx tweeted, got my hashtag high mug from
Speaker 3: at scandal obsessed on the perfect Day. I can't wait
Speaker 3: to drink out of it tonight. That was so cute.
Speaker 3: I remember that was a major because you know, Tony
Speaker 3: and Carrie always had those scenes where they just said hi,
Speaker 3: to each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where the cup came from.
Speaker 3: And so it became a hashtag because.
Speaker 4: They would give themselves a minute, right.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, okay at Drea E. Hall tweeted,
Speaker 1: you can't trust anyone anymore hashtag scandle has me shook lol.
Speaker 1: So true, so true, trust bodies so true.
Speaker 3: These are so great.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: I did want to ask you Joe about this amazing
Speaker 1: show that Joe worked on. I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: guys are still doing it called Inside the Black Box.
Speaker 4: Oh, we are still doing that absolutely.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 5: Inside the Black Box it's basically a show that brings
Speaker 5: on a list of black actors to talk about what
Speaker 5: he means to be an actor of color, an artist
Speaker 5: of color. And we have We've had Felicia m We've
Speaker 5: had Debbie on yes right on the show.
Speaker 4: We've had just a whole bunch of people.
Speaker 1: It's so good.
Speaker 5: Forty to sixty actors who are on camera. So what
Speaker 5: we do is we then do either theater games or
Speaker 5: improvs or whatever. Yes, it gives them a chance to
Speaker 5: showcase their talents and to that to that effect, four
Speaker 5: or five of them have now agents have gotten jobs
Speaker 5: and how yeah, we are beginning to become a destination
Speaker 5: for casting agents looking for young black actors.
Speaker 3: This is like inside the studio.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's it's the same idea.
Speaker 5: The difference is we are not in a prosceni and
Speaker 5: we actually are in a black box and we are
Speaker 5: more or less.
Speaker 4: Surrounded by these actors.
Speaker 5: And as I say again, different from the actors studio,
Speaker 5: we actually give them a chance to show fast their talents,
Speaker 5: which is kind of key to our show.
Speaker 4: We want to you know, you know they talk.
Speaker 5: About Disney actors all the time. One day in the
Speaker 5: future they'll be talking about it tv B.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, I saw clip Joe and there you guys.
Speaker 1: They're interviewing this lovely actor, this this awesome dude, and
Speaker 1: he's like, forget the actors studio, man, I'm here with
Speaker 1: you guys. And I thought, hell yeah, this is so groundbreaking.
Speaker 3: I want to letters it BB it t BB inside
Speaker 3: the black Box. That is awesome.
Speaker 4: And here's another just a fact about it inside the
Speaker 4: black Box.
Speaker 5: So at the end of season one, which I think
Speaker 5: happened around my birthday, we finished the show. We finished
Speaker 5: our last episode. We only shoot ten a year and
Speaker 5: suddenly our students breakout and song. That song became our
Speaker 5: theme song for the show. Way they started singing the song,
Speaker 5: I ran back to the producers and I said, wait
Speaker 5: to record it. So my partners and I, you know,
Speaker 5: put our studio together, brought them out to New Jersey.
Speaker 4: He created what happened in the studio that day.
Speaker 5: And so when you go on to the show, that
Speaker 5: theme song that you hear is sung by me, my partners,
Speaker 5: and a couple of the students. That it was written
Speaker 5: by four of them.
Speaker 1: That's such a great story.
Speaker 3: YO.
Speaker 1: For those of you who don't know, Joe is also
Speaker 1: an amazing musician. Yes, he's right. Talk about that a
Speaker 1: little bit, Joe, Like, what have you been doing for years?
Speaker 4: Years and years? I've you know, been playing or whatever.
Speaker 5: And so during all that crazy time when mister T
Speaker 5: was in the White House, my partner Kenny Leman and
Speaker 5: I wrote a piece called Wake Up America.
Speaker 1: Which is basically I remember that, yeah, it's.
Speaker 5: Not Republican, it's not democratic, but it basically is talking
Speaker 5: about the importance of unity and that it's you know,
Speaker 5: it's it's it's not us, or then it's us.
Speaker 4: The United States, so you can find that on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Come on, Joe Morton. He is a legend, He is
Speaker 3: the goat, he is the greatest of all time. He
Speaker 3: is a friend, He is wonderful, and he is forever
Speaker 3: and ever and will be our Papa Pope, yes and only.
Speaker 5: And just to put this out there, there is something
Speaker 5: else that Katie and I are kind of working on.
Speaker 5: We can't really talk about it.
Speaker 4: Working on that. We hope will will happen in fuy.
Speaker 3: We hope working together very closely on something that would
Speaker 3: make everyone very happy, mostly me.
Speaker 1: This so much more, guys, Guys.
Speaker 3: Next up episode three oh one, It's handled. We will
Speaker 3: finally get to see this amazing hell or high water
Speaker 3: getting down from the one and only pop U Pope
Speaker 3: and so much more coming up next. Thank you Gladiators
Speaker 3: so much for an incredible first season of Unpacking the Toolbox.
Speaker 1: Thank you, guys. We're so happy. Was having so much
Speaker 1: fun doing this.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Joe, thank you for wrapping up episode
Speaker 3: two two two and the season finale of season two
Speaker 3: with the most iconic dad moment that might go down
Speaker 3: in history, is the most iconic and scandal all of
Speaker 3: the episodes, any more still to uncover. Thank you for
Speaker 3: being on g Thank you man.
Speaker 1: I love you, guys, you guys, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 4: Guys.
Speaker 1: Come back and listen to the next season, y'all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, come back. We love you. We couldn't do this
Speaker 3: without you. Having a fucking blast.
Speaker 1: We're having such a good time.
Speaker 3: For another season so that I can learn better.
Speaker 1: We're gonna learn how to say it in Spanish. I
Speaker 1: bet Joe can probably say you don't you speak a
Speaker 1: little bit of Spanish?
Speaker 3: Joe, Adam, I mean, I'll be I mean, what's your name, Germo?
Speaker 3: If you could joice memo my mom.
Speaker 1: Raido, Manny Girmo, like she says all her kids names.
Speaker 3: Memo me how to say it so I can. I
Speaker 3: will than absolutely absolutely is not my fault.
Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolbox, y'all.
Speaker 3: We love you. Joe Morton, Thank you, Glad.
Speaker 1: Thanks Joe, love you, Joe. Thank you guys for joining
Speaker 1: us on Unpacking the Toolbox. If you enjoyed the show,
Speaker 1: please subscribe, share with your friends, rate, or leave us.
Speaker 3: A Room Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, Alex Alcea,
Speaker 3: Lauren Homan, Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and
Speaker 3: editor is Vince de Johnny, with music by Chad Fisher.
Speaker 3: Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 3: partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit
Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.