Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolboxes, a production of Shondoland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Iheartradiote. Do you like how unattractive I am? Like,
Speaker 1: I'm a real chameleon? Are you fucking kidding me? Shut
Speaker 1: the fuck up? No? No, Like me without makeup is impressive,
Speaker 1: and me with makeup is I'm a fucking dream woman.
Speaker 1: What do you want? Yo? How was the audition? It
Speaker 1: was my first time ever using a teleprompter? Have you?
Speaker 1: Oh really? Oh yeah, I've used teleprompters, but not for
Speaker 1: scripted stuff, only for like host type thing. Well, when
Speaker 1: i get like eight pages of monologues, now, I'm like, oh, guys,
Speaker 1: especially if it's like da crap speaking of DA and
Speaker 1: lawyerly speak, we have the fucking most mischievous guest today
Speaker 1: coming on, and he's the best lawyer speak motherfucker actor
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my life. Oh yeah, can you
Speaker 1: believe this motherfucker at how easy it can? I hate him?
Speaker 1: I know, I know, and he and I'm drilling like
Speaker 1: legal talk and making it feel like it just like
Speaker 1: comes off the tongue. And also it takes me days
Speaker 1: to prep that, and this ship came in like yesterday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it takes me days because I need to be confident,
Speaker 1: like confident, ye, but this motherfucker, I mean you've said
Speaker 1: this before. Oh my god, He'll look at that shit
Speaker 1: in the makeup trader and time and it's easy. And
Speaker 1: he's not even shaken. He can't be shook. He's well
Speaker 1: because he could give a shit too. He's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't care, I don't care. I just want the page.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is his middle name should be. I
Speaker 1: just want to pay paycheck. Had you ever had auditions
Speaker 1: where you have to like pick up sides or a script?
Speaker 1: Oh the time? Are you kidding? All the time? Real?
Speaker 1: When I first moved to LA I would have to
Speaker 1: drive to my agency and there would be a basket
Speaker 1: in the lobby if it was after hours, and they
Speaker 1: would leave your script in a manilla envelope with your
Speaker 1: name on it. Oh yeah, I remember that. At the
Speaker 1: time of this recording, I would just also like to say,
Speaker 1: this is the seventeenth year to the day anniversary when
Speaker 1: I moved to last Oh, that's a long time. It's
Speaker 1: a long time, Like I can't even believe it. But
Speaker 1: I always remember getting off at Lax being like, what
Speaker 1: did I just do? To blow up my life like
Speaker 1: this renting a beater, piece of shit, fucked up car,
Speaker 1: and I got on the four oh five and the
Speaker 1: ten scariest drive of my entire life, and I had
Speaker 1: a Thomas guy to get around. Some big ass nerd
Speaker 1: created the Thomas Guide. I was like, don't even come
Speaker 1: at me with this thick book of fucking coordinates, Like
Speaker 1: what are you talking about how I used to try
Speaker 1: to get a round audition? Oh? Hell no, I'm a
Speaker 1: geographic dumb dumb. I'm a bad driver, like very bad,
Speaker 1: which reminds me. Also, you and I, You and I
Speaker 1: are cut, we have the same We shot the pilot
Speaker 1: and it's raining, and you're in a you're so hot,
Speaker 1: you're in a leather jacket and you're in a jeep
Speaker 1: wrangler that has no top. Oh my god. Remember, and
Speaker 1: you're like, can I follow you to get on the
Speaker 1: one oh one? And I kept saying like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got it, I got it, I got it. And
Speaker 1: I see you in my rearview mirror, like following me,
Speaker 1: and I don't know where I'm going, and I just
Speaker 1: remember I keep pulling uee's and you're pulling UEI's and
Speaker 1: it's s raining as shit. Yeah. I was like, it
Speaker 1: would be worse if it was just me, girl. I
Speaker 1: was impressed at all. I was like, do your thing,
Speaker 1: take your time. Now. There are a few controversial players
Speaker 1: that we have had on the podcast that we're going
Speaker 1: to have on the podcast. Controversial players. This one is
Speaker 1: a controversial player because he is a polarizing motherfucker. This
Speaker 1: is the number one fucking polarizing. Like you either are
Speaker 1: on board with his antics or you are afraid, which
Speaker 1: makes you mad at him. Yeah, I fucking teeter talk.
Speaker 1: I'm back and forth like I love him and I
Speaker 1: laugh and I enjoy it, and then I'm like, I
Speaker 1: cannot believe you freaking did that. And I'm so pissed
Speaker 1: at him, Like I go back and forth. He's kind
Speaker 1: of scared of you. I could feel that too, because
Speaker 1: I'll go off on a motherfucker. Yeah. See, he never
Speaker 1: fucked with you, no, yeah, yeah. And I feel like
Speaker 1: it's because he was always a little bit like, oh,
Speaker 1: you don't do that to Guermo, like you don't there,
Speaker 1: he didn't do to you what he's done did to me,
Speaker 1: or because I'm such a fucking easy target. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing. He's the most talented dude without trying, which
Speaker 1: is so frustrating. Yeah, like Josh Mullen is the smartest
Speaker 1: person in the room, Oh yeah, but also a quick
Speaker 1: win and a quick intelligence, Like I people ask me
Speaker 1: a question and I have to be like, give me
Speaker 1: twenty minutes to go try to understand the question and
Speaker 1: think of what I'm gonna say. Sometimes, guys, we would
Speaker 1: do cold reads of our scripts, and I would be
Speaker 1: fucking mortified that they would find out in a cold read,
Speaker 1: like how exactly dumb I am? But like I wouldn't
Speaker 1: know how to pronounce a word, or there might be
Speaker 1: like a turn of phrase or something that was like
Speaker 1: a colloquialism. Same like quickly look at Quinn's lines to
Speaker 1: make sure there wasn't something that would out how like
Speaker 1: unintelligent I was. Because there were so many fucking smart
Speaker 1: people in our cast, Like do you know that Bellamy
Speaker 1: Young and Josh Willna went to Yale fucking Yale, dude,
Speaker 1: like real kidding, And Shanda went to Dartmouth. Half the
Speaker 1: writers or more were like journalists, perfect like unbelievable talent.
Speaker 1: Do you carry went to GWS? Right? That's right? Obviously
Speaker 1: She's a political animal and just ridiculously smart. Where did
Speaker 1: you go, Katie, Well, I went to Tish School. You
Speaker 1: you don't got to be smart to get in there. Well, listen,
Speaker 1: it's not easy to get into No, you have to
Speaker 1: have done well. But it has something to do with smarts.
Speaker 1: For me, I just was good at school, and if
Speaker 1: I wasn't going to get a great grade, I knew
Speaker 1: how to do extra time in the teacher's room to
Speaker 1: make them like me and give me an like I
Speaker 1: was working that shit from jump. But guys, we have
Speaker 1: teased one of the most controversial and polarizing guests to
Speaker 1: have ever been on the Skin and Rewatch podcast and
Speaker 1: on Scanal. I love him. I think he's so amazing.
Speaker 1: And we are talking about episode two oh one called
Speaker 1: White Hats Off, which aired on September twenty seventh of
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, and it was written by Jenna Bands and
Speaker 1: directed by our very own we love him so much,
Speaker 1: Tom Verica. Whoa, whoa, We love you, Tom Verica. It
Speaker 1: was guest starring Wendy Davis Is Kimberly, Mitchell Reese Rios
Speaker 1: as reporter number one, did Norah Walcott as Reporter Number two,
Speaker 1: Erica Schaefer as TV newscaster, j Jackson as local newscaster,
Speaker 1: and then we have Jimmy Kimmel as himself, Jackson Hurst
Speaker 1: as Congressman Jacob Shaw, Gillian Armanante as Moira, O'Donnell, Mara
Speaker 1: Soden as Doctor Brown, and I wanted to add Shelley
Speaker 1: Morrison as the judge who played Rosario in Will and Grace.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, this is the synopsis. This was
Speaker 1: our first episode back. I mean, after we shot the
Speaker 1: first seven episodes of the first season, we didn't know
Speaker 1: for sure if we were going to get a second season, right,
Speaker 1: We didn't know. Six months after Quinn's arrest, Olidia and
Speaker 1: the OPA team are confident they'll win her case, as
Speaker 1: David Rosen's evidence is mostly just Quinn's motive, her cheating
Speaker 1: ex boyfriend, and the fact that she fled. The OPA
Speaker 1: team helps a congressman navigate a sex tape scandal. As
Speaker 1: Quinn's case begins to crumble around her, but Olivia refuses
Speaker 1: to let Quinn be found guilty, probably because she and
Speaker 1: Huck were the ones actually behind Quinn's new identity. I
Speaker 1: remember literally spending all summer with people asking me if
Speaker 1: I knew who Quinn Perkins was, And I was like no,
Speaker 1: because because if the cliffhanger at the end of season
Speaker 1: one is Olivia telling Quinn, do you want to tell
Speaker 1: them who you are? Or you want me to tell you?
Speaker 1: Tell them? Right? Yeah? Do you want to tell them
Speaker 1: who you really are? Or should I should? I? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So people held on to that for how long before
Speaker 1: we came back? Well, this aired September twenty seventh, in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, and I think our last Scandal episode was
Speaker 1: like May. So it was like the summer that I
Speaker 1: got married. Okay. I have this memory of two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifteen people going like, who are who are you?
Speaker 1: Who is Quinn? Yeah? Who is Quinn? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, I hope I
Speaker 1: have a job. I hope I have a job. And
Speaker 1: probably the writers didn't fully know exactly which direction they
Speaker 1: we're gonna go either, I would think, right, I mean
Speaker 1: think they knew it? Yeah, I don't think they knew
Speaker 1: at all. Every episode with Hollis Doyle until this point
Speaker 1: he has seen eating or mentioning Gettysburger. Gettysburger. How good
Speaker 1: does a burger sound right now, Fox, I would rush
Speaker 1: a burger right now. Like, uh, I was watching Anthony
Speaker 1: Bourdain last night and he's eating a cheeseburger at just
Speaker 1: like a you know, one of those like stands outside
Speaker 1: he was in, like I don't know, he was like
Speaker 1: in Jamaica or somewhere, but it was just a greasy
Speaker 1: cheeseburger and it looks so fucking good. I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: oh god, I love it. There are three fucking continuity
Speaker 1: errors in this episode. Photos of Elaine show that she's blonde,
Speaker 1: but in Truth or Consequences, the actress playing Elane is
Speaker 1: a brunette. A brunette. Oh this is the best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jesse Tyler is not Adam Shapiro at this time. It's
Speaker 1: some other dude that they took photos of and they
Speaker 1: whoopsie doodle. Yeah, they didn't know Adam was going to
Speaker 1: play play the role. Yeah. No. After Olivia and David
Speaker 1: leave the court, the next scene shows the Monument of
Speaker 1: Iwajima with the Statehouse in Washington omnument in the background.
Speaker 1: But the Ewigima monument is not in DC. It's in Arlington.
Speaker 1: That's messed up. Yeah, that's advertise. That's that's that's that
Speaker 1: continuity that didn't happen. Were there any winning scenes from
Speaker 1: this episode? Yes, and you're in it. Oh, scene where
Speaker 1: you end up firing Olivia and she comes to see
Speaker 1: you in jail, right, and your other attorney that you
Speaker 1: hire is there, and Olivia's like, give me a moment, please,
Speaker 1: and You're like, fine, give us a moment, and you're
Speaker 1: their face off, you know, you and Olivia going at it,
Speaker 1: and you stand up and we see Quinn's fury, like,
Speaker 1: come out. You were so good. You were a fucking powerhouse.
Speaker 1: And that's oh god, I thought I was horrible. Oh
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you, have you ever flipped out
Speaker 1: like that? I love you've done that right? Oh yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: well that scene where you flip out on Olivia, Man,
Speaker 1: I fucking loved it. I was like, hell yeah to
Speaker 1: say that. So that's I really think gar I really
Speaker 1: think all of Josh's room scenes are fucking unbelievable. Oh
Speaker 1: so good. That courtroom stuff is really really fun, fun
Speaker 1: to watch. And and again we mentioned to do and
Speaker 1: hard to fucking do. And can we say how much
Speaker 1: I love how much we love a Gillian Armonante who
Speaker 1: played your defense attorney. Oh, she's so great in this episode.
Speaker 1: And I looked her up to and she she had
Speaker 1: been in two epic movies. One was Dog Fight with
Speaker 1: a Lily Taylor. We have you've ever seen that film?
Speaker 1: And no great movie? I see nothing, I watch nothing,
Speaker 1: I do nothing. And then she was in Girl Interrupted
Speaker 1: with Winona Ryder. Yeah, Abby is into watching the sex
Speaker 1: daye herself. I wrote there's the your ornamental not instrumental yes,
Speaker 1: which is a big winning line from the FSA you
Speaker 1: are ornamental, not You're ornamental not instrumental. Oh so good.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, fits Olivia. It's so slow and they
Speaker 1: say hello and high. I love that this whole time.
Speaker 1: Huck and Olivia have the best poker face, like they're
Speaker 1: the ones that Quinn and moved her to a whole
Speaker 1: different state, right yes, and changed her identity and they
Speaker 1: know this throughout the whole episode. And those two have
Speaker 1: the best like poker face, like they're not letting anything
Speaker 1: show and not until the end of the episode do
Speaker 1: we know that all of Quinn Perkins is Huck and Olivia.
Speaker 1: And Huck is like she took everything we gave her,
Speaker 1: We're good to go, or something like that. Yo. It
Speaker 1: made me also think, like what would I have done
Speaker 1: in that situation. Would I have been like fuck, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this, or what I would have you know,
Speaker 1: like flipped out and ran outside of the littletel crying
Speaker 1: like Yeah, I don't think I would have done it.
Speaker 1: I don't think so either, Like I feel like that's
Speaker 1: such a tell about Quinn and who she is. She
Speaker 1: just was like, Okay, I'll just be a new person. Yeah.
Speaker 1: One of them many reasons we're bringing Josh Milena into
Speaker 1: this episode is because he's about to embark on the
Speaker 1: craziest season two like so insane. But also this is
Speaker 1: the first episode where Josh, Melina and Bellamy Young our
Speaker 1: series regular. That's right. I can't believe that they weren't
Speaker 1: always regulars either, because they're both so good, so present,
Speaker 1: their storylines are so important to season one. They were
Speaker 1: just guest stars. Garmo in a sliding doors. Josh or
Speaker 1: Bellamy could have booked something or been offered something, oh
Speaker 1: for sure, and we would have had a different first Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they would have been unavailable. Like when you're a
Speaker 1: recurring guest star, there's nothing in the thing that says
Speaker 1: that you're loyal to that one show. Yeah, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: be right back. Guys. Oh my god, wait, the most
Speaker 1: the one the ownly whoa facial hair. I know why
Speaker 1: I did, Handsome. We were saying that you might be
Speaker 1: the most controversial Scandal gas. As far as controversial, I
Speaker 1: think I am the closest to having gotten fired without
Speaker 1: actually getting fired. True. I got called to uncomfortable meetings
Speaker 1: a couple of times because of pranks I played. I
Speaker 1: believe it. I'm not surprised. I also told Guillermo before
Speaker 1: you came on, I was like, I think there's very
Speaker 1: few people that that Josh was actually afraid of on Scandal,
Speaker 1: like fucking with them too much. And it was like Shonda, Betsy,
Speaker 1: and Guermo. I was like, they're the only three people
Speaker 1: Josh fucked with but for some reason actually respected some
Speaker 1: sort of line based in fear. I think that's true. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm only scared of Guarmo because I watched the show personally.
Speaker 1: He's a pussycat. Watching a few episodes of Scandal and
Speaker 1: I was like, I gotta wade for that guy, and
Speaker 1: you were like, this motherfucker's crazy. You know, he's fucking scary.
Speaker 1: He's fucking scary. Wait, Josh, so the West Wing podcast,
Speaker 1: when did you start it and when did you end it?
Speaker 1: March twenty sixteen, and then I believe the final wrap
Speaker 1: up episode was on my birthday January seventeen, twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: so it was about four years. Just shy of four years.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, we did a live show of the eighth Theater.
Speaker 1: Oh the Ace. That's huge. Oh nice, the theater's fucking massive. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Fun fact about the season one of Scandal. I was
Speaker 1: a guest star in all seven episodes of season one,
Speaker 1: and I remember Kerry One saying to me, so, I'm
Speaker 1: in every episode of season one, and you're in every
Speaker 1: episode of season one, but I'm a series regular and you,
Speaker 1: Josh our guest star. What does that mean? I said?
Speaker 1: You know how, at the end of the week, you
Speaker 1: get a lot of money. At the end of the week,
Speaker 1: I get very little money. And that's what the difference is,
Speaker 1: Isn't that always a bitch? I've been in the positions
Speaker 1: and then you always feel bad and your agents are
Speaker 1: always like you either got to walk away or you know,
Speaker 1: just accepted and keep doing the job. Oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: that happens now more than ever, usually I would just
Speaker 1: stay and keep doing the job for no money, because
Speaker 1: you don't want to lose a job. Yeah. No, I
Speaker 1: wanted to work for Sean to Rhymes. I had done
Speaker 1: episodes Practice and Gray's Anatomy. You did you did a Grayze? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah? Were you adorable? Wait? What did you play
Speaker 1: on Grays? I was young, I'm Gray's I was Leslie
Speaker 1: Grossman's husband and she needed a fecal transplant and I
Speaker 1: had great lines like no poop, no poop for you.
Speaker 1: You came onto the right podcast, Josh, because we talk
Speaker 1: about poop a lot. We talk about shitting like nobody's business.
Speaker 1: But wait, Josh, two things one. We wanted to have
Speaker 1: you on this episode two oh one because congratulations, this
Speaker 1: is when you became a series regular. So now you
Speaker 1: can continue your story of why the first seven were
Speaker 1: you a little bitch? And then the first episode of
Speaker 1: season two, why did it change? And my other story
Speaker 1: I want to say really quickly is that when we
Speaker 1: shot the pilot, you walked onto the set and it
Speaker 1: is the only time I think I've told you this,
Speaker 1: and your head's about to get big. It's the only
Speaker 1: time in seven seasons that I saw Shanda Rimes get starstruck.
Speaker 1: She loves you so much. Josh Wilena walked on and
Speaker 1: she was like, yeah, oh my god, I'm freaking out.
Speaker 1: I'm freaking out. I was like, I'm kind of freaking
Speaker 1: out too, but she was like, I'm totally freaking out.
Speaker 1: Like I love Josh Willna. She was a big West
Speaker 1: Wing fan, right, yeah, and really quickly you played Seth
Speaker 1: Hammer on Grey's Anatomy. There it is, that's right, Seth Hammer.
Speaker 1: It was Hammer time for a week. Why did you
Speaker 1: become a regular? How did this happen? Well, here's what happened.
Speaker 1: I had been offered episodes of Private Practice and Grey's
Speaker 1: Anatomy because in fact, I think Seanna's a big West
Speaker 1: Wing fan, and she couldn't have been nice to me
Speaker 1: when I worked on that. My agents called Shonda Rhimes
Speaker 1: has a pilot. I'm like, well, doesn't she just want
Speaker 1: to give it to me? Like she keeps offering me
Speaker 1: episode And the answer was no, she doesn't just want
Speaker 1: to give it to you. She wants you to audition.
Speaker 1: And then I went in and I remember, very awkward,
Speaker 1: this is really weird. You know, there's like usually a
Speaker 1: chair for the actor, but there was just an open
Speaker 1: space and then there was a chair like next against
Speaker 1: the wall, and I went and I just kind of
Speaker 1: sat in it next to the wall. And then I
Speaker 1: was like, well, this can't be right. And they were like, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's a weird instinct and why you stand up and
Speaker 1: do the scenes? And I did them and I felt
Speaker 1: like it went well, and Hynda Rhyme said, well, that's
Speaker 1: all I need to see. Oh wow, which you could
Speaker 1: take one or two ways. And I remember calling my
Speaker 1: agents and going like, either I've ruined my relationship with
Speaker 1: Rynda Rhymes or I think maybe they're gonna give it
Speaker 1: to me, like because she said that's all I need
Speaker 1: to see. Do you remember what the scenes were? I
Speaker 1: remember one where like I talked about her spidy senses
Speaker 1: or something. Oh yeah, yeah, so it scenes with Olibya.
Speaker 1: Maybe when she knocks on your door and you have
Speaker 1: the dartmouth sweater on and you're so cute and you're
Speaker 1: wearing like a darknesth sweat. Cute, you're very sweet. I
Speaker 1: think that's exactly what it was. And then what they
Speaker 1: said was this you got the pilot, And I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled, and there's this amount of money and I
Speaker 1: was like, wow, that's pretty good. They said, wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: but you can choose how many episodes do you want
Speaker 1: to be in for the same amount of money what?
Speaker 1: In other words, what it came out to was seven
Speaker 1: times minimum, right, So they were like, if you want
Speaker 1: to be in the entire season, you just have to
Speaker 1: work for minimum in every episode, or you can think
Speaker 1: a really nice big check for one or a pretty
Speaker 1: good check for two. And I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: want to I don't care. Yeah, I want to be
Speaker 1: in all of them. Did you feel like you wanted
Speaker 1: to be in all them? Because then you were like,
Speaker 1: that's going to make my character like you need needed. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it made it. It It seemed like the greatest chance of
Speaker 1: becoming a regular. And in the end, we actually made
Speaker 1: a contract where I signed up to do all seven
Speaker 1: as a guest star, and there was already in the
Speaker 1: contract that if they were to go to a second
Speaker 1: season and if they wanted me, I would be a regular.
Speaker 1: And I was just desperately like waiting, Wait, was Dan
Speaker 1: Bukatinsky auditioning for David Rosen as well? Yes, he was
Speaker 1: no way. Unfortunately, didn't get it, but he did get
Speaker 1: an Yeah he did, Yeah, he did. He also did
Speaker 1: auditioned for Hawk too. Yeah. Well that shows one of
Speaker 1: the nice things about Shanda, which is that she is
Speaker 1: like Aaron Sorkin. She has people she loves to work with,
Speaker 1: and she'll give you your shot and figure out where
Speaker 1: she might be able to slot you in, Like she
Speaker 1: loves Dan's work, and like, all right, this role, maybe
Speaker 1: that's not Claire, this isn't Oh, I think we found
Speaker 1: the one, and so we're lucky to be in her
Speaker 1: in her sphere of players. When you came on board
Speaker 1: and started to like, see why I say you're controversial
Speaker 1: is because our cast is incredibly gushy and huggy and
Speaker 1: kissy and lovey and texty, and Josh is like not
Speaker 1: was the West Wing cast like really cool and like whatever?
Speaker 1: And then you got into our cast and you were like,
Speaker 1: this is insane. These people love each other way too much.
Speaker 1: But they have to stop hugging at every table read
Speaker 1: nobody fucking cares stop. Yeah. I think the West Wing
Speaker 1: was somewhere on the spectrum between my like let's never
Speaker 1: talk to each other or touch each other and the
Speaker 1: scandal ethos of life. Let's just have a big friendship.
Speaker 1: Origin somewhere between those two is west Wing. It was
Speaker 1: probably right in the middle, got it. Speaking of texting, though,
Speaker 1: I remember Josh did love texting on other people's phones,
Speaker 1: That's true. And what he would text was I'm horny.
Speaker 1: I'd put it on Twitter. Oh my god. He never
Speaker 1: did it to me, but you've done it to Katie
Speaker 1: three times. Now, let's set the scene ten years ago.
Speaker 1: I don't think I even had a lock on my phone,
Speaker 1: to be honest. I mean, I was just that naive
Speaker 1: and trustworthy. I just remember chasing you and being like,
Speaker 1: give me back my phone, and he'd get on my
Speaker 1: Twitter account and he would just tweet from my Twitter
Speaker 1: account I'm morny. And then I would just get like
Speaker 1: days of like, why is it Adam taking care of that?
Speaker 1: Just mortified. But that's just the beginning. Have you been
Speaker 1: a prankster your whole life? I have, Indeed I have.
Speaker 1: When I guessed are in other people's shows, I'm usually
Speaker 1: well behaved, but then once I start feeling comfortable as
Speaker 1: a series regular on something like now I'm bored, let's
Speaker 1: have some fire, and I usually feel like I won't
Speaker 1: get fired and unscandaled a couple of times it was like,
Speaker 1: Seanda and Betsy needs to talk about. What did they
Speaker 1: talk to you about? And were you like really scared?
Speaker 1: The first time, I finished filming a scene and Ad
Speaker 1: came to me and said, hey, don't change out of
Speaker 1: your wardrobe. You need to go straight to Shanda and
Speaker 1: Betsy's office. And I was like really, And I said
Speaker 1: what about and She's like, I don't know. They didn't say,
Speaker 1: And I was, as I was walking there, was thinking,
Speaker 1: can't be getting a raised. It can't be good. It
Speaker 1: seems unlikely that this is good news. And when I
Speaker 1: got up there, it wasn't good news. Jimmy Kimmel, who
Speaker 1: was a prankster himself, had sent me all these codes
Speaker 1: that allow you to send a text or an email
Speaker 1: as if it's from a specific person's phone. And I
Speaker 1: remember writing back to Jimmy like, this is great. Do
Speaker 1: you think it would be a bad idea to write
Speaker 1: emails from Shonda Rhymes to people? And he said no,
Speaker 1: I think that would be a great idea, but I
Speaker 1: would wait until Scar handles off the year right now. No,
Speaker 1: I was like, it's April Fool's Day, like, how can
Speaker 1: I not do this? And I just wrote an email
Speaker 1: to Tom Verica, our executive directing producer, and I wrote
Speaker 1: him an email from Shanda that just said not cool.
Speaker 1: Tom must have lost his ship. Well, as it turns out,
Speaker 1: he was in the middle of renegotiating his contract. This
Speaker 1: is just bad timing renegotiating. Josh, Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I figured he'd see it. He knows it's April fools
Speaker 1: will probably call me and be like, dude, did you
Speaker 1: do this? Or he'll call Shana the laugh. But weeks
Speaker 1: passed and I was like, oh, maybe it didn't even
Speaker 1: go through, like a VI should worry about. Then I
Speaker 1: got this thing like go see them in their office
Speaker 1: and I sat down and they started saying, like Tom
Speaker 1: Verica got an email. I was like, oh, not cool Tom, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they were like, don't impersonate. How did they even
Speaker 1: find out that it was you? They didn't. I think
Speaker 1: they they just went through. They were like, it's gotta
Speaker 1: be Josh. Apparently there was a whole like Disney ABCNE investigation.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I think they like, I don't think
Speaker 1: they forensically traced it to me. I think just someone
Speaker 1: said like, who's the asshole, who's most likely to have
Speaker 1: done this? I remember vague things after this came out
Speaker 1: that they were like, holy shit, Shanda thought she had
Speaker 1: been hacked. They had hired like people to look through
Speaker 1: with the server and make sure that no one else
Speaker 1: was emailing up. The definitely escalated into something I didn't anticipate,
Speaker 1: as pranks sometimes do, and that was a bummer. And
Speaker 1: then the second time, which was really bad, was when Porscherosi,
Speaker 1: whom I love and played my love interest on and off,
Speaker 1: she was leaving. She was filming her final day, and
Speaker 1: so I took I can't even remember whether there was
Speaker 1: a sunscreen or vasoline, and I put it under the
Speaker 1: door handle on the driver's side of her crazy expensive
Speaker 1: car in the parking spot next to mine. Every day
Speaker 1: I'd be like, oh a Lamborghini. Oh you've been wow, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Look this is my love language. I wouldn't do it
Speaker 1: to somebody I didn't like, but I expected to hear
Speaker 1: from Porsche like that night or the next morning, like
Speaker 1: you got me, and blah blah blah. Never heard anything again.
Speaker 1: Weeks passed again, I finished filming a scene and somebody
Speaker 1: was like, you have to go straight to there. I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: not this again. And I remember I went up there
Speaker 1: and I was nervously eating candy from the little candy
Speaker 1: jar waiting in the empty room too, I guess Shunda's thing.
Speaker 1: And she walked past me and the first time ever,
Speaker 1: she gave me a death stare, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is really bad, like because usually
Speaker 1: I can see she like kind of even though I'm
Speaker 1: a rasper, but this was dead. This was thousand yards stare.
Speaker 1: Like I just I ran Cole. I mean, I'm sweating
Speaker 1: actually just telling the story. And I went in and
Speaker 1: I think I said, what is it this time? Like
Speaker 1: fray ice and they were not having it. They were
Speaker 1: not laughing, and I think I then said, please tell
Speaker 1: me this isn't about portions, car door handle, and they
Speaker 1: were like, yeah, as a matter of fact, that is
Speaker 1: what it's about. And again, bad timing didn't occur to me.
Speaker 1: The final scene she was filming spoiler alert, Can I
Speaker 1: give this? Maybe not? Okay. I believe she died by
Speaker 1: being beaten to death with a golf club. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so she was leaving the show. I'm sure that had
Speaker 1: some emotion in it. She had filmed getting killed by
Speaker 1: golf club for seven hours, and at three in the
Speaker 1: morning she went to her car and she got a
Speaker 1: handful of asoline and she thought like, wow, somebody hates me.
Speaker 1: And I was like, whoa, no, And I remember saying
Speaker 1: that you're absolutely right to be upset about this. The
Speaker 1: last thing I wanted to do was upset her. I've
Speaker 1: talked about doing this thing. I thought she would know immediately.
Speaker 1: Here's what I can tell you. I can tell you
Speaker 1: that I'm going to walk out of this office. I'm
Speaker 1: going to text Porsche and I give you my word,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be long before I come back
Speaker 1: with a text that's like, oh my god, you got me.
Speaker 1: And they were like okay, and I walked out and run.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. I'm the one who did vassily and
Speaker 1: you know I love you, and it literally she wrote
Speaker 1: back like, oh my god, I love and I want
Speaker 1: back in and I was like, does this get me
Speaker 1: off the hook? I showed them my phone. God damn you, Josh,
Speaker 1: my guy. I remember Betsy saying essentially, we are accomplished
Speaker 1: women who have more important things to do than field
Speaker 1: phone calls from Elen DeGeneres, who's mad that her who
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, You're absolutely right. This
Speaker 1: is a reflection on the fact that I am not
Speaker 1: the complience. I have nothing but free time to do
Speaker 1: these kinds of things, and it really shouldn't spill over
Speaker 1: into your busy days. I'm terribly sorry. I would like
Speaker 1: to continue working here. Please accept my Oh God, and Josh.
Speaker 1: Because you are you, you will always get off, like
Speaker 1: I just think. I mean, I just even if it's
Speaker 1: by this the skin of your teeth, you will get off.
Speaker 1: And I don't know why or how you've made it
Speaker 1: this far. I mean, that would scare me enough where
Speaker 1: I don't think I'll skate that close to the edge
Speaker 1: ever again. Because I was thinking if I have to
Speaker 1: call my wife and go like I lost my job
Speaker 1: as scandal and when she says why, I say, well,
Speaker 1: think kick out of this, and she would have been right, like,
Speaker 1: what's wrong with you? Grow up? You're in your fifties. Okay,
Speaker 1: next question, how the fuck did you? Okay, first of all,
Speaker 1: I know you shit all over. Well, you're really interesting
Speaker 1: all over, like like being being an actor and like
Speaker 1: you know, you're not actorly in that, but it's really
Speaker 1: bullshit because I do think somewhere in your heart you
Speaker 1: of it. Oh no, I do love it. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I watched this episode and I was like, I'm always thinking,
Speaker 1: I'm going to think for the first time like that
Speaker 1: was pretty good. Not watching I was like, my voice
Speaker 1: is terrible bad ourselves though, because no one else is
Speaker 1: thinking that, Josh, you're you're so good. Yeah, I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to make you say Oh, We've been saying it, yo.
Speaker 1: We've taped how many episodes already, and we are constantly
Speaker 1: saying how great you are. And this episode doesn't even
Speaker 1: it doesn't even show the caliber of your work. That
Speaker 1: episode when you wake up and there's a dead woman
Speaker 1: in your bed like you were, that was brilliant in
Speaker 1: that episode, such great work wrote you like amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: whether or not it's to your taste. They wrote for
Speaker 1: you sex scenes and murder and fucking jury shit and
Speaker 1: like you're a school teacher and you're afraid and you're
Speaker 1: like you got to do a lot of Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: For the first few episode I thought I was on
Speaker 1: a procedural. I was like, this is where you basically
Speaker 1: give the same performance in the same character for seven
Speaker 1: years hopefully or eight years and nine years and nothing changes.
Speaker 1: Then like whatever. A few episodes in, I was like,
Speaker 1: what I read the script like, she's having sex in
Speaker 1: the shower. Yeah. I was just like, oh, this is insane.
Speaker 1: And then a few more episodes later, I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm part of the insanity. There's still by
Speaker 1: the way, people who can't believe, like there's a woman
Speaker 1: who's been tweeting the last couple of weeks like not
Speaker 1: another sex scene with Josh Malina, like, Shanda, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? I was like, if you think you were
Speaker 1: surprised to be seeing me have sex, or do you
Speaker 1: think how surprised I was to open a script and
Speaker 1: be like, I'm having you and Abby. Abby and David
Speaker 1: Rosen were like the first couple I feel like on
Speaker 1: the show where we were like, oh my god, these
Speaker 1: are two lead characters that were going to put together
Speaker 1: like in a sexual scenario, and you guys had such
Speaker 1: I was surprised you guys. Oh, you guys were really good,
Speaker 1: but you were also like that that mean big brother
Speaker 1: who would do shit to Darby. Like on set, I
Speaker 1: remember we'd be rehearsed you're opa or wherever we had
Speaker 1: a scene and she would be holding her side. If
Speaker 1: she was sitting on a chair that had wheels, you
Speaker 1: would grab her and wheel her like fifty feet away too,
Speaker 1: or you would smack her sides like, oh josh, there
Speaker 1: are definitely people listening. Now we're laughing as if it's great,
Speaker 1: and there are people listening to how going he is,
Speaker 1: but you're Shanda's always talking about her No, Ashole apologies,
Speaker 1: like how did this go? I'm telling you we've talked
Speaker 1: about this on this podcast. You won't listen to it,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't matter. But let me tell you your face. No,
Speaker 1: we talk about how fucking good you are. And my
Speaker 1: question is I don't understand how you're that good when
Speaker 1: you don't try and I try so hard, And how
Speaker 1: do you memorize lines in the makeup chair? Yeah? Why
Speaker 1: does your brain work like that? Like we just watched
Speaker 1: the episode that where we're like, you sit and you
Speaker 1: have this amazing monologue where you're like, stab, stab stab, Oh,
Speaker 1: how I love to stab And it's a whole monologue
Speaker 1: that's iron and Harrison like stop talking, stop talking, and
Speaker 1: you just go on and on and on. But like,
Speaker 1: do you never prepare or the night before look over stuff?
Speaker 1: What's your process? That's a good question. Just because Shanda
Speaker 1: listens to this, I want to defend myself. I take
Speaker 1: it seriously to on a certain level. I do try.
Speaker 1: I read a script once to be like, let's see
Speaker 1: what the story is. Although if I'm probably honest, I
Speaker 1: read my scenes first. I do that too, though I
Speaker 1: do that too. Now that it's all delivered Electrono be,
Speaker 1: you can just search En Rosen Rosen, like, Okay, that's
Speaker 1: all my stuff. Now, let's figure out what's going on.
Speaker 1: And then when it was scandal, I would always send
Speaker 1: the script to my dad and then I'd be like,
Speaker 1: so explain to me what's going on. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I should have done that. Me and Katie should have
Speaker 1: done that. Send it to your dad, because sometimes we
Speaker 1: would be like, what's happening? Yeah? I was like, my
Speaker 1: dad and my mom are like my biggest supporters, and
Speaker 1: they always watched it and they kept track of it.
Speaker 1: I'm actually at their house right now, and I would
Speaker 1: often say to my dad, so, like, talk me through,
Speaker 1: like plot wise, I don't know why am I in
Speaker 1: court and I'm defending who what I you remember in
Speaker 1: season three and you killed that? And then so they
Speaker 1: watch everything you ever do, like backwards and forwards, just
Speaker 1: because they love you and they're so proud of you
Speaker 1: pretty much. Yes, that's true. They're very very supportive Jewish parents,
Speaker 1: so sweet. I do have a very good memory for dialogue.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I have for Lench yesterday, but
Speaker 1: I can remember dialogue very quickly. Has that changed since
Speaker 1: COVID or in Age? No? I don't think so. Now
Speaker 1: and now I'm doing plays, I realized how much I
Speaker 1: had trained myself to learn dialogue quickly and forget it quickly,
Speaker 1: Like if if I did shot this dialogue on Monday,
Speaker 1: I knew it cold, but on Tuesday Garol had that too,
Speaker 1: like an amazing short term memory. You can plug it
Speaker 1: in and then the next day it's fucking gone. The
Speaker 1: minute we walk off set, when that scene is done,
Speaker 1: it's out of my brain, like it's gone. And Katie
Speaker 1: would be like, let's try to do that scene we
Speaker 1: did like last month, and I was like, Katie, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? I can't even remembering what I
Speaker 1: would do it for fun. I memorize long haul though,
Speaker 1: like I'm such a theater bitch. But okay, if you
Speaker 1: had a big monologue on Scandal, would you learn it
Speaker 1: the night before or always in the makeup chair? Like
Speaker 1: what were you doing? I would definitely familiarize myself with
Speaker 1: it the night before, feeling that and not just out
Speaker 1: of laziness, but like some some smart person once said
Speaker 1: to me, like, you want to learn your stuff for TV,
Speaker 1: but just shy of knowing it cold so that it'll
Speaker 1: appear like you're finding it a little bit, like you know,
Speaker 1: seem like a human being. Yeah, it doesn't sound like
Speaker 1: they memorize something. So I got I'm very good at
Speaker 1: finding the line where like I got it pretty much.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sleep on out and gonna wake up and
Speaker 1: in the makeup chair, I'm gonna nail it down and
Speaker 1: I'll probably run it with the other persons also in
Speaker 1: the makeup chair. But I do remember one awkward day
Speaker 1: where we were all looking at our sides and I
Speaker 1: said something like, you know, you guys reminded who's Christine?
Speaker 1: And everybody just slowly looked at me in there like
Speaker 1: are you kidding? Like the whole season is about this character,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, I just remember being really embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, you're being see or you were
Speaker 1: like really no, I really don't know. I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't understand this scene. Why are we also obsessed
Speaker 1: with Christine or whatever it was? And they were just like,
Speaker 1: what is wrong with you? I was embarrassing. Wait, do
Speaker 1: you ever think about like what do I want in
Speaker 1: a scene? Or what's my moment before or anything? No? Right,
Speaker 1: like you just I just think you have that same
Speaker 1: actor chip in your brain, like like you're really good
Speaker 1: at text obviously between Sorkin and this show, like text
Speaker 1: is not an issue for you, and you're I'm telling you, Josh,
Speaker 1: your work in these two seasons. I'm so jealous because
Speaker 1: I know you're not right like my action or my
Speaker 1: objective or my like you know, thinking about beats or shifts.
Speaker 1: You You're just there. Yeah, I feel like I have
Speaker 1: a good instinct for it. But the truth is, usually
Speaker 1: when I watched my work, I'm like you were fine.
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not. I'm not usually like you, Like
Speaker 1: I'm horribly insecure. But maybe if I did some of
Speaker 1: those things you're saying, I'd be better than Maybe. I know.
Speaker 1: I that's what makes you so good. That's not part
Speaker 1: of your process. Do you think that is? Like, I
Speaker 1: think there's some effortlessness to something that's so difficult, you
Speaker 1: making it look like it's so fucking easy. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is for ladies and gentlemen. Josh Melina is about to
Speaker 1: be starring back on Broadway. He's been on Broadway before.
Speaker 1: If you can catch him, you should. In leopolch Doad
Speaker 1: written by the one and only fucking Tom Stoppard. I
Speaker 1: already have my tickets. I'm going June tenth with eight
Speaker 1: family members. Katie, I want to go, come with me
Speaker 1: June eighth. I'm going to see any gladiators listening. June eighth,
Speaker 1: I will be at Leopolchtads screaming and probably crying. It's
Speaker 1: that script is remarkable, It's amazing he's writing. I was seventeen,
Speaker 1: almost eighteen, and my dad's best friend was and still
Speaker 1: is Manny Aisenberg's famous amazing producer who produced Tom Stoppard's
Speaker 1: The Real Thing on Broadway. So I got invited to
Speaker 1: opening night and as a seventeen year old, I was
Speaker 1: suing and I was just like the writing like blue
Speaker 1: my mind is writing is unreal, and that literally forty
Speaker 1: years later, I believe him. See, this is why people
Speaker 1: keep you around. Really quickly. Since we're talking about some
Speaker 1: pass work, I'm gonna rattle off some of Josh's credits,
Speaker 1: give it because I live it this up and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my God, Like, there's so much and
Speaker 1: so much epic projects that he's done. A few good men,
Speaker 1: the American President, Tracy takes on clock Watches with my
Speaker 1: buddy Parker Posey, The Larry Sanders Show, Sports Night, The
Speaker 1: West Wing, Stargate, Grey's Anatomy, I Carly and my favorite
Speaker 1: Big Bank theory of course. But I'm also like a
Speaker 1: huge horror film fan. And you haven't been in a
Speaker 1: hart Phone, but you were in a thriller called Malice
Speaker 1: that Aaron Sorkin also wrote. Correct. Yes, but I was
Speaker 1: in one horror movie horror comedy called The Knights of Badass. Oh,
Speaker 1: and I think Steve zn was in it, Peter dank Lidge.
Speaker 1: It was comedy horror about a bunch of Larper's live
Speaker 1: action role players. I'm gonna watch it tonight and I'm
Speaker 1: coming over and I'm getting stoned and I'm watching it
Speaker 1: with you. Yes, it was low budget to begin with
Speaker 1: and then they didn't get the full effects budgets, like
Speaker 1: there's I know the director is not happy with like
Speaker 1: how it turned out, and I spoiler alert, have my
Speaker 1: jaw ripped off as I'm being filated by a wood tea. Well, listen,
Speaker 1: I went out Amazon Prime and I bought Malice because
Speaker 1: I wanted to watch it. When I looked up your credit,
Speaker 1: Josh plays this really cute like resident doctor or nurse
Speaker 1: who comes out and speaks to Bill Pullman. But it's
Speaker 1: a really fun like old school like eighties thriller movie.
Speaker 1: Well the funny. Patrick Marber, the director, when he was
Speaker 1: talking to me about potentially doing the role, said, and
Speaker 1: you know it takes place in Vietna, but we've toyed
Speaker 1: with doing Viens or German. We didn't do that, and
Speaker 1: it opened in London, so everyone, you know, he said,
Speaker 1: you don't have to sound British, but you can't sound America.
Speaker 1: Can do in Mexican like everyone isditionalist. So you're not
Speaker 1: even doing like heightened American, like like the Gilded Age
Speaker 1: or something. No, it's pretty fifty years ago. You couldn't
Speaker 1: get a foot in, you couldn't travel without a permit.
Speaker 1: That's really good, Josh, it's really good. Thank you. We
Speaker 1: will be back with more after the break now that
Speaker 1: I'm trying to jog my memory about like David Rosen's journey. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you auditioned for the role. Yes, Shanna was into you.
Speaker 1: You went, got called to the principal's office a few times.
Speaker 1: You had love interests with Abby Porsha and were you
Speaker 1: also with um Artemis. Yes, our missus lovely A Susan
Speaker 1: Oh and Zoe Perry and Zoe Perry and off camera
Speaker 1: but dirty, dirty Susie whatever her name was, with the way,
Speaker 1: we didn't when we have Shanna back on, got to
Speaker 1: ask her like, I don't think there's a single character
Speaker 1: on our show that went through that many Like, what's
Speaker 1: that about? For sure? That is just Shana going. I
Speaker 1: can do anything on television. I can take the least
Speaker 1: attractive oldest member of my cast and have him have
Speaker 1: more Susan. I'm telling you that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1: You were successfully pranked by us and the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Remember,
Speaker 1: Oh Kimmel happens to be in this episode. Yes, Kimmel
Speaker 1: is in an episode two one, that's right, and he's
Speaker 1: interviewing the congressman Jacob Shaw, who's the case of the week,
Speaker 1: and we love Kimmel, but he approached us like by
Speaker 1: the end of Scandal, they were like, we want to
Speaker 1: get Josh. And they spent so much money on this prank, Like, well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I had had an idea and I
Speaker 1: remember pitching our pr people like Bachelor has all these
Speaker 1: watch parties, and the Bachelor people show up, they're surprised.
Speaker 1: They love it, like everybody's having their wine and popcorn
Speaker 1: Scandal watching part parties. Why don't we like surprise a
Speaker 1: few people and like maybe it's a nice way to
Speaker 1: go out with the final season. And they did it
Speaker 1: through Good Morning America and Tony was the first and
Speaker 1: this was all part of the Yeah. Then they were like, Josh,
Speaker 1: you have to do one of these And I actually
Speaker 1: really didn't watch, like I don't want to do it,
Speaker 1: but it really speaks to your horror, which is as
Speaker 1: much as Josh, Willie's a prankster, smartest person in the
Speaker 1: room keeps his life interesting by like really pushing boundaries
Speaker 1: with people. But Josh, you with fans is ridiculous, Like
Speaker 1: you give them all the time in the world. You're
Speaker 1: nice to say. I mean, I know you're very nice
Speaker 1: to say that, and I know it comes from like
Speaker 1: I can't believe anybody's happy to see me, so I'm like,
Speaker 1: gotta keep your fans happy, like so you keep in business,
Speaker 1: and like also just appreciation for people who are appreciating me,
Speaker 1: Like Scandal fans are the best I did enjoy. So
Speaker 1: the prank was about them asking you to show at
Speaker 1: the end of this run. You know, they asked me
Speaker 1: and Josh to come to a Scandal Roch watch party
Speaker 1: and they we knew they would be watching Scandal and
Speaker 1: we would walk in and it was up to me
Speaker 1: to convince Josh that he should use a confetti blower thing.
Speaker 1: And when we call in, god one of those guns
Speaker 1: a confetti cannon. I remember, we go in, they're watching
Speaker 1: Candle Can See and we pop in with our with
Speaker 1: our camera. Boom, I pulled the confettiti hey, and like
Speaker 1: everyone's laughing and having fun. And then I see the
Speaker 1: mom in her chair like seemed really startled by the
Speaker 1: confetti can clutching her chest for this and she's actually
Speaker 1: clutching her chest and I'm starting to think, like, oh,
Speaker 1: that was this is bad. We really, we really scared
Speaker 1: this woman. Then I'm like, oh, no, she'sn't. Actually she's
Speaker 1: a medical discomper, and I will admit it was nice
Speaker 1: enough to like I definitely I went over and I
Speaker 1: think I held her hand and I was trying to
Speaker 1: calm down. The one thing I did was also cover
Speaker 1: my ass because I'm thinking that if she died, did
Speaker 1: I kill her? Is this like second agreement? Voluntary? Man?
Speaker 1: And you can see me in the actual video of
Speaker 1: the press. I'm only being quiet because I can't believed this. No,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, and I say to her something like they
Speaker 1: handed me the thing, or yeah, it wasn't my idea,
Speaker 1: sort of like I'm trying to lay down my legal
Speaker 1: case for when And then next thing I know, I
Speaker 1: hear I hear a siren and like an ambulance has
Speaker 1: been called, and I'm like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: actually happening. And the paramedics burst through with the COT
Speaker 1: but one of the paramedics is Jimmy Kimmel, and my
Speaker 1: mind is like, what's going on? And I'm like, why
Speaker 1: You've got me so bad? They throw me into the stretcher.
Speaker 1: I'm deeply embarrassed, but also usually really that I didn't
Speaker 1: kill this woman. And they wheel me outside, and unbeknownst
Speaker 1: to me, they were concerned that I would not fall
Speaker 1: for it and they wanted to back up freaking frank.
Speaker 1: So there's a fire engine in the driveway and I
Speaker 1: get sit up and they blast me from the what
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they blasted with a fire hole the old
Speaker 1: lady actress. I had been there all day rehearsing for
Speaker 1: like three hours, like different ways the scene could go.
Speaker 1: I have never done a prank in my entire life.
Speaker 1: I am so wildly uncomfortable with making people upset or
Speaker 1: feel bad or like pranking to me is like I'm
Speaker 1: one of those people that gives it up right away.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm just kidding, We're just so. Then I
Speaker 1: remember the garage door slowly opening and there's like video
Speaker 1: village is in there, and we all have earbuds in
Speaker 1: like all the actors in a scene. The older woman
Speaker 1: who pretend to have a heart attack me, we had
Speaker 1: earbuds in case. The director was like, oh, it was insane.
Speaker 1: They spent like a billion dollars. It was insane. And
Speaker 1: also I remember before we did it, our publicist. I
Speaker 1: think it was Chris and Anderson at the time, calling
Speaker 1: you and saying, do you know if Josh has ever
Speaker 1: had a heart attack or if someone recently that he
Speaker 1: loves has had a heart attack, because we want to
Speaker 1: do this, but we also like don't want it to
Speaker 1: go horribly awry in case it like God, we don't know,
Speaker 1: like maybe his aunt or someone just had a heart
Speaker 1: attack and he's just going to be Oh, that's actually
Speaker 1: very unwell. And I remember thinking afterwards I wish I
Speaker 1: had been onto what they were doing. If I figured
Speaker 1: it out, I could have then pretended myself to have
Speaker 1: a heart attack and see if I could survived it.
Speaker 1: I would not have the best man ever. But unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it turns out that the fact that you do practical
Speaker 1: jokes and pranks for thirty years doesn't mean that you're
Speaker 1: any less gullible than anybody else. Because I fell for
Speaker 1: it completely. I remember actually texting Kimmel when I was
Speaker 1: going to bed that night. I was like, well done,
Speaker 1: and he rubbed back to me like was that real?
Speaker 1: Did you really fall for that? Like he actually almost
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. I was like, dude, that was a
Speaker 1: h but how could you not? That wasn't just like
Speaker 1: a run of the mill fucking thing. I mean that
Speaker 1: was like actors who would rehearse if we were doing
Speaker 1: the drop in for Kimmel's, if you would have America
Speaker 1: my mind. But I don't think good Morning America is
Speaker 1: doing this. Nothing occurred. Luckily you have Kimmel's phone number.
Speaker 1: Fucking Katie has sean to rhyme's phone number number. Wait
Speaker 1: really quickly about this episode? What was the parts and
Speaker 1: you watched last night that you thought you were uh yeah,
Speaker 1: in the courtroom. I have memories of shooting this episode
Speaker 1: because it was a lot of me. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of people sitting well, I strut
Speaker 1: around doing things, and part of it was literally vocally,
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't sound like you want to
Speaker 1: you know when you're like, and isn't it true you
Speaker 1: want to be one of those you say what the hell? Hell?
Speaker 1: You keep saying what the hell when they let Quinn
Speaker 1: in this episode to jog all of your listeners memory,
Speaker 1: this is the episode where who is Quinn Perkins? Who
Speaker 1: is Quinn Perkins? But wait, okay, so you thought your
Speaker 1: acting was bad? You say what the hell? A lot
Speaker 1: what did you feel like when you read this script?
Speaker 1: Not about this episode where Darby us to put her
Speaker 1: hand in your mouth or you're something like that. I
Speaker 1: felt very similarly to the way I felt when I
Speaker 1: finally watched it. I was like, I don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on? Is this supposed to be sexy? Is this
Speaker 1: some sort of BDSM? Is this? And I was hot?
Speaker 1: I read it, we shot it, I watched it, and
Speaker 1: I still never figured out what Josh I can't um Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: there's more, There's more, this more, okay. This is the
Speaker 1: first episode that marked both Bellama Young and Josh Molina
Speaker 1: a series regulars. You guys went to Yale, but not
Speaker 1: at the same time. She is younger than I, so
Speaker 1: she she knew who I was. She did not, She
Speaker 1: did no, I think, because I think we were actually
Speaker 1: maybe in Guys and Dolls together. The idea that she
Speaker 1: may have had a smaller roller or been in the
Speaker 1: ensemble and I had a lead. It's funny because I
Speaker 1: can't sing and she has a beautiful voice. Did you
Speaker 1: do a ton of plays in college? Josh? I did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm an undergraduate theater said he's major. Every now and
Speaker 1: then people think like, oh, you went to Yale drama school.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, I went to the other one and
Speaker 1: was a drama made. I went to the knot because
Speaker 1: they just drama school, but I knew I wanted to
Speaker 1: be an actual already, and my parents were like, for
Speaker 1: the love of God, get a college degree. Also, what
Speaker 1: it was your degree in. It's not like it didn't
Speaker 1: help me at all with acting and wouldn't have helped
Speaker 1: me in anything else. Do you remember what the first
Speaker 1: play was that you did? There? I do, I did.
Speaker 1: Christopher Durrang's sister, Mary Ignatius explains it all. Wow, do
Speaker 1: you have any memories from the first two seasons that
Speaker 1: stick out? Do you have any memories from the pilot?
Speaker 1: I remember shooting those scenes at the door with Kerry
Speaker 1: and scene in a bar with Kerry. Most of my
Speaker 1: stuff was with Kerry, and I just remember liking her
Speaker 1: a lot, like like I just remember vibing like she's cool.
Speaker 1: First of all, Like whenever the number one person on
Speaker 1: the culture it is cool. It's like, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a very good sign. Did you feel like at the
Speaker 1: end of season one, like we're definitely going to get
Speaker 1: a season too? Did you feel like it would was
Speaker 1: going to be one hundred and twenty four episodes show.
Speaker 1: I just remember early on thinking it was a procedural approach,
Speaker 1: and procedurals, if they hit, they last a long time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they last a long time, and they're they're worth a
Speaker 1: lot in syndication because you can play him in any
Speaker 1: order and it doesn't matter, and people can pop in
Speaker 1: and watch a rerun or whatever. And then once it
Speaker 1: started turning into this insane show that was burning through plot,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, this episode has as
Speaker 1: much plot as a full season of another show, Like
Speaker 1: this cannot sustain. So I started getting nerves. Even as
Speaker 1: the show was getting like better and more interesting and
Speaker 1: crazy and it was fun, I was like, this is
Speaker 1: gonna this might be a death sentence. We'd already shot
Speaker 1: the president by like the thirteenth episode in it, It's like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck are I gonna do? No, exactly. I
Speaker 1: underestimated the fiendish creative mind of Shanda Rhimes and her
Speaker 1: writers because like they never had any problem coming up
Speaker 1: with seven plots per episode that were completely insane, and like, oh,
Speaker 1: they can keep this running as long as they want,
Speaker 1: Like this is why I'm not a writer and they are.
Speaker 1: But then I also remember when it was like taking
Speaker 1: off on Twitter and I was like again literally like
Speaker 1: butterflies on my stumble, Like I think this maybe turning
Speaker 1: into a thing like everybody's talking about and people are
Speaker 1: stopping me in the street, Like it really was a
Speaker 1: fun ride with an incredible group of people, Like to
Speaker 1: get one of those in a career is like more
Speaker 1: than you can hope for. I remember thinking, is this
Speaker 1: going to be like a Graze Anatomy situation? Like are
Speaker 1: we gonna go for like twelve thirteen seasons? And then
Speaker 1: you know, obviously Shanda knew there was a beginning, middle,
Speaker 1: and an end to the to the show, and she
Speaker 1: let us know that it was ending it. But I
Speaker 1: think we were all so bummed, right because the network
Speaker 1: wanted us to keep going. I was like, wait what,
Speaker 1: I know. I was definitely. I even remember as Shanda
Speaker 1: was telling us in the conference call like that she
Speaker 1: was ending it. I was text neighbor and we're like, god, yeah,
Speaker 1: you were texting me like oh yeah, like how could
Speaker 1: you we have the white whale? We have the fucking
Speaker 1: white hat. Yeah, you're the best. I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: see you. Yeah, this is so much fun. I realized
Speaker 1: how much I'm missing that. When I don't see you,
Speaker 1: I don't miss you at all. But now that I'm
Speaker 1: seeing you, I really I was like I did like
Speaker 1: them more than they realized. To our gladiators, I haven't
Speaker 1: earned it a dime since the show went off the air,
Speaker 1: but thank you for that brief window in my life
Speaker 1: when I didn't have to worry about money for like
Speaker 1: five years. It's awesome all because of you, guys, Josh,
Speaker 1: you had the best. We love you. Love you, guys.
Speaker 1: Tell George we love him and we'll be bugging him asap.
Speaker 1: I'll tell him he's not on the show. Twe tweetie, tweet, tweet, tweet,
Speaker 1: twet tweet. Oh my god. People were fucking pumped from
Speaker 1: these tweets because this was the fucking season two premiere
Speaker 1: at ABC. Scandal fans tweet so ready for at Scanal
Speaker 1: babyc premiere hashtag one minute, don't hate hashtag, asked Scandal,
Speaker 1: and Lisa at Belenoir tweeted homemade shrimp hashtag I'm fancy
Speaker 1: retweet call me dolla. What y'all bringing to the Scandal
Speaker 1: watch party? So she made some cocon A shrimp and
Speaker 1: brought it to a Scandal watch party. A m at
Speaker 1: Everybody Loves DJ wrote, I'm ready to find out who
Speaker 1: the hell Quinn is tonight hashtag scandal ugh real yah
Speaker 1: at two Underscore, tol says, what the fuck is Quinn Perkins?
Speaker 1: Hashtag Scandal, hashtag gladiers in suits? Everyone's talking about Quinn
Speaker 1: at Chrissy B. Davis wrote, I had so many thoughts
Speaker 1: as to who Quinn could be. Will be happy to
Speaker 1: finally find out tonight hashtag scandal. I like that, And
Speaker 1: then Aaron at Aaron J. Cruise tweeted who of the
Speaker 1: Scandal cast is the most like the character they play?
Speaker 1: Hashtag asked Scandal. That's when we were doing that hashtag
Speaker 1: asked Scandal And then we would, you know, answer as
Speaker 1: many questions as we could, Yes, we did. Hashtag as
Speaker 1: Scandal forever. Who do you think is most like the
Speaker 1: character that they play? Fucking I think Carrie Washington as Olivia.
Speaker 1: I think so too in some ways. In some ways
Speaker 1: she's Olivia is not goofy, right, and Carrie's got a
Speaker 1: lot of Olivia popiner. I think I and Quinn have
Speaker 1: a lot of smarties. I think Josh Molina and David
Speaker 1: Rosen have some stuff. Everybody has a little bit of it,
Speaker 1: you don't, I mean, you know in the in the
Speaker 1: being quiet and sometimes wanting to be alone, and I
Speaker 1: could see that being you know, similar to myself and
Speaker 1: to talk. Yeah, but howk you literally make your voice
Speaker 1: and the mask of your face different. Oh yeah, Like
Speaker 1: you do things as your face is garmo that you
Speaker 1: don't do on your face as huk. That's so true.
Speaker 1: That's so true. Like you have a mask that actually
Speaker 1: like changes, which is fucking amazing to behold. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: next episode is called Grant for the People People. I
Speaker 1: don't remember what the fuck happened. I have no idea,
Speaker 1: but y'all are going to want to listen and stay
Speaker 1: tuned because you know it's going to be a good time.
Speaker 1: We gotta go watch it now, so we're ready for
Speaker 1: the next episode of this podcast. Any Gladiators that don't
Speaker 1: think Josh Willne is hot enough to have a sex
Speaker 1: scene leave him alone. He's so hot. I think he's sexy, sexy.
Speaker 1: I do too. Also, I'm so jealous that he's going
Speaker 1: to have lunch right now with George Newburn of the
Speaker 1: Century City Mall, we should go crashtass ship right now,
Speaker 1: he invited us. Did you get that text? No, I
Speaker 1: haven't even looked at my phone because we're doing a podcast.
Speaker 1: He texted us yesterday saying, Yo, I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: time you guys stopped recording, but I'm going to have
Speaker 1: lunch with George Newburn if you both like to come.
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't get that, but whatever, we don't want
Speaker 1: to go anyway. That is, yeah, but yo, Josh is
Speaker 1: so freaking smart and talented and fun to talk to,
Speaker 1: Like we could have done this for like three more hours,
Speaker 1: you know, Like he's so much fun. I love all
Speaker 1: the best, and he really was an important energy on Scan.
Speaker 1: He really wasn't important. He has so many great episodes
Speaker 1: where his work is superstellar. So we're definitely going to
Speaker 1: have him back. Yes, absolutely. I love you all so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. Thank you everyone, Thank you guys
Speaker 1: for joining us on Unpacking the Toolbox. If you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the show, please subscribe, share with your friends, rate, or
Speaker 1: leave us a review. Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey,
Speaker 1: Alex AlCH, Lauren Homan, Tyler Klang and Gabrielle Collins. Our
Speaker 1: producer and editor is Vince De Johnny, with music by
Speaker 1: Chad Fisher. Scandal is a production of ABC Signature, and
Speaker 1: you can follow along by rewatching Scandal on Hulu. Unpacking
Speaker 1: the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.