Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with Higheartradio.
Speaker 2: Scandal Rewatch, Posaz and Katie.
Speaker 3: Gee, Katy.
Speaker 4: Oh it's happening.
Speaker 1: Oh man, we are actually here. We're doing the Scandal
Speaker 1: Rewatch podcast Unpacking the Toolbox together together.
Speaker 5: I mean, don't get me wrong, I am very excited
Speaker 5: to rewatch episodes, which we have to tell you guys
Speaker 5: how it's been going. And we've been wanting to do
Speaker 5: a rewatch podcast and hang out with our fans. Are
Speaker 5: gladiators who we have missed for far too long. But really,
Speaker 5: this is just my excuse to hang out with my
Speaker 5: favorite person on the planet.
Speaker 1: Same. We just want to hang out together so we
Speaker 1: could talk shit and reminisce about one of the best
Speaker 1: shows on television. Yes, do you remember when the last
Speaker 1: time you watched like a Scandal episode? Well?
Speaker 4: Are you kidding?
Speaker 5: Okay, First of all, it has been ten years. We
Speaker 5: just celebrated the ten year anniversary of the pilot era.
Speaker 6: That's crazy.
Speaker 5: I don't think I have watched like I don't think
Speaker 5: I've watched any episodes of you.
Speaker 1: I don't think so either. You know, there was a
Speaker 1: moment there where they were still playing, like on ABC
Speaker 1: or SURE where I'd be flipping through channels and catch
Speaker 1: a glimpse. But I wouldn't I wouldn't stay. I would
Speaker 1: be I would sort of, you know, smile inside and
Speaker 1: sort of chuckle to myself, but then move on. I
Speaker 1: would didn't sit there and watch the whole episode. But
Speaker 1: being able to do that for the podcast was like
Speaker 1: a gift mat I have.
Speaker 5: To say again, like the biggest When I was like,
Speaker 5: we're doing this scandal rewatch podcast. It's called Unpacking the Toolbox, which,
Speaker 5: let's just take a moment. That is a freaking great title.
Speaker 1: It is the best title. I love it so much.
Speaker 5: It's so Huck and Quinn. It's so Huckleberry Quinn. It's
Speaker 5: so right for the gladiators, the oji. Gladiators. You know
Speaker 5: about our toolbox, you know about Huck and his tools.
Speaker 4: It's great. Okay, So I'm packing the toolbox.
Speaker 1: And there's a toolbox emoji now on Instagram.
Speaker 4: There's a toolbox emoji.
Speaker 5: So gladiators, suit the fuck up, tell your friends about
Speaker 5: this fucking podcast, and make sure you put the toolbox
Speaker 5: emoji when you do so. Yes, but right quick, I
Speaker 5: was like mostly excited to hang out with you because
Speaker 5: I'm obsessed with you and I think you're the most special,
Speaker 5: perfect human ever born, which I think you guys who
Speaker 5: watched the show know that Quinn and had a very
Speaker 5: special connection. But I was most freaked out about going
Speaker 5: back and watching the episodes.
Speaker 4: I was like, I don't know, I.
Speaker 1: Was freaked out, and they're low key excited because I
Speaker 1: was like, sometimes I'm like, sometimes I do enjoy watching myself,
Speaker 1: but I don't want like somebody to walk in and
Speaker 1: be like, you're watching yourself. So I was like every
Speaker 1: time Mikey would walk in, I'd be like, well, I
Speaker 1: have to do this for work. This is for work,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 5: See, I fucking hate watching myself.
Speaker 4: You couldn't pay me.
Speaker 5: Well, you could pay me a million dollars or do so,
Speaker 5: but I don't really like watching myself. And I was concerned,
Speaker 5: like is ten years too long or too short? Like
Speaker 5: what is the perfect amount to be watching the show.
Speaker 5: And because of this podcast, going back and rewatching these episodes,
Speaker 5: because G and I are taking this podcast very seriously.
Speaker 5: We are we are doing our research. We are watching
Speaker 5: the episodes backwards and forwards. We have amazing guests coming in, yes,
Speaker 5: to talk about their experiences and their process and how
Speaker 5: this whole thing went down.
Speaker 4: But I am loving the episode.
Speaker 6: Me too shocked about.
Speaker 1: It, like I don't remember shit, I don't remember. I
Speaker 1: don't remember these episodes. I mean, I remember moments and
Speaker 1: scenes here and there. But I'm enjoying it so much.
Speaker 4: Got gee too.
Speaker 1: And I feel like we were so caught up while
Speaker 1: we were shooting it. But now going back and being
Speaker 1: able to watch it without any distractions, It's.
Speaker 6: Such a good show.
Speaker 4: It's so good, and I feel like a gladiator.
Speaker 5: Yes, with a gladiator, I said, Quinn says gladiator in
Speaker 5: a suit. She wants to be a fucking gladiator in
Speaker 5: a suit in the pilot. But we were so in
Speaker 5: it when we were making the show, and then when
Speaker 5: we would even watch the episodes. Back then, we were
Speaker 5: so obsessed with tweeting that we really didn't focus and
Speaker 5: give my full attention to watching the episodes.
Speaker 4: And right now going back.
Speaker 5: And watching these episodes, I am such a man, I
Speaker 5: am such a fan, so excited.
Speaker 4: I am such an og gladiator.
Speaker 5: I love everyone's characters, the writing, the way that it
Speaker 5: was shot, the ins and outs.
Speaker 4: I'm just grateful already.
Speaker 6: And what's good.
Speaker 1: I want to say real quick too, that what's good
Speaker 1: about this podcast is even if you haven't rewatched the show,
Speaker 1: you're still gonna freaking enjoy the podcast because that's how
Speaker 1: fucking nutty and like fun and crazy and kooky me
Speaker 1: and Katie are getting on this podcast.
Speaker 4: Yeah we have fun.
Speaker 1: Yes, but if you can rewatch Scandal on Hulu, because
Speaker 1: it really is a freaking amazing show like no other.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it holds up. That's one thing.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm sure so many actors artists watch stuff
Speaker 5: they've shot in the past and like, oh wow, this
Speaker 5: thing is just coming gone and it doesn't really hold up.
Speaker 5: Scandal one hundred percent holds up. I am watching all
Speaker 5: the other critically claimed shows right.
Speaker 4: Now and Scandal is just as good.
Speaker 3: If not better.
Speaker 6: It's better.
Speaker 4: Yes, you yourself a favor.
Speaker 5: Listen to the podcast, rewatch the episodes, hang out with us.
Speaker 5: Every episode is going to be such a fucking good time.
Speaker 5: It's me and g hanging out shooting the shit. Yes,
Speaker 5: we are talking about plot. We have guests that come
Speaker 5: on that talk about their processes. We talk about what
Speaker 5: we ate for lunch, we talk about farts, we talk
Speaker 5: about crying, we talk about sex, we talk about tearstick,
Speaker 5: we talk about every single amazing actor, guest star, co star,
Speaker 5: and every horror film they've ever been in thanks to
Speaker 5: Germo Daz. Yeah, and then we just like hang out,
Speaker 5: make you laugh, have a good time, and feel like
Speaker 5: the Scandal fam is all back together again exactly again.
Speaker 6: It's all back together.
Speaker 1: And this is our first freaking show.
Speaker 5: It's the first podcast we've ever done.
Speaker 4: We are going back in time.
Speaker 5: It's the ten year anniversary since the pilot aired and
Speaker 5: drastically changed.
Speaker 4: All of our lives. Really.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and Gemo and I are wearing our tg T
Speaker 5: and Gemo.
Speaker 4: Delicious licious.
Speaker 1: I'm wearing a season two Scandal like baseball jersey type
Speaker 1: situation sands like the undershirt because it's too damn tight.
Speaker 1: Because this is old as hell, so.
Speaker 4: We deserve all the applause that we are fitting.
Speaker 5: We are going to be bringing out on this podcast
Speaker 5: all the vintage throwback Scandal things we got. Yeah, Okay, Gee,
Speaker 5: take me back to where you were in your life
Speaker 5: before Huck, What the heck were you doing?
Speaker 1: Honestly, I was at a point in my life where
Speaker 1: I was no joke, like I need a job, Like
Speaker 1: I really need a job. I was doing, you know,
Speaker 1: guest spots, and I I was I was still doing
Speaker 1: Weeds at the time, but I was recurring on Weeds,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't a steady gig, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: I loved being.
Speaker 1: On Weeds, but I was at that point in my
Speaker 1: life where I was like, I really need to book
Speaker 1: something significant.
Speaker 6: That's where I was in my life.
Speaker 1: So when Scandal came along, I was like fucking like,
Speaker 1: oh man, thank god.
Speaker 6: Where were you? Do you remember where you were at?
Speaker 5: Like right before, Oh my god, I was twenty eight.
Speaker 5: I just goten engaged to Adam Shapiro.
Speaker 1: At him, sweet sweet Adam.
Speaker 4: You know, and I was a baby sitter. Wah whoa
Speaker 4: wah wah wah.
Speaker 1: And you'd been doing that for years, right like you
Speaker 1: were in Nanny for a long time.
Speaker 5: I was a waitress for a decade and then I
Speaker 5: couldn't handle the food service industry anymore in Los Angeles
Speaker 5: because I would always wait on people that I was
Speaker 5: auditioning for. Literally, like I would have like screen tests
Speaker 5: and be auditioning, and then I would be like asking for.
Speaker 4: Their drink order.
Speaker 3: And yeah, exactly true.
Speaker 5: And so I was like, Oh, I could still babysit
Speaker 5: and pay my rent that way, but at least it's
Speaker 5: like behind closed doors and not as embarrassing. And so
Speaker 5: I was nannying for a very very fancy, high falutint
Speaker 5: family when the call for scandal came in and I
Speaker 5: remember being like, Oh, my god, her name is Quinn
Speaker 5: and my middle name is Quinn, and maybe that's a
Speaker 5: sign from.
Speaker 4: The universe that this is my part?
Speaker 5: Can this please be my part? Can this please save
Speaker 5: me from this? And similar to you, like I had
Speaker 5: been working, but not at the level you had been working,
Speaker 5: But I had been you know, I had done a
Speaker 5: bunch of guest stars. I had recurred on a couple shows.
Speaker 5: I had booked a pilot that didn't go Like there
Speaker 5: were some things, but it was never ever, ever steady
Speaker 5: enough where I could give up my side hustle exactly yeah.
Speaker 1: And I was at that place where I was like,
Speaker 1: am I gonna have to get aside hustle? No, like
Speaker 1: right before this, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I don't believe it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know how it is for actors, It
Speaker 1: ebbs and flows like it's.
Speaker 4: The craziest, it's feast or famine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you make good money and then that shit, that
Speaker 1: job ends and you're like, Okay, I have no idea
Speaker 1: what's next because we just got to go back to
Speaker 1: the drawing board, go back to auditioning.
Speaker 6: Yeah, do you.
Speaker 4: Remember the first time you and I met?
Speaker 6: Katie? I don't remember, do you?
Speaker 4: How dare you?
Speaker 5: Neither?
Speaker 4: Do I? I remember?
Speaker 1: I feel like you've always like we've always been connected,
Speaker 1: and you've always sort of been in my life since
Speaker 1: scandal started. So I but I don't remember exactly the moment.
Speaker 1: Was it at Prospect Studios where we werehearsed.
Speaker 4: It had to have been, but I don't remember either.
Speaker 1: Okay, you don't think, but I feel like me and
Speaker 1: you like gravitated towards each other, like emotionally and physically
Speaker 1: probably as well. We were like I love this girl,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like that happened right away.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we neither one of us may be able to
Speaker 5: remember the exact moment we met, but I do know
Speaker 5: that from the jump it was a love and a
Speaker 5: soulmate connection of like we are going to travel this
Speaker 5: life together.
Speaker 1: Yes, And then and then we had that tumultuous affair.
Speaker 1: But that's that's neither here nor there. We'll save that
Speaker 1: for the podcast. I love it to get it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, guys, keep listening. You can hear about me and
Speaker 5: Girmou's affair. I am in love with you though, and
Speaker 5: how could you not be? And I also just think
Speaker 5: we had those scenes in the pilot together. I feel
Speaker 5: like we have died that scene in the pilot where
Speaker 5: we were in the bathroom and you said, we don't
Speaker 5: cry here and you're a stray dog and Olivia takes us.
Speaker 1: But we also got the best scoop like me and
Speaker 1: me and you always had the scoop.
Speaker 6: Remember, sometimes we'd be on.
Speaker 1: Set talking talking about stuff or having telling a story
Speaker 1: or some bochinche. Bochincha is like scoop and Spanish, and
Speaker 1: they Carrie Carrie has serious fomo.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, she's always the last to know.
Speaker 1: But also Carrie would hear us and be we'd be
Speaker 1: so into telling into what we were talking about that
Speaker 1: she would feel that energy and walk.
Speaker 6: Over and be like, what are you guys talking about?
Speaker 1: Tell me and we'd be like, by.
Speaker 5: The way, that would be everybody and you and I
Speaker 5: we could talk. You guys will see as we get
Speaker 5: into the Scandal Rewatch podcast, Garmo and I can talk
Speaker 5: for one hundred thousand hours about absolutely nothing and it's
Speaker 5: hilarious and we love it. But that was how the
Speaker 5: entire seven years of Scandal was. And he and I
Speaker 5: are always talking, having fun, gossiping whatever, and everyone always
Speaker 5: gravitated towards.
Speaker 4: Our our energy, just like yeah, yeah, right man.
Speaker 5: They always entergy. So we always have the scoop. We
Speaker 5: knew what everybody was up to without the redo. Let's
Speaker 5: get this this premiere red carpet first episode of the
Speaker 5: Scandal Rewatch podcast, unpacking the toolbox off and running to
Speaker 5: the races.
Speaker 4: Numero una, we have got.
Speaker 5: Episode one oh one, titled Sweet Baby. It aired on
Speaker 5: April fifth in twenty twelve. It was written by Shonda Rimes.
Speaker 1: And it was directed by the brilliant Paul mcgwigin.
Speaker 5: Guest starring Wes Brown is Sally Saint, James Amy k
Speaker 5: Harmon is Ariel Massey.
Speaker 1: Brian Resmussen is Howie, Alan Coleman is Vlad and Marrek
Speaker 1: Probosk as ost. Good.
Speaker 5: All you gladiators listening know that one of the most
Speaker 5: important key elements of the special sauce. That made scandal
Speaker 5: scandal was the scandal pace at which we told stories.
Speaker 5: So let us warm your ears up and your heart's
Speaker 5: up by telling you weekly the synopsis of each episode
Speaker 5: that we're gonna dive into, and we're gonna tell you
Speaker 5: the synopsis of that episode.
Speaker 4: Yeh, in scandal pace.
Speaker 6: Give it to him. Let's give it to him.
Speaker 5: When Quinn Perkin starts a new job at crisis management firm,
Speaker 5: Olivia Popen associates she must stay on her toes to
Speaker 5: navigate the tricky cases they handle.
Speaker 1: The latest kind of OPA Sully Saint James stumbles into
Speaker 1: the office, distraught and covered in the blood of his
Speaker 1: dead girlfriend, adamant that he didn't kill her, but tight
Speaker 1: lipped on the details.
Speaker 5: Meanwhile, the White House is facing a scandal with the
Speaker 5: President and an aid and who else is brought in
Speaker 5: to fix the problem.
Speaker 4: But Olivia Pope, that's what I'm talking about. Guys, it's
Speaker 4: been a while. G and I. We need to do
Speaker 4: our vocal warm up.
Speaker 3: Do you need to do?
Speaker 1: Her bams his fist against the post. He still insists
Speaker 1: he sees the ghosts, remember that.
Speaker 5: One, But it's amazing. Oh my god, I'm obsessed with it. Okay,
Speaker 5: so we'll jog your memories. Every episode, we'll tell you
Speaker 5: the title, the director, the guest stars, the co stars,
Speaker 5: the synopsis in Scandal pace, and some episodes we're gonna
Speaker 5: have guests. Some episodes we ain't gonna have guests.
Speaker 4: But this episode we got to guest. And now we
Speaker 4: need a drum roll.
Speaker 1: People, Oh, I can't wait.
Speaker 4: We don't even need a drum roll.
Speaker 5: We also need a full on Stevie Wonder song, the
Speaker 5: Franklin Song, or any of the amazing songs that Scandal
Speaker 5: had to key up the Queen.
Speaker 1: I'm doing a little shuffle in my seat because I'm
Speaker 1: excited the Queen of Television.
Speaker 5: For the inaugural episode, we pull out the biggie.
Speaker 1: The big guns.
Speaker 5: Yes one, the only, the most special Queen Bee herself
Speaker 5: shut on rides. Hello, so funny, and we need to
Speaker 5: take a picture of this. But we're drinking out of
Speaker 5: our gladiator wine cups. It's too early in the morning
Speaker 5: to actually be drinking. Chattanuve debris.
Speaker 1: Who gave us these glasses? Did we get them from?
Speaker 1: Was it production that gifted these I don't even remember.
Speaker 3: You might have come from the network.
Speaker 5: I don't know, maybe wow, Well, you know what, there's
Speaker 5: gonna be hopefully a real opportunity for merch with this podcast,
Speaker 5: because this is a great wine. Shanda, can you tell
Speaker 5: us about where you got this idea, the origin story
Speaker 5: of Scandal Meeting Judy Smith writing the pilot.
Speaker 3: So I was busy at the time with Gray's and
Speaker 3: I think also private practice, and Betsy was like, I
Speaker 3: met this incredible woman, she got this incredible job. I
Speaker 3: wanted to talk to you about it. And I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't have time for this, you know, I'm just
Speaker 3: too busy and I wasn't thinking about creating another show.
Speaker 4: No, you already had to yeah, too much to do.
Speaker 3: So Betsy said, just sit with her for like a
Speaker 3: half an hour. So Judy Smith came in. She's this amazing,
Speaker 3: formidable woman who basically always wears white, sat down and
Speaker 3: started talking to me about her job. And the more
Speaker 3: she talked to me about the job, the more I
Speaker 3: was like, this is fascinating, this life of a fixer.
Speaker 3: Because Judy had been like the fixer for the White
Speaker 3: House during the Bush era, Bush two era, and she
Speaker 3: had all these amazing stories and I was sort of
Speaker 3: dazzled by the stories. I thought they were amazing. She'd
Speaker 3: represented Mountica Lewinsky, you know, that whole thing, like she'd
Speaker 3: done a lot. And we ended up talking not for
Speaker 3: a half hour, but like for four hours or something like that.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Oh. And by the time we were done talking, I
Speaker 3: was like, I can see like seventy episodes easy, Like
Speaker 3: I can see exactly what those episodes would be.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And then did you just go off and write? Was
Speaker 5: it like an easy thing to write?
Speaker 4: Was it? Was it hard to get it out of
Speaker 4: your brain?
Speaker 3: No? You know, I think it was pretty easy to
Speaker 3: write because I kind of understood the character I was making.
Speaker 3: Once I let go of the fact that it didn't
Speaker 3: have to be exactly Judy that I could play, I
Speaker 3: felt really good about the character I was making, And
Speaker 3: then all the other characters became really clear to me
Speaker 3: really fast, which was great.
Speaker 4: Thank God for us, Thank God for you.
Speaker 3: Judy was there to like tell me how she did
Speaker 3: her job, Like I'd call her and ask for like
Speaker 3: like tiny details about how she did her job. And
Speaker 3: that's what really made the series, I think special, is
Speaker 3: the fact that we had somebody real informing us right.
Speaker 5: First of all, she gave us all of her business
Speaker 5: cards when we started. I remember that and I was like,
Speaker 5: please Lord, let us never have to use this, like
Speaker 5: I don't want to call it.
Speaker 1: Didn't she come to like one of our first rehearsals
Speaker 1: at Prospect Studios. I think we rehearsed the show like
Speaker 1: it was a play, and I remember her being there.
Speaker 1: I think that's when she gave us her business cards
Speaker 1: and we were all like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: d Judy Smith. This is who Olivia Pope is loosely
Speaker 1: based on, and obviously on the show, like you know,
Speaker 1: Olivia Pope has an affair with the president. Obviously that
Speaker 1: didn't happen with Judy Smith.
Speaker 5: Right, this woman has to go around being like scandals
Speaker 5: based on my life.
Speaker 4: But I did not sleep with Bush Senior or junior.
Speaker 3: Inspired by inspired by my job is what I kept
Speaker 3: telling her to say, Yes, yes.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's great, inspired by my job.
Speaker 1: So when you were when you were listening to her story, Seanda,
Speaker 1: did it just sort of come into your brain that
Speaker 1: you kind of went off and then started thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: they these two characters can have an affair and it
Speaker 1: sort of grew from there. Where did that sort of
Speaker 1: come from.
Speaker 3: When I'm making a show or making writing a script,
Speaker 3: I always think, what's the worst thing that could happen
Speaker 3: for these two people, Like what's the worst.
Speaker 1: Way for things to go so great, so good?
Speaker 3: Which is you know how Huck ended up like a
Speaker 3: violent kill and you know what I mean? But what's
Speaker 3: the worst way to go? And the worst way I
Speaker 3: could think of was if you're representing a girl from
Speaker 3: the White House, because it really started with me having
Speaker 3: like a little Monicolwinski story. I was like, the worst
Speaker 3: thing is that you've been having a secret affair with
Speaker 3: this man and now you discover that this is just
Speaker 3: how he plays.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's not good.
Speaker 5: But when you wrote the pilot, did you have any
Speaker 5: idea that the fits Olivia phenomenon, the one minute to
Speaker 5: the take off your clothes, the chemistry beyond epic proportions
Speaker 5: would be what it was.
Speaker 3: Not when I wrote it. Not when I wrote it,
Speaker 3: And I remember the studio calling me up and the
Speaker 3: network calling me up and saying, can we love it?
Speaker 3: Can you just take out one little part like can't
Speaker 3: you just be friends with the president? Could you not
Speaker 3: have the affair? I remember saying, Olivia, Pope is going
Speaker 3: to have sex on the White Houvel office desk in
Speaker 3: the first season of this series. And if you don't
Speaker 3: want that, then I'm not doing the series.
Speaker 4: I'm obsessed with it, no way.
Speaker 3: And then when we were shooting it, you know, the
Speaker 3: chemistry with Carrie and Tony was crazy, Like I was
Speaker 3: like that that that scene in the Oval office at
Speaker 3: the end. I was not expecting that much amazing chemistry.
Speaker 3: I mean, Tony's so incredible and so was Carrie, but
Speaker 3: I just wasn't expecting it to be that like that fire,
Speaker 3: you know, it was great. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I remember showing up that night just to watch the
Speaker 5: shooting of it, which I was like, I think, I
Speaker 5: think we have to talk about the whole pilot experience,
Speaker 5: but I think that scene in the Oval where they
Speaker 5: make out and they're like hiding where the cameras can't
Speaker 5: see them, that was our last night of shooting, and
Speaker 5: I remember being like, I just want to go because
Speaker 5: I just never want this to end. And I remember
Speaker 5: being there behind the monitor watching and it was you
Speaker 5: could hear a pit.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I'm hiding in the curtains, Like it
Speaker 1: was so intense.
Speaker 5: So on, it was so on all I want to
Speaker 5: say is how did you cast Quinn and Hauck Know, we'll.
Speaker 3: Get that's good stuff, though.
Speaker 5: We will be back with more after the break. Okay,
Speaker 5: So how did you cast Olivia Pope? Like did a
Speaker 5: lot of people for that role?
Speaker 3: Well, let's be clear, and I don't think even think
Speaker 3: I realized how big of a deal this was. But
Speaker 3: it was the first leading role for a woman of
Speaker 3: color and a drama in like thirty seven years or something.
Speaker 3: So one thing I was very clear about was there
Speaker 3: are so many actresses who've never gotten this shot. Like,
Speaker 3: we're not turning anybody away, Like if you were of note,
Speaker 3: we are not turning you away. So it felt like
Speaker 3: it was this like march of like fifty like some
Speaker 3: of the most incredible actresses I'd ever seen showing up
Speaker 3: at our office, and it was amazing to watch. It
Speaker 3: also broke my heart because why should it have to
Speaker 3: be this way?
Speaker 1: So you could only cast one?
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I.
Speaker 3: Could only cast one. And so it came down to
Speaker 3: Carrie Anicanoni Rose I love it, and Jill Scott, three
Speaker 3: women who could out more different, close.
Speaker 5: Be more different. Also would love to see a show
Speaker 5: with the three of them.
Speaker 3: But I loved them all and I loved everybody's performance
Speaker 3: as Olivia Pope. I really did. And I just kept thinking, like,
Speaker 3: would show my writing because I'm writing a different show
Speaker 3: for each one of these women. It just felt like
Speaker 3: it was going to fundamentally be different for every for
Speaker 3: every woman. And in the end, I sat down with
Speaker 3: Carrie and I remember thinking like, she's too pretty, like
Speaker 3: somebody this powerful, like doesn't get it get away with
Speaker 3: being and I was, which was so wrong with me?
Speaker 3: And then I sat down with Carrie and she talked
Speaker 3: politics like nobody's business for like an hour, and I
Speaker 3: got it entirely immediately.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was the whole and I get it.
Speaker 5: I mean, Carrie Washington is an alien of remarkable beauty.
Speaker 3: It's like yes, yeah, yeah, No one looks like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah no, no one looks like that. No one has
Speaker 4: bone structure like that.
Speaker 5: I mean, she's gorgeous, and she's also incredibly politically active
Speaker 5: and an activist and all these things that really lined
Speaker 5: up for the perfect Olivia Pope. I mean, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: this pilot, the amount of slow mo walking scenes in
Speaker 5: a white Coat is.
Speaker 4: The greatest.
Speaker 5: Oh, it just satisfies every part of your being watching it.
Speaker 3: Is it's like it's like the dream life in a
Speaker 3: way that you want to live.
Speaker 5: Yeah, hell yeah, Shonda, did the Studio Network know that
Speaker 5: Olivia Pope was a black woman or no when you
Speaker 5: wrote it?
Speaker 3: So I want to be clear. When I went in
Speaker 3: to pitch this, I told Channing, I said, and she's
Speaker 3: going to be black because Judy Smith is black. And
Speaker 3: Channing just nodded, and I don't I think, like me,
Speaker 3: she didn't think as Channing's a woman of color. I
Speaker 3: don't think she thought like I better go warn everybody
Speaker 3: or anything like this is not a problem, right. And
Speaker 3: so when they picked up the pilot, the head of
Speaker 3: casting called me and was like, Connie Britton would be
Speaker 3: the perfect choice for this role. And I said, I
Speaker 3: adore Connie Britton. She would be except Olivia Pope is black.
Speaker 3: And it was like this long moment of silence.
Speaker 1: Wow, wow, Yeah, I was just going to bring up
Speaker 1: what you brought up before, like like the casting process
Speaker 1: for the rest of the of the cast. I remember
Speaker 1: for going in for Huck and I remember getting this
Speaker 1: and being like super pissed off that I was even
Speaker 1: being considered for this because I think the character was
Speaker 1: described as like in his like fifties, like mid fifties.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like thirty nine at the time,
Speaker 1: and now I'm fifty one, and I'm like, is the
Speaker 1: new twenty like?
Speaker 6: But at the time, I was like, what the fuck?
Speaker 6: They wouldn't why.
Speaker 4: You're like, how dare you think I'm fifty?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I just felt I wasn't right for I remember going
Speaker 1: into the audition to read for you, Shondaan for Linda Lowe,
Speaker 1: and I think there was somebody else in the room
Speaker 1: and just being like, gonna do my best. And you
Speaker 1: wrote this like brilliant monologue and the character was obsessed
Speaker 1: with like little figurines that were all over his desk.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had to write something just to cast the
Speaker 3: role because didn't say much and I knew that eventually
Speaker 3: he would. Yeah, I knew eventually he would. So I
Speaker 3: wrote this monologue.
Speaker 1: Oh it was so good. And then so I did
Speaker 1: the monologue and then we just all kind of sat
Speaker 1: there in silence for a minute, and you looked at
Speaker 1: me and said, you're a very interesting actor.
Speaker 6: I remember that so clearly, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: thank you.
Speaker 1: And then I left. And then you know, another odd
Speaker 1: thing that happened with casting, It was that you you
Speaker 1: cast I think most of us, at least me, after
Speaker 1: just one audition. There wasn't a lot of fanfare. You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't test for it, but you just knew. And
Speaker 1: the fact that you got this whole cast together that
Speaker 1: has such amazing chemistry and it all just freaking was Oh,
Speaker 1: it was so special, Like, but I know Katie's stories.
Speaker 3: Like Katie's story is crazy, but didn't.
Speaker 1: You first tell her that she didn't get it?
Speaker 5: So they called me in and I think I'm going
Speaker 5: to test and they say, Seanda says, you can see
Speaker 5: this on the behind the scenes DVD of Seasons.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 4: See my audition.
Speaker 5: She gave me the part and I cried, real, real,
Speaker 5: ugly cried, and I.
Speaker 3: Loved it so much. It was like it was like
Speaker 3: the most fun thing I ever got to do is
Speaker 3: to like deliver good news to somebody. You know, it's
Speaker 3: just lovely.
Speaker 4: And then I said, what am I supposed to do?
Speaker 5: And you said, someone's gonna call you and there's going
Speaker 5: to be a wardrobe fitting and there's going to be
Speaker 5: a table read.
Speaker 4: I was like, there's gonna be a people read.
Speaker 3: Okay. I didn't first tell her that she didn't get it.
Speaker 3: What I said was she came in to do the test,
Speaker 3: and then we brought her in the room and we
Speaker 3: already had the camera rolling, and I said, Kittie, you're
Speaker 3: you know I swelled you let you know you're not
Speaker 3: going to be able to test for this part. And
Speaker 3: she was like just so politely, like like trying really hard,
Speaker 3: and we see her dying a little bit inside, and
Speaker 3: I was like, you guess we're just gonna give it
Speaker 3: to you, and she was like she like went crazy.
Speaker 3: It was. It was so much fun.
Speaker 5: Oh my, I've never I mean, that's your you know,
Speaker 5: you've won the lottery. You know you've here's your car,
Speaker 5: and you're I mean, it was insane. It was so
Speaker 5: but even bigger than that because it had been something
Speaker 5: I'd wanted and worked for. I think when I was
Speaker 5: twenty three or something, I said to someone, I just
Speaker 5: want to work with Shonda Ryan.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: But Shonda.
Speaker 5: Most actors have to go through nine like like prereads, callbacks, producers, tests,
Speaker 5: different sides, different looks, where's something else, come meet this person?
Speaker 1: It is awful, and then you start to shoot the
Speaker 1: show and there's like not really that much chemistry or
Speaker 1: this show is not that great after all that bs,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, that's a good point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you put in all that work and then you're like,
Speaker 3: uh No. For me, it was like I knew, and
Speaker 3: I'm very honest, I knew when I saw you, like
Speaker 3: what I was like, this is perfect, Like this is
Speaker 3: exactly what I was looking for. When I said, say,
Speaker 3: well Katie, I knew when I saw her that was
Speaker 3: exactly what we're waiting for. And because she was newer,
Speaker 3: the network was like, she needs to test. And then
Speaker 3: Linda Luwi and I went at the network and we're like,
Speaker 3: we're not doing a test, Like we're not doing that.
Speaker 3: Like's the only person who's getting this Getting off of
Speaker 3: this part. I use a lot of I'm not making
Speaker 3: this pilot a lot to get what I wanted, which
Speaker 3: is not very mature.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 6: I love it.
Speaker 4: Garamon and I talk about this all the time.
Speaker 5: So for you listening, Shanda is usually not on set
Speaker 5: because she's really busy writing a new number of other reasons.
Speaker 5: But for our pilot, which I think took three two
Speaker 5: or three weeks to make Shonda was there for every
Speaker 5: single frame we shot nights.
Speaker 4: It was cold. We were in a really.
Speaker 5: Dank, downtown cool place that we then built and made
Speaker 5: into Olivia Popen Associates on a stage.
Speaker 4: Do you have any what are your memories from being there?
Speaker 4: For those? I mean we were up all night loopy?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, I remember, like one. I remember being
Speaker 3: there to make sure everybody talked fast enough? Do you
Speaker 3: know what I mean? It was really my big word
Speaker 3: was everyone's not going to talk fast enough. And part
Speaker 3: of that talk fast enough was simply that I had
Speaker 3: written a really long pilot.
Speaker 6: You were like, y'all got to talk.
Speaker 4: Quick, We're not cutting this out.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I felt like the pace of this show, like the
Speaker 3: pace of how these people live their lives. You know,
Speaker 3: White House could be slower, but Pope Associates was like
Speaker 3: this speeding thing, and I wanted that to happen. I mean,
Speaker 3: it was so interesting because I just met Paul mcgigan.
Speaker 3: I didn't know him. I just had loved his pilot
Speaker 3: Sherlock and the work he'd done there, and we talked
Speaker 3: for a long time. But I was also there to
Speaker 3: like sort of go like, what what's he doing, what's
Speaker 3: he choosing to do? What's the look going to be?
Speaker 3: Because I really don't Yeah, I don't talk in visuals.
Speaker 3: I really just you know, talk in story and what
Speaker 3: I'm thinking. And so to watch him translate that was great,
Speaker 3: you know, it was a really great experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have in my notes one of one of
Speaker 1: the other characters on the show was were these panels
Speaker 1: that are our DP started to incorporate into shooting, do
Speaker 1: you remember, Katie. Like we would do our traditional coverage
Speaker 1: of the scene, and then somebody would call out panels
Speaker 1: and then they would bring out these sort of beveled
Speaker 1: pieces of thick glass and they would stand the characters
Speaker 1: be behind these glasses and the camera would sort of
Speaker 1: you know travel, you know, side side to side, and
Speaker 1: it just gave it this like sexy, like sort of
Speaker 1: dangerous like voyeous unique look.
Speaker 3: Yeah, h voyeuristic feet. Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 5: And the colors like what they created, the dark blues
Speaker 5: and grays, and like it just seemed really not poppy.
Speaker 4: It didn't seem bright at all.
Speaker 5: It seemed sort of like underground, like all this stuff
Speaker 5: we were going and was going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you mentioned, Katie Are where we shot
Speaker 1: the pilot. It was this amazing location in downtown LA
Speaker 1: and they were these these uh, cracked pieces of windows. Yes,
Speaker 1: that which which now looking back at the watching the
Speaker 1: show again, watching it back, I was thinking, it's so
Speaker 1: symbolic of all the cast of characters, right, because we're
Speaker 1: all cracked and broken and leaking. Like I remember, we
Speaker 1: would have to put photos up on those pieces of
Speaker 1: glass and sometimes it was a struggle because it was
Speaker 1: raining outside and they had to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to get the pictures to stick because they were all
Speaker 1: these cracks. And then they created that on the stages. Oh,
Speaker 1: it was so wonderful.
Speaker 3: They replicated that so beautifully. That freaked me out how
Speaker 3: well they did that.
Speaker 4: Yes, oh my god, everybody. And you know what's cool.
Speaker 5: Everyone really stuck with it like seven years. I don't
Speaker 5: you know, we just really didn't have a lot of
Speaker 5: turnover in terms of like head of wardrobe production. Like
Speaker 5: everyone believed in it. And I don't know how you
Speaker 5: built this team. I know you've talked about this like
Speaker 5: a no asshole policy, but like it really felt like
Speaker 5: the cast.
Speaker 4: And the crew was just a machine. Like we were
Speaker 4: so tight we still are.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's really when I see someone from Scandal,
Speaker 5: like a Mary Howard or Lime producing or a Tom
Speaker 5: Verikar producing director or someone I'm emotional like I'm it
Speaker 5: really felt like a family early on.
Speaker 4: How did you do that?
Speaker 6: One?
Speaker 3: I think Betsy and I did our homework. At least
Speaker 3: two people had to say you weren't an asshole for
Speaker 3: us to hire you. At least two outside people had
Speaker 3: to vouch for, like your personality or who you were
Speaker 3: as a person, because you know, people are always lovely
Speaker 3: to me, but then I find out that they're horrible
Speaker 3: to the pas or they're you know, I'm like that
Speaker 3: Great's a bad set. And then we had Mary Howard,
Speaker 3: who I've learned, if you want your set to run
Speaker 3: the way you would run your set, find somebody who
Speaker 3: shares the same mindset as you. And Mary was all
Speaker 3: about creating like a family environment and a comfortable environment
Speaker 3: for everyone to work in and making everybody feel valued.
Speaker 3: And then we got Lin Paolo to do the costumes,
Speaker 3: and she was already somebody that you know, I had
Speaker 3: been really into and loving her work, and it was
Speaker 3: great to get her too. So it was it was
Speaker 3: just this nice building process. I still work with Lynn
Speaker 3: to this day.
Speaker 5: Everyone told me, because I was sort of the baby,
Speaker 5: that like, you know, you really better enjoy this because this,
Speaker 5: you know, the Tonys and the Jeffs, like this is
Speaker 5: this is this is lightning in a bottle.
Speaker 4: Like we've had.
Speaker 5: Very long careers and we've moved from group to group
Speaker 5: and cast to cast, and this is so magical.
Speaker 4: We used to get all the press used to come
Speaker 4: up to us and be.
Speaker 1: Like, come on, so fung out like each other.
Speaker 5: Yeah, come on, this cannot be real. And I'm like,
Speaker 5: it is real. I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 5: We're obsessed with each other. We go to events and
Speaker 5: we only talk to each other. We don't even want
Speaker 5: to talk to anybody else.
Speaker 1: We also had so many amazing moments outside of shooting
Speaker 1: the show, Like we went to so many events, and
Speaker 1: one memory that's that stuck out. I think Katie and
Speaker 1: I talked about this a few days ago, was we
Speaker 1: went to this Glad Awards event where myself, Katie, and
Speaker 1: Carrie were presenting an award to you, Shonda was a
Speaker 1: Glad Award I forget. Yeah, And we had so much
Speaker 1: fun and I wrote the thing that sticks out for
Speaker 1: me is we were after the awards. We were on
Speaker 1: the dance floor just dancing it up with you and
Speaker 1: me and Katie and my boyfriend Mike was there, and
Speaker 1: at one point roke, I don't think I ever told
Speaker 1: you this car Katie, or maybe I did, But at
Speaker 1: one point we're dancing Shaunda and this dude sort of
Speaker 1: shimmys up and saddles up in front of me and
Speaker 1: starts dancing, and he's getting a little flirty, and you
Speaker 1: walked up to him and you said he got a man.
Speaker 6: Do you remember that?
Speaker 1: I did, And I remember at that moment thinking, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is such a down woman, like she's
Speaker 1: got my back. I loved it so much. But also
Speaker 1: cut to like later on that night, me and Mike
Speaker 1: had a threesome with that guy. Really, yes, yes, do that,
Speaker 1: but but me and Mike still talk about it to
Speaker 1: this day. Mike adores you, and he was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I fucking love Seanna that she did that
Speaker 1: and stepped in and was like nope, he's got a minute.
Speaker 1: Oh it was so amazing.
Speaker 5: So we do the pilot and then we wait to
Speaker 5: hear about if we're going to get a season one
Speaker 5: and we get six episode order?
Speaker 4: How did you feel about that?
Speaker 3: I was pissed. I mean, I will just say that
Speaker 3: I was pissed. I was like, did I not deliver
Speaker 3: you know, one hundred episodes of Scandal for I mean,
Speaker 3: Gray's Anatomy for you? Did I not give you one
Speaker 3: hundred episodes of Private Practice? Like that? Fuck? And I
Speaker 3: was mad. I was really mad. But I was also like,
Speaker 3: it's gonna keep going. And so we had fun writing
Speaker 3: it that season because we knew that we were like
Speaker 3: sort of writing the hell out of the show for
Speaker 3: our lives, like get it all in there just in case.
Speaker 3: But I also loved it. So I was like, they're
Speaker 3: gonna they're gonna pick it up.
Speaker 1: Do you remember when the show was called? Was it
Speaker 1: when the show was called Damage Control before it called
Speaker 1: Do you remember that.
Speaker 3: It wasn't the real name though that was the name
Speaker 3: we put on spongs.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't know that.
Speaker 5: Either I thought damage Control was the name that just
Speaker 5: didn't get approved by the studio, or.
Speaker 4: I thought no idea.
Speaker 3: I learned that after you know Grays that after that
Speaker 3: that we called that the entitleedchon Rhymes Project. We called
Speaker 3: Para Practice entitle toon Rhymes Project, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I need a name that doesn't have my name and
Speaker 3: it you know what I mean, Like I wanted to
Speaker 3: try to build it out. I think now all of
Speaker 3: our shows have code names.
Speaker 5: When we we had no idea that Damage Control was
Speaker 5: just like a placeholder. And I think Quinn Perkins was
Speaker 5: Quinn Riley and Harrison wasn't Harrison, right, it was Harrison.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was once I got to know you guys
Speaker 3: that I decided what your last names were.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Yo.
Speaker 1: Can we can we talk about like rewatching the show?
Speaker 1: Me and Katie keep texting each other and we're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this show is so freaking good. And
Speaker 1: but one person that sticks out for us is Columbus
Speaker 1: Short because he is like freaking like magic on this
Speaker 1: show and it's just such a thrill to watch him work, right, Katie,
Speaker 1: He's like genius in front of the camera.
Speaker 3: Like I absolutely loved writing for him and watching him
Speaker 3: work because he was he was genius behind the camera,
Speaker 3: I mean in front of the camera, the stuff he
Speaker 3: would do and then just the little tiny things.
Speaker 5: We're making a did it of like some sound with
Speaker 5: his like he was so musical and rhythmic, and which
Speaker 5: worked so well with Scandal because you wrote such musical
Speaker 5: scripts where pace was such a had such a musicality
Speaker 5: that he just leaned into.
Speaker 3: That and he had such a talent for that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the two of you were great. I remember watching you too. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the first time doing that scene. It was great.
Speaker 4: I had never been so nervous in my life, but
Speaker 4: you Yeah, he was very nervous.
Speaker 5: He was putting on a front for me of being
Speaker 5: like I'm cool, I'm cool, and I'm like, you are
Speaker 5: shitting bricks, dude, Like this is Shonda Rhimes is sitting
Speaker 5: over there and Betsy Beers is sitting over there, and
Speaker 5: I think they have a stopwatch and we need to
Speaker 5: be cool and we need.
Speaker 4: To get this And it was absolutely terrifying.
Speaker 1: Is it true that did you audition Columbus or is
Speaker 1: he like the one actor that did not audition. I
Speaker 1: thought I had heard something about that.
Speaker 4: I feel like he was offered it, but maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 4: That's what I had heard too.
Speaker 3: No, I feel like he came in and auditioned, or
Speaker 3: at least came.
Speaker 1: In and met Oh gotcha.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I know that he came
Speaker 3: in and then then we, like, like everybody else, I
Speaker 3: just knew that he was right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we thought when we were Now that we're
Speaker 5: embarking on the Scandal Rewatch podcast, Unpacking the Toolbox, I'm
Speaker 5: so excited to hang out with our Scandal family is
Speaker 5: really the point. And honestly, I'm gonna be real, real, honest.
Speaker 5: Right now, I was like, Oh, the only thing I
Speaker 5: really don't want to do is watch Scandal because I'm
Speaker 5: scared that I'm have going to watch something and I
Speaker 5: don't think I'm good or look at what I used
Speaker 5: to look like, or look at it. You know, you're
Speaker 5: just it's all wrapped up in actor bull crap and
Speaker 5: like whatever, And I don't know if it's gonna be
Speaker 5: fun for me to do this.
Speaker 4: I could not be more wrong.
Speaker 1: It's so much fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have the experience of feeling like I'd never
Speaker 3: actually seen the show that everybody talks about. Yes, you know,
Speaker 3: because I was always writing in or one episode ahead
Speaker 3: or editing one episode behind, like and it was I
Speaker 3: was too worried about like making everything perfect, so I
Speaker 3: couldn't really like I could watch the show when we
Speaker 3: were all together and we were like, you know, doing
Speaker 3: our live to Yeah, but I couldn't watch it just
Speaker 3: like on my own, like it was too much. And
Speaker 3: so when I sat down to watch again, which was
Speaker 3: not that long and probably right a little bit before
Speaker 3: you started watching it again, it was surreal because I
Speaker 3: could actually like see and enjoy the stories that were told.
Speaker 3: Of some of the stories, it was so funny. I
Speaker 3: was like, that's what happened. Oh my god.
Speaker 6: Right, it's the.
Speaker 5: Same when they say like thorn Gate and like all
Speaker 5: these things, I don't even think I understood what the
Speaker 5: hell was going on.
Speaker 4: Like it's really this has been such a gift.
Speaker 5: This podcast is such a gift, and all of you
Speaker 5: gladiators who are listening right now, like, give yourself the
Speaker 5: gift of going back and watching the show, or if
Speaker 5: you've never seen it, tell a friend to watch it.
Speaker 5: Because the show holds up. It is better than all
Speaker 5: the shows watch And I'm taking myself out of it.
Speaker 5: I'm saying when I just sit and watch like Kerry
Speaker 5: Washington and Tony Goldwyn do their thing, I mean, because
Speaker 5: what's cool about the show. There's a white House half
Speaker 5: and there's an Opa half, So I can you know,
Speaker 5: I'm watching the show. I don't really remember the opay stuff.
Speaker 5: But then there's a whole part of the show that
Speaker 5: I have nothing to do with, and it's so freaking good.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, I can't believe what you made, Shonda,
Speaker 5: I can't.
Speaker 3: But also you have to remember that, like I had
Speaker 3: this the writing the writing staff for that show was
Speaker 3: like every best writer I'd ever worked with, which is
Speaker 3: really what that was. How did you know that people
Speaker 3: in Jonaline stay. They tend to stay because ay, they
Speaker 3: know they're gonna have a job, but be like, they
Speaker 3: tend to stay because they I hope that they liked
Speaker 3: it there. But what happened was is we'd have like
Speaker 3: we'd have like Seve who went to MIT and was
Speaker 3: like telling us all the technical stuff we had. We
Speaker 3: had a journalist Matt had been a journalist, you know,
Speaker 3: on the press pool, and tell us all that stuff
Speaker 3: and the things that that room came up with just
Speaker 3: by themselves. I'd come, I'd leave, and I'd come back
Speaker 3: to the room and I'd be like, holy crap, that's amazing.
Speaker 3: Like they just had a gift for building that show.
Speaker 5: It was brilliant, brilliant minds that were just again sort
Speaker 5: of like the cast, they just really and most of
Speaker 5: them stuck with us. I mean when we when we've
Speaker 5: been doing research on the show. In the series, I mean,
Speaker 5: I'm reading names of writers and directors who you've taken
Speaker 5: from a million episodes of Scandal, but then I worked
Speaker 5: with most of them on inventing Anna, Like you know
Speaker 5: what I mean.
Speaker 4: It's really.
Speaker 1: Even guest stars, guest stars that came on Scandal. When
Speaker 1: I would do researching Google people for for the podcast
Speaker 1: and be like, oh my god, they did a bunch
Speaker 1: of Gray's episodes, a bunch of Private Practice episodes, like yeah,
Speaker 1: like you said, they keep you bring them back, it's
Speaker 1: it and they want to keep coming back.
Speaker 3: I like to work with people who I like to
Speaker 3: work with, do you know what I mean, Like if
Speaker 3: I've had a great experience with you, I mean I
Speaker 3: work with Jeff Perry like any day of the week,
Speaker 3: every day, are yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Like, so would all of us rank God, mister Magoo.
Speaker 3: I love that he had to play such a different
Speaker 3: character than he played before and was like so amazing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, and him at the table reads he has
Speaker 5: like eight thousand glasses, like he's near sighted and far sighted,
Speaker 5: I don't know what's going on, and he has to
Speaker 5: hold his cell phone a C and then.
Speaker 4: The script has to be a certain way.
Speaker 5: But the crazy thing is it all looks wild and
Speaker 5: then you sit down for the table read and you're
Speaker 5: getting a three hundred and fifty dollars ticket front row
Speaker 5: seat to a Broadway show where his even his table
Speaker 5: read acting.
Speaker 1: Is epic, Yes, epic, yeah.
Speaker 4: And just absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say this. I remember the episode where he
Speaker 3: gives that long monologue to Fits about what's going to
Speaker 3: happen to him if he lets this control. You pick
Speaker 3: out that pizel that your father gave you, and you're
Speaker 3: gonna shoot yourself like that whole thing. And I was
Speaker 3: I remember the table read being like I wrote that,
Speaker 3: Holy shit. I never thought it was going to be that. Like,
Speaker 3: never thought it was going to be that. I had
Speaker 3: a lot of that with you guys, though. I had
Speaker 3: a lot of experiences where I was like, they just
Speaker 3: elevated the material in a crazy, amazing way.
Speaker 5: How did you know that monologues were going to work
Speaker 5: on the show. I mean, monologues are very rare. I
Speaker 5: don't think I've ever seen TV shows with the amount
Speaker 5: of you know, you would have a character talk, single
Speaker 5: space page for two pag you know, spa.
Speaker 3: That's why I worked right, But in a lot of
Speaker 3: ways because you said everything so fast. It did make
Speaker 3: it work because there was none of that like overacting
Speaker 3: that people accidentally do when they have a monolog or
Speaker 3: the long pauses that they think mean something like, you
Speaker 3: guys just threw yourselves into it. We're so natural about
Speaker 3: it totally.
Speaker 4: Who came up with the camera shutter sound?
Speaker 3: I don't even remember. I think mcgwigan came up with
Speaker 3: it with the editor in the director's cut. I'm pretty
Speaker 3: sure because it was already there. It was already there
Speaker 3: when I got it. I'm pretty sure. You have to
Speaker 3: ask Scott Collins, who does all our post production. He'll
Speaker 3: remember exactly.
Speaker 5: Oh, we have to have him on, we have to
Speaker 5: have him on. But that is so iconic. Whenever I
Speaker 5: heard like.
Speaker 1: It's so sandal, yeah, I think scandal. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Did you know the music was going to be like seventies? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Like it was the music I was listening to while
Speaker 3: writing the pilot. I listened to a lot of Stevie
Speaker 3: Wonder and I listened to a lot of Arretha Franklin,
Speaker 3: and I don't know, like Washington is such a it's
Speaker 3: such a political city, but it's also like a very
Speaker 3: black city, do you know what I mean? Like the
Speaker 3: population of people of color is huge, And it felt
Speaker 3: like there was like that was the soul of Washington
Speaker 3: to me, Like it felt and it resonated me, and
Speaker 3: I enjoyed using that mesh it's and.
Speaker 1: I love how the music sort of plays against what's
Speaker 1: happening on screen, you know what I mean, because hucklebhucking
Speaker 1: Quinn will be torturing someone and you're hearing, you know,
Speaker 1: like and be like yeah, like the Temptations or whatever.
Speaker 1: So it works so so well.
Speaker 5: No, we would always say when we would start to
Speaker 5: like solve the case at OPA, I would always be
Speaker 5: like at the cor or like very superstitious, you know,
Speaker 5: just be like like this is what's going to.
Speaker 4: Come on right now. And it was so iconic.
Speaker 3: I think I used literally every last one of Stevie
Speaker 3: Wonder songs in the shot, and almost without with the
Speaker 3: exception of like her true like gospel shirt singing, every
Speaker 3: last one of readA Franklin songs.
Speaker 6: Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I love that, didn't Stevie wand to write
Speaker 1: something specifically for Scandal.
Speaker 6: At the very end, he.
Speaker 3: Wrote the song for the finale. And when you get
Speaker 3: to talking about the finale, I will come back on
Speaker 3: and tell the process, please wonder, which was inanely amazing.
Speaker 4: I mean, just to do You're going to have to
Speaker 4: come on and tell us about the ending.
Speaker 3: Of the show.
Speaker 6: We'll be right back, guys.
Speaker 5: Things that were in the middle of the seven years
Speaker 5: get a little mushy, and I'm so excited to be
Speaker 5: watching these episodes again to remind myself of what was
Speaker 5: going on. But what's stuck so much in my head
Speaker 5: is the pilot. I can it's and then the finale.
Speaker 5: I just remember so much about the beginning and the
Speaker 5: end of this show.
Speaker 3: And there a few episodes I remember really vividly, just
Speaker 3: really vividly, honestly, not episode was so dear to me
Speaker 3: and I was so proud of it and the way
Speaker 3: it came out and the work everybody did. That was
Speaker 3: a big one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was another one that you came to set
Speaker 1: and you sat on set for those monologs every character
Speaker 1: did to to Huck, and I remember all of us
Speaker 1: being like, well, I was like, I just got to
Speaker 1: sit on the ground and keep repeting every fifty two.
Speaker 1: Y'all got to remember, like, you know, ninety lines, f you.
Speaker 5: I got my monologue at six pm the night before
Speaker 5: and I was first up. I used to take hits
Speaker 5: like that all the time. But honestly, I was so
Speaker 5: I was like, I can do it.
Speaker 4: Like I can do it, you know, Like.
Speaker 5: They used to call me the closer because I was
Speaker 5: the youngest, and they would give me the like eleven
Speaker 5: pm scene on a Friday night and you'd be like,
Speaker 5: I didn't give that to Jeff, give it to me.
Speaker 4: I can do it. I can do it.
Speaker 1: But Seawanda, what were your other episodes that you that
Speaker 1: sort of stick out? They remembered.
Speaker 3: The Trail two Wait Happy Birthday, Mister President, where we
Speaker 3: shot the president.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: That was one of my most favorite things that we did,
Speaker 3: just because of what I got to do with the
Speaker 3: information of what happens when a president is shot, and
Speaker 3: because of just the pain it played out for everybody,
Speaker 3: which was so great, and what happened to Hawk and
Speaker 3: all that stuff. White Hats Back On, which was the
Speaker 3: finale of season two where at the end she says dad, dad. Yeah,
Speaker 3: remember that Tepe. That public reading we did during while
Speaker 3: the finale was airing, we did, you guys did a
Speaker 3: reading like in front of an audience was amazing.
Speaker 5: Every single person that I've talked to that was in
Speaker 5: the audience that night, who was like friends or family
Speaker 5: or Adam, my husband, they remember it as one of
Speaker 5: the most special and out of body like theater experiences
Speaker 5: they've ever had. When we were reading the script, Joe Morton,
Speaker 5: Olivia Pope says dad to pop U Pope and then I.
Speaker 3: Came out of their seats.
Speaker 6: I remember that.
Speaker 1: I remember de Wie Allen being like, oh, Debbie Allen's up.
Speaker 5: The audience was screaming, pointing at us. We were pointing
Speaker 5: at them. Everybody was screaming. I lost my voice for
Speaker 5: like a month. It was so great, Yeah, and so special.
Speaker 5: I also remember the abortion episode.
Speaker 3: Oh that's on my list, that's on my list. That's
Speaker 3: a Christmas episode. Maybe it's cold outside.
Speaker 4: So I remember, of course, yeah, that was my favorite.
Speaker 3: It was, but also because of what like it was
Speaker 3: our Christmas episode and we got to watch Mellie filibuster
Speaker 3: and like it just felt like we were women in
Speaker 3: so many different ways. It was great. And because you know,
Speaker 3: I feel like I write a show where I'm deconstructing
Speaker 3: what love is, like I'm trying to rip the lid
Speaker 3: off the fairy tale. And what's funny is is that
Speaker 3: everybody buys the fairy tale when I tell it every time,
Speaker 3: and then when I rip the lid off and they're like,
Speaker 3: what do you mean he isn't happy? Like did you
Speaker 3: not see the way he treats her like this stuff?
Speaker 1: And also that's real life, right, Like real life isn't
Speaker 1: tied up in a pretty bow. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, they're not fairy tales. It's just not fairy tales.
Speaker 3: Randy read super freaking Julia. Do you remember that one
Speaker 3: that was That was when Olivia comes back and you have,
Speaker 3: first of all, you have the Harrison's funeral. Remember, Yeah,
Speaker 3: Hawet's working as like an Apple genius or something.
Speaker 6: That's right. That's right, Katie.
Speaker 3: Your character was the only one trying to like pull
Speaker 3: everybody together.
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that ship That was fun.
Speaker 3: You would become like a mini Olivia, Pope, you become
Speaker 3: like a Minia Livy. I loved that episode. That made
Speaker 3: me really happen.
Speaker 5: I can't wait to get to all these episodes. I
Speaker 5: can't even stand it.
Speaker 3: A lawn chair, run a launch chair.
Speaker 4: And run when she gets kidnapped.
Speaker 3: That was amazing, and that was a lawn Share episode.
Speaker 4: The guest stars and the stories.
Speaker 5: That you tell us a little bit about how you
Speaker 5: always felt, and we always felt like you, you and
Speaker 5: the writers room more ahead of the news cycle, like
Speaker 5: why would you write something?
Speaker 4: And then some shit would happen and we would be
Speaker 4: like wait what Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, part of that is that, like the people in
Speaker 3: my room were crazy intelligent, and so they would they
Speaker 3: would like extrapolate something to its extreme degree and be like,
Speaker 3: what if there was this Thornngate thing that was spying
Speaker 3: and everybody through their computers and their phone. Wow, And
Speaker 3: we were like, that can never happen, And so it
Speaker 3: was like, technically it can, and tell us all why
Speaker 3: I could, and then we'd do it, and then literally
Speaker 3: we'd find out that that's something that actually happened, like
Speaker 3: unveiled that they had done something like that. There were
Speaker 3: so many times that happened, with so many different stories,
Speaker 3: and it was so weird to us because we felt
Speaker 3: like we were making up the craziest stuff we could
Speaker 3: think of, and then it was just yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 3: got bad when we had we were making up like
Speaker 3: crazy presidential candidates and then that stuff happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hollis Doyle, oh my god.
Speaker 6: It was great.
Speaker 5: You know, we we've heard some of your most memorable
Speaker 5: episodes of the series. But she and I have some
Speaker 5: questions that came up from watching the pilot. First of all,
Speaker 5: where does gladiator in a suit come from?
Speaker 3: I made that up. I made that up. I just
Speaker 3: loved the way it sounded. It's one day in my head,
Speaker 3: I was like gladiators, Like, it just sounded good to me.
Speaker 3: What I loved was how we got to like put
Speaker 3: that information down and that we told the story through
Speaker 3: the eyes of Quinn. What was important about that was
Speaker 3: nobody who was watching the show knew anything about this world,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. They didn't know what a
Speaker 3: fixer ud, they didn't know how any of it worked,
Speaker 3: and so we had a new person there to learn
Speaker 3: everything for us, which I thought was really important.
Speaker 5: Did Judy Smith say things I trust my gut or
Speaker 5: is this stuff you also made up?
Speaker 3: Judy Smith says, trust your gut. Your gut will tell
Speaker 3: you everything you need to know. That was one of
Speaker 3: the first things I wrote down in my notes from
Speaker 3: my meeting with her. That's the thing she always said.
Speaker 3: She said that, and she said stand in your truth.
Speaker 3: Those are the two that I always held onto. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Never like don't lie. It's the same thing, don't lie, never.
Speaker 1: Tell a lie.
Speaker 3: Yeah wow. And then I loved like and it's I
Speaker 3: don't know if it was aired in the broadcast show
Speaker 3: because it was too long, but I made them put
Speaker 3: it in for the DVD. In any subsequent errings, Huck
Speaker 3: basically says to her, you know, we're all damaged, you know,
Speaker 3: like everybody here is damage to like, get used to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I say that.
Speaker 3: Yeah. That was one of my favorite scenes. And when
Speaker 3: I loved about it was it just told you who
Speaker 3: everyone was like. And when I wrote that.
Speaker 1: Scene, what I was just gonna say. He says, we're
Speaker 1: all stray dogs.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh my god.
Speaker 3: That's what I loved about that was when I wrote it,
Speaker 3: I wasn't thinking as much about that, But the minute
Speaker 3: I wrote that line, I was like, Oh, what are
Speaker 3: what's everybody's problem? Like, how did they come to.
Speaker 4: A living Everyone's from the Misfits. Everyone's from the Misfit Toys.
Speaker 1: And boy did you deliver? Did you give it to us?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that.
Speaker 3: Whole speech that Olivia gives to Amanda Tanner. You think
Speaker 3: she's this lovely person and then she just decimates her
Speaker 3: and you see what her job really is.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, she's the devil. It's horrible.
Speaker 3: She's the one who she needs to make things happen.
Speaker 3: She's the person who handles stuff, so she has to
Speaker 3: handle it whatever way works. And I just remember like
Speaker 3: the devastation on Quinn's face and the way it was
Speaker 3: shot so well done.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I had no idea that scene was like that.
Speaker 5: I remember being like, oh, you know, my your line,
Speaker 5: your line, your line, my line. I like didn't work
Speaker 5: that hard on that scene because I don't have any lines, right,
Speaker 5: which is the worst doctor ever.
Speaker 3: I understand that.
Speaker 5: I remember standing back there and Liza, you know, she's
Speaker 5: so good at being emotional, and she's.
Speaker 4: Working on her amazing so upset.
Speaker 5: And you know, Carrie has this this epic monologue that
Speaker 5: you were talking about about, Oh is this a nice dog?
Speaker 5: And then she goes through like, oh that stint where
Speaker 5: your mom was in the nuthouse and and it would
Speaker 5: be easier and better for you if you just got
Speaker 5: the hell out of here type of thing. And then
Speaker 5: I remember Paul coming up to me and being like,
Speaker 5: this is obviously my acting wasn't that great, but he
Speaker 5: came up to me and said, like, this.
Speaker 4: Is shut up, I said. He basically was like.
Speaker 5: We are understanding the stakes of this scene and how
Speaker 5: fucked up this is through you and your eyes.
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh.
Speaker 1: Crap, I do.
Speaker 4: I have to feel?
Speaker 5: And then Olivia does the slow mo in the white
Speaker 5: jacket from Lynn Pallow and gets on the phone and
Speaker 5: she just says it's handled, and then it goes to
Speaker 5: Quinn's face and she just is like, I can't even
Speaker 5: believe I'm working for this woman. She's this is this
Speaker 5: is all like this. She's kind of the devil but
Speaker 5: also the hero, which is how.
Speaker 3: What effected it was an exterior scene and that everybody, everybody,
Speaker 3: Bob Woodward, everybody was like, when are you in DC
Speaker 3: shooting the show? And I was like, We're never in
Speaker 3: DC shooting the show.
Speaker 1: That's all fake, And how amazing did that department do you?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: People would come up to us all the time and
Speaker 1: be like, Yo, when are you guys gonna be in
Speaker 1: DC again?
Speaker 6: You're why are you here? Don't you guys shoot the
Speaker 6: show in DC?
Speaker 1: And we'd always be like, no, it's all green screen
Speaker 1: and that that team that did that, that work was
Speaker 1: just stellar.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, people really Washingtonians really believe we're shooting
Speaker 3: in DC. And I remember, I mean, my favorite thing
Speaker 3: that we got to do was, Hey, it's awesome to
Speaker 3: have a job where you get to write interior white
Speaker 3: House and then they build you a white House that
Speaker 3: I literally played in the Oval Office for like a
Speaker 3: billion years. But even better was like writing like the
Speaker 3: interior resident in the White House residence, and then like
Speaker 3: the balcony, and we got to go to the White
Speaker 3: House and film what it actually looked like from the
Speaker 3: balcony and usually just rebuild it had never been done before,
Speaker 3: which was so cool.
Speaker 6: Wow, wow, God.
Speaker 5: We didn't shoot the show in DC because when we
Speaker 5: did go there it was so cold. We would complain
Speaker 5: about being in wool codes and it being so hot.
Speaker 5: But honestly, I prefer that to the one episode we
Speaker 5: did in DC where I was holding gear Moo's ears
Speaker 5: from become from Huck's ears from turning into icicle turning.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Also, we could have never shot the show there Scandal,
Speaker 5: the cast of Scandal I can hide, but it was
Speaker 5: like you were a beatle when we got when the
Speaker 5: cast of got dropped into d C, or when Shonda
Speaker 5: Rhimes gets dropped into d C and you're on a
Speaker 5: political show.
Speaker 3: It was crazy watching the reactions there. That was amazing.
Speaker 3: One of the best things for me was like I
Speaker 3: was all about a shooting in La everything because I
Speaker 3: had kids, People had kids, people, and it was the
Speaker 3: show went on, people had more and more kids, and
Speaker 3: I just felt like people's lifestyles should not be like
Speaker 3: standing in the middle of Washington, d C. In the
Speaker 3: middle of the night hoping you can get home at
Speaker 3: some point.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't only like fans on the street or
Speaker 1: fans that watch the show was it was like people
Speaker 1: in DC, like when we went and met like Obama
Speaker 1: and the first Lady Michelle Obama, like hearing her tell
Speaker 1: me and tell all of us, Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: was just watching an episode as they would do in
Speaker 1: my hair and makeup. I was like, what, like the
Speaker 1: people that were in that world were watching our show.
Speaker 3: It was so surreal to me, so surreal that like
Speaker 3: actual Washingtonian people. I mean I remember George Bush Junior
Speaker 3: calling up Jadie Smith and saying, you know, we didn't
Speaker 3: really have an affair, right, and like them laughing about it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I was. My mind was blown. My mind was blown.
Speaker 6: I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: I think it was such a gift that we sort
Speaker 5: of also that scandal.
Speaker 4: It was sort of a.
Speaker 5: Slow burn that people caught onto the show. I mean,
Speaker 5: it really wasn't.
Speaker 3: Into It was very helpful.
Speaker 5: I think we got to a place where we weren't
Speaker 5: this like overnight thing, so we had sort of but
Speaker 5: we were obsessed with the show and doing a good
Speaker 5: job and doing the best we could, and we got
Speaker 5: to really make it in this sort of bubble where
Speaker 5: people weren't looking. And then by the time everyone started looking.
Speaker 5: I can remember being on red Carpet and they would say, like,
Speaker 5: what does it feel like to be on a hit show? Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'd be like, wait are we we are?
Speaker 4: Like I just was so like, what right?
Speaker 3: Because it was such a slow burn. It was such
Speaker 3: a slow burn.
Speaker 1: But also, yeah, I feel like Katie, like none of
Speaker 1: us ever got cocky about it like no one ever
Speaker 1: got cocky. Every season we'd be like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I hope we get picked up. It was never like, ah,
Speaker 1: we're we're fucking in like this is whatever. We're a hit,
Speaker 1: fuck this ship, We're the best.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 1: We wanted to just be there.
Speaker 6: I love it.
Speaker 5: How do you think, like everyone says the show why
Speaker 5: it was so magical a lot, is that because our
Speaker 5: lead showrunner, boss Shonda Rhimes, and our lead actor Kerry
Speaker 5: Washington are number one, the two of you. You know,
Speaker 5: ship rolls downhill and that just never happened on our show.
Speaker 5: How did you and Carrie make a world where that
Speaker 5: was the case for so long? Because everyone would say
Speaker 5: in the beginning, wait till season four, you're all going
Speaker 5: to funcate each other.
Speaker 3: Like, do you remember on the pilot the first day
Speaker 3: we ever shot the show. On the pilot, we were
Speaker 3: on the graves and anatomy set shoot in the hospital scenes,
Speaker 3: and you said, or maybe it wasn't the pilot, maybe
Speaker 3: it was episode two, No, I think it was, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it pilot. It was the pilot. Yeah, you say, I'm
Speaker 3: never ever going to be like going to not be grateful,
Speaker 3: And I remember pulling out my phone and being like,
Speaker 3: can you say that again into my camera. I was
Speaker 3: so sure that like in four years amaze, she would
Speaker 3: be like complaining about her trailer or something.
Speaker 4: We none of us were like that, none of us.
Speaker 3: I really, but yeah say it.
Speaker 1: So I was just gonna say. Cary would do stuff
Speaker 1: like when we were done shooting a scene, she would
Speaker 1: stop everyone and ask for silence and thank all the background,
Speaker 1: thank our crew. Like the stuff that Carrie would do
Speaker 1: just made the sets so special and so inviting and
Speaker 1: so warm and kind, and that's so rare, you know.
Speaker 3: I think in my opinion, I feel like, and I
Speaker 3: don't remember that Carrie actually said this to me or not,
Speaker 3: but this is what I assumed that she had been
Speaker 3: on a lot of sets and seen all kinds of
Speaker 3: behavior and knew when when it was good and when
Speaker 3: it was bad, Like knew the feeling because if you're
Speaker 3: like just starting out, you know what that feels like
Speaker 3: when some number one is horrible and sort of had
Speaker 3: vowed to never be bad number one. And also I
Speaker 3: think she felt the entire weight of the pressure of
Speaker 3: being like the first black lead actress and a drama
Speaker 3: and not wanting that to be like and she.
Speaker 1: Was a bitch.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Oh I've never thought about that.
Speaker 1: They would have ran with that.
Speaker 3: And she was just a lovely person to begin with.
Speaker 3: But she really worked hard to remain humble and to
Speaker 3: keep everybody around her like feeling good about what they
Speaker 3: were doing as well, to make sure it felt like
Speaker 3: a group effort.
Speaker 5: The fact that she never complained about those fucking shoes.
Speaker 5: I would have lost my mind, like for seven years
Speaker 5: cramming her little foot into six inch high heels.
Speaker 4: I but Shanda, you never you are always the same.
Speaker 5: You and Betsy would call these meeting, we would do
Speaker 5: table reads and then you would say, okay, I'd like
Speaker 5: all the actors to stay after for ten minutes, to
Speaker 5: which we would all be like.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, oh my god, we're in trouble. Please
Speaker 4: don't let us be in trouble.
Speaker 5: But we would sit there and you would always say
Speaker 5: it would be like, you know, if anything comes up,
Speaker 5: or you want to talk about anything, or we should
Speaker 5: be your first call. Like I never had somebody in
Speaker 5: the middle of the night like you need help, someone
Speaker 5: gets an exit, somebody to like, calm us, let us
Speaker 5: help you. We are all in this together. And it
Speaker 5: was just seemed like a very supportive I don't know,
Speaker 5: I learned so much. I think you've sent us all
Speaker 5: out into our other jobs to really expect nothing less
Speaker 5: than the behavior and the vibe that we created for
Speaker 5: ourselves on that show.
Speaker 3: I feel really lucky because I had the experience of
Speaker 3: never working on TV before writing a show and having
Speaker 3: it be like a crazy out of the box hit
Speaker 3: where all of these actors became famous overnight and chase
Speaker 3: by paparazzi and stuff, and that was great, and I
Speaker 3: didn't know how to handle any of that, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. Like, I learned that through the process
Speaker 3: of working there every day, and it was great to
Speaker 3: be able to bring that knowledge to the table, you know,
Speaker 3: and say this is what it is. And that was
Speaker 3: so much. It just made it so much better. I
Speaker 3: want to also credit Mary Howard, because really the line
Speaker 3: producer really does have everything to do with the feel
Speaker 3: and the atmosphere on a set, and I think that
Speaker 3: she was incredibly valuable in that process.
Speaker 5: Yes, and you were also like, this show is so
Speaker 5: important and your health is so important. But you all
Speaker 5: and Mary Howard were also like, and your families are
Speaker 5: super important. Like it was always like, you know, she
Speaker 5: was working, if someone was going through anything at home,
Speaker 5: or you know, people had things going on. She was
Speaker 5: very much She's a very family oriented. I think everybody
Speaker 5: was on the show.
Speaker 3: I think that was the thing. Like she was family oriented,
Speaker 3: we were family oriented. It felts normal, it really did.
Speaker 5: Is there anything in closing? Can you please come back
Speaker 5: on the Scandal Rewatch podcast?
Speaker 3: Yes, you guys want me to like, I love this,
Speaker 3: I love that you're doing it.
Speaker 1: I'm I love it awesome.
Speaker 5: Well, I think it's going to give I think that
Speaker 5: our gladiators who have been just laying dormant for years,
Speaker 5: looking for a place to go and geek out and
Speaker 5: wear their gladiator shirts and drink out of their gladiator
Speaker 5: and eat their popcorn and wine and rewatch the shows
Speaker 5: and tell people who haven't seen it to sit their
Speaker 5: asses down and go watch it. And it's been such
Speaker 5: a gift to Gama and I to go back and
Speaker 5: watch this.
Speaker 3: Show beyond Yeah, I think for I think for like gladiators,
Speaker 3: I always just want to say, like gladiators, like this
Speaker 3: is where you're going to get the inside scoop, you know,
Speaker 3: like stuff that was that we've never talked about, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Don't you want to know that Germo Diaz had a
Speaker 5: threesome in the night that we presented, Shonda Rhymes with
Speaker 5: her glad aboard.
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 5: You're welcome everyone things we didn't know.
Speaker 1: So since Twitter was such a massive thing for Scandal, Shonda,
Speaker 1: we're we're going to finish this episode and do this
Speaker 1: in many episodes by reading some of the best tweets
Speaker 1: surrounding the Scandal moment.
Speaker 5: Tweetweetweet, twetweeted at the time, tweeters the time, Yeah, tweets
Speaker 5: at the time.
Speaker 1: On April fourth and twenty twelve, actually, Shonda Rhymes tweeted,
Speaker 1: this is the best ad for Scandal ever. Thank you
Speaker 1: for the Scandal cake. And it's a picture of a
Speaker 1: cake and they actually drew Carrie Washington on the cake
Speaker 1: and it says, my gut tells me everything I need
Speaker 1: to know. Watch Scandal Thursday's ten at ten. Who made
Speaker 1: that cake, Seanda, do you remember?
Speaker 3: I have no idea? It literally just appeared in our offices. Again,
Speaker 3: shut up, but we're so excited by it.
Speaker 6: And then you tweeted again, Shonda.
Speaker 1: A few minutes later or later that day, the Gray's
Speaker 1: anatomy Scandal riders couldn't take it. They had to eat
Speaker 1: the Scandal cake and it's a picture of half of
Speaker 1: the cake gone.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was like, let's just preserve it as this
Speaker 3: beautiful thing.
Speaker 5: And then he just had to eat it and it
Speaker 5: looked delicious.
Speaker 3: It was quite good. I think everybody thought it was
Speaker 3: quite good. That's hilarious.
Speaker 5: Then you also tweeted on April third, twenty twelve, Shonda
Speaker 5: Rhymes tweeted, meet at Judy Smith, the woman behind at
Speaker 5: scandalabc's Olivia Pope, and get your copy of her new
Speaker 5: book Good Self, Bad Self at Amazon.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 4: Oh, we already had this shirt.
Speaker 5: Marco who is a who is a key player at
Speaker 5: shandalin Mark Marco Esquivel already posted a picture of gladiator
Speaker 5: and sweatshirts, and it was a sweatshirt picture that says,
Speaker 5: do you want to be a gladiator in a suit?
Speaker 4: We were all having marched.
Speaker 3: Yes, we were having march from the beginning, which is crazy.
Speaker 1: And can you talk about how how they named us
Speaker 1: the our fans became our gladiators, right Like someone on
Speaker 1: Twitter just ran with that and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it was like the gladiators and that's that's that's so.
Speaker 1: That was such a memorable moment, right, and that that
Speaker 1: has stuck around too, because people will still come up
Speaker 1: to me on the street now and be like, yeah, yo,
Speaker 1: I'm a gladiator, I'm a gladiator.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I get that all the time.
Speaker 3: What I loved about that, and I thought was so
Speaker 3: at the time, especially Twitter, was about the fans coming
Speaker 3: together and deciding things like now. I think they put
Speaker 3: out like for other shows, they put out like tested hashtag,
Speaker 3: which I didn't understand, like we don't on the side
Speaker 3: of the hashtags. The fans. Yeah, they came up with
Speaker 3: Huckleberry Quinn. They came up with it's not our job, No,
Speaker 3: it's their community.
Speaker 4: I forget.
Speaker 5: Was it your idea or Carrie's idea for all of
Speaker 5: us to be on Twitter.
Speaker 3: I think that Carrie, if I remember correctly, I think
Speaker 3: Carrie came to me and said it would be really
Speaker 3: cool if we all got on Twitter and tweeted the shows.
Speaker 3: And then I remember then she just said it like
Speaker 3: that and like backed away, and then I remember sitting
Speaker 3: at a table and being like, you're all gonna get
Speaker 3: on Twitter.
Speaker 6: We're going to help you do something and we did.
Speaker 1: We were like, we got to get on Twitter.
Speaker 3: But once again, as usual, Carrie was right.
Speaker 4: It was right, She was right, She was right.
Speaker 1: Do you remember do you remember us following I started
Speaker 1: following everybody on Twitter, Katie, like even like fans. I
Speaker 1: was like follow and but now you know you can't
Speaker 1: do that. But but I remember fans.
Speaker 4: We had no idea what we were doing. We sent
Speaker 4: Jeff Perry out onto Twitter and he did great, did
Speaker 4: great him like sitting next to Jeff being like this
Speaker 4: is how you do it? Or Joe Morton, I.
Speaker 5: Mean people, yes, and they came up with their own
Speaker 5: sort of Twitter personalities, like Joe Morton tweeted sort of
Speaker 5: like pop u Pope, these like y like cryptic, crypto
Speaker 5: big posts.
Speaker 3: My favorite Twitter thing that ever happened wasn't I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know that anybody else really knows this. But
Speaker 3: Scott Foley had been playing Jake, this bad guy for
Speaker 3: a while and the audience hated him and he didn't
Speaker 3: complain about it or anything, but like the tweets were
Speaker 3: clear the audience just wanted him dead. And so I
Speaker 3: wrote this episode where he gets thrown into that the
Speaker 3: b six thirteen the whole or whatever, and I know,
Speaker 3: and then Olivia comes in because it's like the president
Speaker 3: thinks that he killed his son. And then Olivia comes
Speaker 3: in and he gives the speech that like he says,
Speaker 3: it's okay if you don't choose me, and then he
Speaker 3: gives her the number of the account that he wants
Speaker 3: her to get the money to his mom and all
Speaker 3: the stuff. And I literally, I'm Scott sit with me
Speaker 3: and like when the scene came on, I was like,
Speaker 3: watch your Twitter feed, just watch it. Like I was like,
Speaker 3: it's going to go from I hate this dude to
Speaker 3: oh my god, Jake is amazing. And it literally just
Speaker 3: like that. It took three minutes. Wow, Twitter to entirely
Speaker 3: change its tune. And I was like, Twitter is a powerful,
Speaker 3: powerful force.
Speaker 4: It was past tense.
Speaker 5: If your character was against Olivia Pope, you were getting
Speaker 5: Twitter death threats, or if your character was coming at
Speaker 5: all in the middle of fits and Olivia, you forget it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was so crazy.
Speaker 4: It was just it was a movement. It was just
Speaker 4: a thing.
Speaker 1: And then people like Oprah Winfrey and like Bette Middlers
Speaker 1: and Rihanna started tweeting also about the show Mariah Carey,
Speaker 1: and we were like, what is happening.
Speaker 3: Prince once put on a suit and send a picture
Speaker 3: of himself that said Gladiator in a suit.
Speaker 6: You know that didn't.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna send it to you because I have a
Speaker 3: screen because I went, you know, Prince was everything. He
Speaker 3: also sent me a list of songs that would be
Speaker 3: okay for me to use on the show.
Speaker 6: Did you ever use one?
Speaker 3: Yes? When well, it's so sad because when Prince died,
Speaker 3: I did an episode that was all my whole the
Speaker 3: whole night of television that Thursday night was all Princess.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that is the loveliest thing. I mean when that's
Speaker 5: how we also started to feel like, oh, the show's
Speaker 5: happening when someone would come into work and be like
Speaker 5: did you see Like Rihanna tweeted that she's watching the show.
Speaker 5: I can remember being it carries l women in Hollywood
Speaker 5: dinner and I was sitting next to hing Mon and
Speaker 5: she was like, my husband and I sit and we
Speaker 5: watch the show. I'm like, are you talking about David Bowie?
Speaker 4: David Bowie is sitting and watching Scandal. I mean, this
Speaker 4: is crazy.
Speaker 3: I freaked out when when missus Obama and the President
Speaker 3: were like, like, we have some we have some things
Speaker 3: to tell you about the show about the White House
Speaker 3: because MS Mom was like, you're not getting it right.
Speaker 1: You gotta get it right.
Speaker 4: And it was great.
Speaker 5: She was like, this is what the private residence looked like,
Speaker 5: this is where the stairs are like, this is like,
Speaker 5: this is how the White Houses set up.
Speaker 3: Show me how we were making the door using the
Speaker 3: doors in correctly, like doing the window panes on the
Speaker 3: doors incorrectly, and I came back to change them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh my god. That is amazing.
Speaker 5: My god, this show man, the things we learned on it,
Speaker 5: the people it brought together. Shanda, thank you for being
Speaker 5: the first guest on the Scandal Rewatch podcast.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: I will show up for you anytime. You know. I
Speaker 3: love you, guys, Scandal.
Speaker 1: Fan, So yeah, Yandal, that's right.
Speaker 4: For life and we love you.
Speaker 5: Thank you for writing this show that turns out when
Speaker 5: you watch it all over again.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's still great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you. Of course it's our pleasure.
Speaker 2: You kidding.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm just so so great.
Speaker 5: We're so filled up that I need to keep going
Speaker 5: with my gladiator.
Speaker 1: Right, I'm gonna pour some whiskey in my in my
Speaker 1: coke zero.
Speaker 4: Now it's only ten to fifteen. Is that too early
Speaker 4: to have a shoat to move to.
Speaker 1: No, it's also a Thursday.
Speaker 4: I don't know what that means, but it's here's another
Speaker 4: see it's tg T.
Speaker 5: I'll have you all this that The first episode Get
Speaker 5: to Rewatch Podcasts Unpacking the Toolbox with guests Shanda Rhimes,
Speaker 5: was recorded on a fucking Thursday.
Speaker 1: And Katie has a shirt that says hashtag tg I
Speaker 1: T remember this, Oh my god.
Speaker 5: And we're drinking out of our gladiator cups and I
Speaker 5: cannot remember for the life of me.
Speaker 4: What was the name of the made up wine on Scandal?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 4: Like, I don't know. I knew Betsy Beers would know this.
Speaker 5: See this whole This whole podcast is not about me
Speaker 5: texting people, but it is because I want to find
Speaker 5: out the correct things I wrote. Sorry about you so
Speaker 5: early doing Scandal podcast. What was the fake, made up
Speaker 5: name of the wine again? Because I'm gonna pretend to
Speaker 5: drink it on the podcast. It was shot to move
Speaker 5: to Pop and it was called Chateau do Belet Wow,
Speaker 5: which is complete bullshit and not made up.
Speaker 1: I love that Betsy remembered that Betsy knew that.
Speaker 5: Well because she was the person who they went She's
Speaker 5: a she knows a lot about fancy wine, and I
Speaker 5: think the story goes is like the writer's room reached
Speaker 5: out to her and was like, what would be a
Speaker 5: really fancy, insanely priced bottle of wine that Olivia Pope
Speaker 5: will drinking?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, mine this morning is cranberry juice that's old as fuck,
Speaker 5: and I found in the back of my and Carrie
Speaker 5: never drank cranberry juice onset.
Speaker 4: She drank grape juice, really right.
Speaker 1: I don't know whatever had the less sugar.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think her fake wine was grape juice, which
Speaker 5: I think she like loved.
Speaker 4: I remember Carrie being like this crape juice is so delicious.
Speaker 3: I love this.
Speaker 4: But Yo, the.
Speaker 5: Scandal Rewatch podcast, you guys better to tell your friends
Speaker 5: because it's fire. We have every single guest, an amazing
Speaker 5: person you could want who starred on Scandal or start
Speaker 5: behind the scenes on Scandal, some secret guests coming up
Speaker 5: that you are not going to want to miss.
Speaker 1: You're going to get all the scoop, all the scoop
Speaker 1: from behind the scenes at parties.
Speaker 5: Yes, and Gary and I are so grateful to have
Speaker 5: this show and it's been such a gift and we're
Speaker 5: so excited to be on this ride with you guys,
Speaker 5: and we love you.
Speaker 1: And we want you guys to get hooked on rewatching
Speaker 1: the show like we are now.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, everyone, tune in next week to episode
Speaker 5: one oh two of Scandal. Dirty little secrets.
Speaker 1: We all got them, We all got them. Better tell
Speaker 1: somebody bye. Thank you guys for joining us on Unpacking
Speaker 1: the Toolbox. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe, share
Speaker 1: with your friends, rate, or leave us a review.
Speaker 5: Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, Alex Alcea, Lauren Homan,
Speaker 5: Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is
Speaker 5: Vince de Johnny, with music by Chad Fisher.
Speaker 1: Scandal is a production of ABC Signature, and you can
Speaker 1: follow along by rewatching Scandal on Hulu.
Speaker 5: Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 5: partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit
Speaker 5: the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.