Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolboxes of production of shondol and Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with our Heart Radio. Yes, Katie, gee, Katie, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's happening. Oh man, we are actually here. We're doing
Speaker 1: the Scandal rewatch podcast, unpacking the toolbox together together. I mean,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I am very excited to rewatch episodes,
Speaker 1: which we have to tell you guys how it's been going.
Speaker 1: And we've been wanting to do a rewatch podcast and
Speaker 1: hang out with our fans. Are gladiators who we have
Speaker 1: missed for far too long. But really, this is just
Speaker 1: my excuse to hang out with my favorite person on
Speaker 1: the planet. Same. We just want to hang out together
Speaker 1: so we could talk shit and reminisce about one of
Speaker 1: the best shows on television. Yes, do you remember when
Speaker 1: the last time you watched like a Scandal episode? Are
Speaker 1: you kidding? Okay, First of all, it has been ten years.
Speaker 1: We just celebrated the tenure anniversary of the pilot area.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. I don't think I have watched like I
Speaker 1: don't think I've watched any episodes of you. I don't
Speaker 1: think so either. You know, there was a moment there
Speaker 1: where they were still playing like on on ABC or
Speaker 1: where I'd be flipping through channels and catch a glimpse,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't I wouldn't stay. I would be I
Speaker 1: would sort of, you know, smile inside and sort of
Speaker 1: chuckled to myself, but then move on. I woul didn't
Speaker 1: sit there and watch the whole episode. But being able
Speaker 1: to do that for the podcast was like a gift, man.
Speaker 1: I have to say again, like the biggest when I
Speaker 1: was like, we're doing this scandal rewatch podcast. It's called
Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolbox, which, let's just take a moment. That
Speaker 1: is a freaking great title. It is the best title.
Speaker 1: I love it so much. It's so hucking Quinn. It's
Speaker 1: so Huckleberry Quinn. It's so right for the Gladiators, the
Speaker 1: o G Gladiators. You know about our toolbox, you know
Speaker 1: about Huck and his tools. It's great. Okay, so I'm
Speaker 1: packing the toolbox and there's a toolbox emoji now on
Speaker 1: Instagram there's a toolbox emoji. So Gladiators, suit the fuck up.
Speaker 1: Tell your friends about this fucking podcast, and make sure
Speaker 1: you put the toolbox emoji when you do something. But
Speaker 1: right quick, I was like mostly excited to hang out
Speaker 1: with you. Because I'm obsessed with you and I think
Speaker 1: you're the most special, perfect human and ever born, which
Speaker 1: I think you guys who watched the show know that
Speaker 1: quinnin Huk had a very special connection. But I was
Speaker 1: most freaked out about going back and watching the episodes.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know, I was freaked out
Speaker 1: in the low key excited because I was like sometimes
Speaker 1: I'm like, sometimes I do enjoy watching myself, but I
Speaker 1: don't want like somebody will walk in and be like,
Speaker 1: you're watching yourself. So I was like every time Mikey
Speaker 1: would walk in, I'd be like, well, I have to
Speaker 1: do this for work. This is for work. You know,
Speaker 1: I hate watching myself. You couldn't pay me. Well, you
Speaker 1: could pay me a million dollars to do so, but
Speaker 1: I don't really like watching myself. And I was concerned,
Speaker 1: like as ten years too long or too short, Like
Speaker 1: what is the perfect amount to be watching the show.
Speaker 1: And because of this podcast going back and rewatching these episodes,
Speaker 1: because G and I are taking this podcast very seriously.
Speaker 1: We are we are doing our research. We are watching
Speaker 1: the episodes backwards and forwards. We have amazing guests coming
Speaker 1: in to talk about their experiences and their process and
Speaker 1: how this whole thing went down. But I am loving
Speaker 1: the episode. Me too shocked about it, like I don't
Speaker 1: remember ship. I don't remember. I don't remember these episodes.
Speaker 1: I mean I remember moments and and scenes here and there.
Speaker 1: But I'm enjoying it so much. God, I too, and
Speaker 1: I feel like we were so caught up while we
Speaker 1: were shooting it. But now going back and being able
Speaker 1: to watch it without any distractions, it's such a good show.
Speaker 1: It's so good, and I feel like a gladiator with
Speaker 1: a gladiator, I said. Quinn says gladiator in a succi
Speaker 1: wants to be a gladiator in a suit in the pilot.
Speaker 1: But we were so in it when we were making
Speaker 1: the show, and then when we would even watch the episodes.
Speaker 1: Back then, we were so obsessed with tweeting that we
Speaker 1: really didn't focus and give my full attention to watching
Speaker 1: the episodes. And right now going back and watching these episodes,
Speaker 1: I am such a fan. I am such a fan,
Speaker 1: so exciting, I am such an o G gladiator. I
Speaker 1: love everyone's characters, the writing, the way that it was shot,
Speaker 1: the ins and outs. I'm just grateful already. And what's good?
Speaker 1: I want to say real quick to 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 cookie me
Speaker 1: and Katie are getting on this podcast. Yeah we have fun, Yes,
Speaker 1: but if you can rewatch Scandal on Hulu, because it
Speaker 1: really is a fa can amazing show like no other,
Speaker 1: it holds up. That's one thing. I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 1: so many actors artists watch stuff they've shot in the
Speaker 1: past and you're like, oh wow, this thing is just
Speaker 1: come and gone and is it doesn't really hold up.
Speaker 1: Scandal one holds up. I am watching all the other
Speaker 1: critically as claim shows right now, and Scandal is just
Speaker 1: as good, if not better. Hew yourself a favor. Listen
Speaker 1: to the podcast, rewatch the episodes, hang out with us.
Speaker 1: Every episode is going to be such a fucking good time.
Speaker 1: It's me and g hanging out shooting the ship. We
Speaker 1: are talking about plot. We have guests that come on
Speaker 1: that talk about their processes. We talked about what we
Speaker 1: ate for lunch. We talked about farts, we talked about crying,
Speaker 1: we talk about sex, We talk about tears Stick. We
Speaker 1: talk about every single amazing actor, guest star, co star,
Speaker 1: and every horror film they've ever been in thanks to
Speaker 1: Germo Diaz. And then we just like hang out, make
Speaker 1: you laugh, have a good time, and feel like the
Speaker 1: Scandal fam is all back together again exactly agains all
Speaker 1: back together. And this is our first freaking show. It's
Speaker 1: the first podcast we've ever done. We are going back
Speaker 1: in time. It's the ten year anniversary since the pilot
Speaker 1: aired and drastically changed all of our lives. Really, and
Speaker 1: Germo and I are wearing our T g I T
Speaker 1: and garmoious. I'm wearing a season two Scandal like baseball
Speaker 1: jersey type situation sands like the undershirt because it's too
Speaker 1: damn tight. Because this is old as hell, so we
Speaker 1: deserve all the applause that we are fitting. We are
Speaker 1: going to be bringing out on this podcast all the
Speaker 1: vintage throwback Scandal things we got. Okay, Gee, take me
Speaker 1: back to where you were in your life before Huck,
Speaker 1: What the heck were you doing? Honestly, I was at
Speaker 1: a point in my life where I was no joke,
Speaker 1: like I need a job, like I really need a job.
Speaker 1: I was doing you know, guest spots, and I I
Speaker 1: was I was still doing Weeds at the time, but
Speaker 1: I was recurring on weeds, so it wasn't a steady gig,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I loved being on Weeds,
Speaker 1: but I was at that point in my life where
Speaker 1: I was like, I really need to book something significant
Speaker 1: that That's where I was in my life. So when
Speaker 1: scandal came along, I was like fucking like, oh man,
Speaker 1: thank god, where were you? Do you remember where you
Speaker 1: were at? Like right before Oh my god, I was
Speaker 1: twenty eight. I just got it engaged to Adam Shapiro
Speaker 1: at um sweet sweet Adam. And I was a bag
Speaker 1: be sitter, and you would You've been doing that for years, right,
Speaker 1: like you were a nanny for a long time. I
Speaker 1: was a waitress for a decade, and then I couldn't
Speaker 1: handle the food service industry anymore in Los Angeles because
Speaker 1: I would always wait on people that I was auditioning for. Literally,
Speaker 1: like I would have like screen tests and be auditioning
Speaker 1: and then I would be like asking for their drink
Speaker 1: order and yet exactly, and so I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I could still babysit and pay my rent that way.
Speaker 1: But at least it's like behind closed doors and not
Speaker 1: as embarrassing. Um. And so I was nannying for a
Speaker 1: very very fancy, high falutin family when the call for
Speaker 1: scandal came in and I remember being like, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: her name is Quinn and my middle name is Quinn,
Speaker 1: and maybe that's a sign from the universe that this
Speaker 1: is my part? Can this please be my part? Can
Speaker 1: this please save me from this? And similar to you,
Speaker 1: like I had been working, but not at the level
Speaker 1: you had been working, but I had been you know,
Speaker 1: I had done a bunch of guest stars. I had
Speaker 1: occurred on a couple of shows. I had booked a
Speaker 1: pilot that didn't go, Like there were some things, but
Speaker 1: it was never ever, ever steady enough where I could
Speaker 1: give up my side hut exactly. Yeah. And I was
Speaker 1: at that place where I was like, am I going
Speaker 1: to have to get aside hustle? Like right before this?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't believe it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know how it is for actors. It ebbs and
Speaker 1: flows like the craziest it's feast or famine. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: make good money and then that ship, that job ends
Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, I have no idea what's next,
Speaker 1: because we just got to go back to the drawing board,
Speaker 1: go back to auditioning. Yeah, do you remember the first
Speaker 1: time you and I met? Katie? I don't remember, do you?
Speaker 1: How dare you? Neither do I remember? I feel like
Speaker 1: you've always like we've always been connected, and you've always
Speaker 1: sort of been in my life since scandal started. So
Speaker 1: I but I don't remember exactly the moment. Was it
Speaker 1: at Prospect Studios where we rehearsed. It had to have been,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember either, whatever, But I feel like
Speaker 1: me and you like gravitated towards each other, like emotionally
Speaker 1: and physically probably as well. We were like I love
Speaker 1: this girl. Like I feel like that happened right away. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we neither one of us may be able to remember
Speaker 1: the exact moment we met, but I do know that
Speaker 1: from the jump it was a love and a soulmate
Speaker 1: connection of like we are going to travel this life together. Yes,
Speaker 1: and then and then we had that tumultual affair. But
Speaker 1: that's not that's neither here nor there. We'll save that
Speaker 1: for the podcast. I love it. Guys. Keep listening. You
Speaker 1: can hear about me and Garmo's affair. Um, I am
Speaker 1: in love with you though, and how could you not be?
Speaker 1: And I also just think we had those scenes in
Speaker 1: the pilot together. I feel like we've tied scene in
Speaker 1: the pilot where we were in the bathroom and you said,
Speaker 1: we don't cry here and you're a stray dog and
Speaker 1: Olivia takes us in. But we also got the best scoop,
Speaker 1: like me and me and you always had the scoop. Remember,
Speaker 1: sometimes we'd be on set talking talking about stuff or
Speaker 1: having telling a story or some like scoop in Spanish
Speaker 1: and then Carry Carry has serious fomo. Oh yeah, she's
Speaker 1: always the last to know. But also Carry would hear
Speaker 1: us and be we'd be so into telling into what
Speaker 1: we were talking about that she would feel that energy
Speaker 1: and walk over and be like, what are you guys
Speaker 1: talking about? Tell me and we'd be like, by the way,
Speaker 1: that would be everybody and you and I we could talk.
Speaker 1: You guys will see as we get into the Scandal
Speaker 1: Rewatch podcast, Garmo and I can talk for a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand hours about absolutely nothing and it's hilarious and we
Speaker 1: love it. But that was how the entire seven years
Speaker 1: of Scandal was, and he and I are always talking,
Speaker 1: having fun, gossiping whatever. And everyone always gravitated towards our
Speaker 1: our energy just like yeah, man, they always entergy and
Speaker 1: so we always have the scoop. We knew what everybody
Speaker 1: was up to without the ado. Let's get this this
Speaker 1: premier red carpet first episode of the Scandal Rewatch podcast,
Speaker 1: Unpacking the toolbox off and running to the races we
Speaker 1: have got. Episode one on one, titled Sweet Baby, It
Speaker 1: aired on April five in two thousand twelve. It was
Speaker 1: written by Shanna Rhymes and it was directed by the
Speaker 1: brilliant Paul McGuigan. Guest starring Wes Brown, is Selly st James, Amy,
Speaker 1: Kay Harmon is Ario Massey, Brian Resmussen is Howie, Alan
Speaker 1: Coleman is Lad and Marek Probosk as O Scott. All
Speaker 1: you gladiators listening know that one of the most important
Speaker 1: key elements of the special sauce that made Scandal scandal
Speaker 1: was the scandal pace at which we told story. So
Speaker 1: let us warm your ears up and your heart's up
Speaker 1: by telling you weekly the synopsis of each episode that
Speaker 1: we're going to dive into, and we're gonna tell you
Speaker 1: the synopsis of that episode in Scandal paste give it
Speaker 1: to him. Let's give it to him. When Quinn Perkins
Speaker 1: starts a new job at crisis Management from Olivia popean associates,
Speaker 1: she must stay on her toes to navigate the tricky
Speaker 1: cases they handle. The latest kind of Opia Selly st
Speaker 1: James stumbles into the office, distraught and covered in the
Speaker 1: blood of his dead girlfriend, adamant that he didn't kill her,
Speaker 1: but tight lipped on the details. Meanwhile, the White House
Speaker 1: is facing a scandal with the President and an aid
Speaker 1: and who else is brought in to fix the problem
Speaker 1: about Olivia Pope. That's what I'm talking about. Guys. It's
Speaker 1: been a while. G and I. We need to do
Speaker 1: our vocal warming. Leather bands his fist against the post.
Speaker 1: He still insists he sees the ghosts. Remember that one,
Speaker 1: But it's amazing. Oh my god, I'm obsessed with it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So we'll jog your memories. Every episode will tell you
Speaker 1: the title, the director, the guest stars, the co stars,
Speaker 1: the synopsis in Scandal Pace and some episodes we're going
Speaker 1: to have guests. Some episodes we ain't gonna have guests.
Speaker 1: But this episode we got to guest, and now we
Speaker 1: need a drumroll. People, I can't wait. We don't even
Speaker 1: need a drum roll. We also need a full on
Speaker 1: Stevie Wonder song, the Franklin Song, or any of the
Speaker 1: amazing songs that Scandal had. Two 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. For the inaugural episode, we
Speaker 1: pull out the biggie, the big guns, the one, the only,
Speaker 1: the most special. Queen Bee herself shot Ny Hello, and
Speaker 1: we need to take a picture of this. We're drinking
Speaker 1: out of our gladiator wine cups. It's too early in
Speaker 1: the morning to actually be drinking. Who gave us these glasses?
Speaker 1: Did we get him from? Was it production that gifted these?
Speaker 1: I don't even remember, might have come from the network,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Wow. Well, you know what, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be hopefully a real opportunity for merch with this podcast,
Speaker 1: because this is a great wine Shanda, can you tell
Speaker 1: us about where you got this idea? The origin story
Speaker 1: of Scandal meeting Judy Smith writing the pilot. So I
Speaker 1: was busy at the time with Grays and I think
Speaker 1: also private practice and Betsy was like, I met this
Speaker 1: incredible woman. She's got this incredible job. I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to you about it. And I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't have time for this. You know, I'm just too
Speaker 1: busy and I wasn't thinking about creating another show. No,
Speaker 1: you already had too yeah, too much to do. So
Speaker 1: Betsy said, UM, just sit with her for like a
Speaker 1: half an hour. So Judy Smith came in. She's this amazing,
Speaker 1: formidable woman who basically always wears white, sat down and
Speaker 1: started talking to me about her job. And the more
Speaker 1: she talked to me about the job, the more I
Speaker 1: was like, this is fascinating, this life of a fixer.
Speaker 1: Because Judy had been like the fixer for the White
Speaker 1: House during the Bush era, which too era, and she
Speaker 1: had all these amazing stories and I was sort of
Speaker 1: dazzled by the stories. I thought they were amazing. She'd
Speaker 1: represented Monticawinski, you know, that whole thing, like she's done
Speaker 1: a lot. And we ended up talking not for half
Speaker 1: an hour, but like for four hours or something like that.
Speaker 1: By the time we were done talking, I was like,
Speaker 1: I can see like seventy episodes easy, Like I can
Speaker 1: see exactly what those episodes would be yeah, And then
Speaker 1: did you just go off and write? Was it like
Speaker 1: an easy thing to write? Was it? Did it? Was
Speaker 1: it hard to get it out of your brain? No?
Speaker 1: You know, I think it was pretty easy to write
Speaker 1: because I kind of understood the character I was making.
Speaker 1: Once I let go of the fact that it didn't
Speaker 1: have to be exactly Duty that I could play, I
Speaker 1: felt really good about the character I was making, and
Speaker 1: then all the other characters became really clear to me
Speaker 1: really fast, which was great. God for us, Thank God
Speaker 1: for you. Duty was there to like tell me how
Speaker 1: she did her job, Like I'd call her and ask
Speaker 1: for like like tiny details how she did her job.
Speaker 1: And that's what really made the series I think special,
Speaker 1: is the fact that we had so many real informing us.
Speaker 1: First of all, she gave us all of her business
Speaker 1: cards when we started, and I was like, please, Lord,
Speaker 1: let us never have to use this, like I don't
Speaker 1: want to call it. Didn't she come to like one
Speaker 1: of our first rehearsals at Prospect Studios. I think that
Speaker 1: we were hurt. We rehearsed the show like it was
Speaker 1: a play, and I remember her being there. I think
Speaker 1: that's when she gave us her business cards, and we
Speaker 1: were all like, oh my god, this is d Judy Smith.
Speaker 1: This is who Olivia Pope is loosely based on and
Speaker 1: obviously on the show, Like you know, Olivia Pope has
Speaker 1: an affair with the president. Obviously that didn't happen with
Speaker 1: Judy Smith. This woman has to go around being like
Speaker 1: scandals based on my life. But I did not sleep
Speaker 1: with Bush Senior Junior. Inspired by inspired by my job
Speaker 1: is what I kept telling her to say, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: that's great. Inspired by my job. So when you were
Speaker 1: when you were listening to her story, Shanda, and did
Speaker 1: it just sort of come into your brain that you
Speaker 1: kind of went off and then started thinking, oh, they
Speaker 1: these two characters can have an affair, and it sort
Speaker 1: of grew from there? Where where did that sort of
Speaker 1: come from? When I'm making a show or making writing
Speaker 1: a script, I always think what's the worst thing that
Speaker 1: could happen for these two people? Like what's the worst
Speaker 1: way for things to go so great? Which is you
Speaker 1: know how Huck ended up like a violent kill and
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, But what's the worst way
Speaker 1: to go? And the worst way I could think of
Speaker 1: was if you're representing a girl from the White House
Speaker 1: because it really started with me having like a little
Speaker 1: Monica Lensky story. I was like, the worst thing is
Speaker 1: that that you've been having a secret affair with this
Speaker 1: man and now you discover that this is just how
Speaker 1: he plays. That's not good. But when you wrote the pilot,
Speaker 1: did you have any idea that the fits Olivia phenomenon
Speaker 1: the one minute to the take off your clothes, the
Speaker 1: chemistry beyond epic proportions would be what it was not
Speaker 1: when I wrote it. Not when I wrote it, And
Speaker 1: I remember the studio calling me up on the network,
Speaker 1: calling me up and saying, can you we love it?
Speaker 1: Can you just take out one little part? Like can't
Speaker 1: you just be friends with the president? Could you not
Speaker 1: have the affair? I remember saying, Olivia Pope is going
Speaker 1: to have sex on the White houval office desk in
Speaker 1: the first season of this series, and if you don't
Speaker 1: want that, then I'm not doing this series. I'm obsessed
Speaker 1: with And then when we were shooting it, you know,
Speaker 1: the chemistry with Carrie and Tony was crazy, Like I
Speaker 1: was like that that scene in the Oval office at
Speaker 1: the end, I was not expecting that much amazing chemistry.
Speaker 1: I mean, Tony's so incredible and always scared, but I
Speaker 1: just wasn't expecting it to be that like that fire,
Speaker 1: you know, it was great. I remember showing up that
Speaker 1: night just to watch the shooting of it, which I
Speaker 1: was like, I think, I think we have to talk
Speaker 1: about the whole pilot experience, but I think that scene
Speaker 1: in the Oval where they make out and they're like
Speaker 1: hiding where the cameras can't see them, that was our
Speaker 1: last night of shooting, and I remember being like, I
Speaker 1: just want to go because I just never want this
Speaker 1: to end. And I remember being there behind the monitor
Speaker 1: watching and it was you could hear. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: hiding like in the curtains, Like it was so intense,
Speaker 1: so on, it was so on. All I wanted to
Speaker 1: say is, how did you cast quinnin huck No, we'll
Speaker 1: get that's good stuff, though, we will be back with
Speaker 1: more after the break. Okay, So how did you cast
Speaker 1: Olivia Pope? Like did a lot of people as for
Speaker 1: that role. Well, let's be clear, and I don't think
Speaker 1: I think I realized how a big of a deal
Speaker 1: this was. But it was the first leading role for
Speaker 1: a woman of color and a drama in like thirty
Speaker 1: seven years or something. So one thing I was very
Speaker 1: clear about was there are so many actresses who have
Speaker 1: never gotten this shot, Like we're not turning anybody away,
Speaker 1: Like if you were of Note, we are not turning
Speaker 1: you away. So it felt like it was this like
Speaker 1: march of like fifty of some of the most incredible
Speaker 1: actresses I've ever seen showing up at our office, and
Speaker 1: it was amazing to watch. It also broke my heart
Speaker 1: because why should it have to be this way? And
Speaker 1: you could only cast of one and I could only
Speaker 1: cast one, and so it came down to Carrie and
Speaker 1: you can only Rose and Jill Scott, three women who
Speaker 1: could out be more different, be more different. Also would
Speaker 1: love to see a show with the three of them.
Speaker 1: But I loved them all and I loved everybody's performance
Speaker 1: as Olivia Pope, I really did. And I just kept thinking,
Speaker 1: like I would show my writing because I'm writing a
Speaker 1: different show for each one of these women. It just
Speaker 1: felt like it was going to fundamentally be different for
Speaker 1: every for every woman. And in the end, I sat
Speaker 1: down with Carrie and I remember thinking like she's too pretty,
Speaker 1: like somebody that's powerful, like doesn't get get away with
Speaker 1: being pretty, and I was, which was so wrong with me?
Speaker 1: And then I sat out with Carrie and she talked
Speaker 1: politics like nobody's business for like an hour, and I
Speaker 1: got it entirely immediately. Yeah, that was the whole and
Speaker 1: I get it. I mean, Carrie Washington is an alien
Speaker 1: of remarkable beauty. It's like, yeah, no one looks like that. No,
Speaker 1: no one looks like that, No one has bone structure
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, she's gorgeous, and she's also incredibly
Speaker 1: politically active and an activist and all these things that
Speaker 1: really lined up for the perfect Olivia Pope. I mean,
Speaker 1: this pilot, the amount of slow mowalking scenes in a
Speaker 1: white coat is is the greatest. It just satisfies every
Speaker 1: part of your being watching it is It's like it's
Speaker 1: it's like the dream life in a way that you
Speaker 1: want to live. Yeah. Hell yeah, Shanda, did the studio
Speaker 1: and network know that Olivia Pope was a black woman
Speaker 1: or no? When you wrote it? So I want to
Speaker 1: be clear. When I went in to pitch this, I
Speaker 1: told Channing, I said, and she's going to be black
Speaker 1: because Judy Smith is black, and Channing just nodded, And
Speaker 1: I don't I think like me, she didn't think his
Speaker 1: channings a woman of color. I don't think she thought
Speaker 1: like I better go warn everybody or anything like this
Speaker 1: is not a problem. And so when they picked up
Speaker 1: the pilot, the head of casting called me and was like,
Speaker 1: Connie Britton would be the perfect choice for this role.
Speaker 1: And I said, I adore Connie Britton and she would
Speaker 1: be except Olivia Pope is black. And it was like
Speaker 1: this long moment of silence. Wow, yeah, I was just
Speaker 1: gonna bring up what you brought up before, like like
Speaker 1: the casting process for the rest of the of the cast.
Speaker 1: I remember for going in for Houck and I remember
Speaker 1: getting this gides and being like super piste off that
Speaker 1: I was even being considered for this because I think
Speaker 1: the character was described as like in his like fifties,
Speaker 1: like mid fifties. I was like, I was like thirty
Speaker 1: nine at the time, and I was like, now I'm
Speaker 1: fifty one, I'm like the new twenty like, but at
Speaker 1: the time, I was like, what the fun they wanted?
Speaker 1: Why you like, how dare you think I'm fifty? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I just felt I wasn't right for I remember going
Speaker 1: into the audition to to read for for you Shawnda
Speaker 1: and for Linda Loewey, and I think there was somebody
Speaker 1: else in the room and just being like gonna do
Speaker 1: do my best, and and you wrote this like brilliant
Speaker 1: monologue and the character was obsessed with like little figurines
Speaker 1: that were all over his desk. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember that. Yeah, I had to write something just
Speaker 1: to cast the role because I didn't say much and
Speaker 1: I knew that eventually he would. Yeah, I knew eventually
Speaker 1: he would. So I wrote this monologue. Oh it was
Speaker 1: so good. And then so I did the monologue and
Speaker 1: then we just all kind of sat there in silence
Speaker 1: for a minute, and you looked at me and said,
Speaker 1: you're a very interesting actor. Like I remember that so clearly,
Speaker 1: and I was like thank you, and then I left.
Speaker 1: And then you know, another odd thing that happened with
Speaker 1: casting you was that you you cast I think most
Speaker 1: of us, at least me, after just one audition. There
Speaker 1: wasn't a lot of fanfare. You you know, we didn't
Speaker 1: test for it, but you just knew. And the fact
Speaker 1: that you got this whole cast together that has such
Speaker 1: amazing chemistry and it all just freaking was it was
Speaker 1: so special, Like but I know Kate Katie's stories like
Speaker 1: Katie stories crazy. But didn't you first tell her that
Speaker 1: she didn't get it? So they called me in and
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to test and they say, Shanda says, um,
Speaker 1: you can see this on the behind the scenes DVD
Speaker 1: of season that's right, that's right, see my audition. She
Speaker 1: gave me the part and I cried, real, real, ugly cried,
Speaker 1: and I loved it so much. It was like it
Speaker 1: was like the most fun thing I ever got to
Speaker 1: do is to deliver good news to somebody, you know.
Speaker 1: It was just love. And then I said, what am
Speaker 1: I supposed to do? When you said someone's going to
Speaker 1: call you and there's going to be a wardrobe fitting
Speaker 1: and there's going to be a table read, I was like,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be okay. I didn't first tell her that
Speaker 1: she didn't get it. What I said was she came
Speaker 1: in to do the test, and then we brought her
Speaker 1: in the room and we already had the camera rolling,
Speaker 1: and I said, Kittie, you're you know, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to let you know you're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to test for this part. And she was like just
Speaker 1: so politely, like like trying really hard, and you can
Speaker 1: see her dying a little bit inside, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you Gause, We're just gonna give it to you, and
Speaker 1: she was like she's like went crazy. It was. It
Speaker 1: was so much fun. I've never I mean, that's your
Speaker 1: you know, you've won the lottery, you know you've here's
Speaker 1: your car and your I mean it was insane. It
Speaker 1: was so but even bigger than that because it had
Speaker 1: been something I'd wanted and worked for. I think when
Speaker 1: I was twenty three or something, I said to someone,
Speaker 1: I just want to work with Shonda Rye, Like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, my start. But Shanna, most actors have to
Speaker 1: go through nine like like pre reads, callbacks, producers, tests,
Speaker 1: 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. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you put in all that work and then you're like,
Speaker 1: uh no. For me, it was like I knew, and
Speaker 1: I'm very honest, I knew when I saw you, like
Speaker 1: what I was like, this is perfect, Like this is
Speaker 1: exactly what I was looking for when I said same
Speaker 1: with kat. I knew when I saw her that was
Speaker 1: exactly what we're waiting for. And because she was newer, um,
Speaker 1: the network was like she needs to test. And then
Speaker 1: Linda Lolowe and I went at the network and we're like,
Speaker 1: we're not doing it, Like we're not doing that, Like
Speaker 1: the only person who's getting getting offered this part. I
Speaker 1: used a lot of I'm not making this pilot a
Speaker 1: lot to get what I wanted, which is not very mature.
Speaker 1: I love it, and I talked about this all the time.
Speaker 1: So for you listening, Shanda is usually not on set
Speaker 1: because she's really busy writing. Were a new number of
Speaker 1: other reasons, um, But for our pilot, which I think
Speaker 1: took three two or three weeks to make, Shonda was
Speaker 1: there for every single frame we shot nights, it was cold.
Speaker 1: We were in a really dank, downtown cool place that
Speaker 1: we then built and made into Olivia Pope and associates
Speaker 1: on a stage. Do you have any what are your
Speaker 1: memories from being there? For those I mean we were
Speaker 1: up all night loopy, Yeah, yeah, I remember like one.
Speaker 1: I remember being there to make sure everybody talked fast
Speaker 1: enough you know what I mean. It was really my
Speaker 1: big word is everyone's not going to talk fast enough.
Speaker 1: And part of that talk fast enough was simply that
Speaker 1: I had written a really long pilot. You were like,
Speaker 1: y'all gotta talk quick. We're not cutting this out. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like the pace of this show, like the
Speaker 1: pace of how these people live their lives. You know,
Speaker 1: White House could be slower, but Pulpit Associates was like
Speaker 1: this speeding thing, and I wanted to happen. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was so interesting because I just met Paul mcwigan.
Speaker 1: I didn't know him. I just had loved his pilot
Speaker 1: Sherlock and the work he's done there, and we talked
Speaker 1: for a long time. But I was also there to
Speaker 1: like sort of go like, what what's he doing, what's
Speaker 1: he choosing to do? What's the look going to be?
Speaker 1: Because I really don't Yeah, I don't talk in visuals.
Speaker 1: I really just you know, talking story and what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1: And so to watch him translate that was great, you know,
Speaker 1: it was really great experience. Yeah, I have in my
Speaker 1: notes one of the one of the other characters on
Speaker 1: the show was were these panels that are our DP
Speaker 1: started to incorporate into shooting, do you remember, Katie. Like
Speaker 1: we would do our traditional coverage of the scene and
Speaker 1: then somebody would call out panels, and then they would
Speaker 1: bring out these sort of beveled pieces of thick glass
Speaker 1: and they would stand the characters be behind these glasses,
Speaker 1: and the camera would sort of you know, travel, you know,
Speaker 1: side side to side, and it just gave it this
Speaker 1: like sexy, like sort of dangerous like look, yeah, voyeuristic. Ill, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's so true. And the colors like what they created,
Speaker 1: the dark blues and grays, and like it just seemed
Speaker 1: really not poppy. It didn't seem bright at all. It
Speaker 1: seemed sort of like underground, like all this stuff we
Speaker 1: were going and gore and like you mentioned, Katie, are
Speaker 1: are where we shot the pilot. It was this amazing
Speaker 1: location in downtown l A. And there were these these
Speaker 1: cracked pieces of of windows that which which now looking
Speaker 1: back at the watching the show again, watching it back,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, it's so symbolic of all the cast
Speaker 1: of characters, right, because we're all cracked and broken and leaking.
Speaker 1: Like I remember, we would have to put photos up
Speaker 1: on those pieces of glass, and sometimes it was a
Speaker 1: struggle because it was raining outside and they had to
Speaker 1: figure out a way to get the pictures to stick
Speaker 1: because there were all these cracks. And then they created
Speaker 1: that on the stages. Oh, it was so wonderful. They
Speaker 1: replicated that so beautifully. That freaks me out how well
Speaker 1: they did that. Yes, Oh my god, everybody. And you
Speaker 1: know what's cool. Everyone really stuck with it, like seven years.
Speaker 1: I don't you know, we just really didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of turnover in terms of like head of wardrobe production,
Speaker 1: Like everyone believed in it. And I don't know how
Speaker 1: you built this team. I know you've talked about this
Speaker 1: like a no asshole policy, but like it really felt
Speaker 1: like the cast and the crew was just a machine.
Speaker 1: Like we were so tight. We still are. I mean
Speaker 1: it's really when I see someone from Scandal, like a
Speaker 1: Mary Howard or Line producing or Tom Erricker producing director
Speaker 1: or someone I'm emotional like I'm it really felt like
Speaker 1: a family early on. How did you do that? One?
Speaker 1: I think Betsy and I did our homework. At least
Speaker 1: two people had to say you weren't an asshole for
Speaker 1: us to hire you. At least to two outside people
Speaker 1: had to vouch for like your personality or who you
Speaker 1: were as a person, because you know, people are always
Speaker 1: lovely to me, but then I find out that they're
Speaker 1: horrible to the p A s or there. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, that creates a bad set. And then we
Speaker 1: had Mary Howard, who I've learned, if you want your
Speaker 1: set to run the way you would run your set,
Speaker 1: find somebody who shares the same mindset as you. And
Speaker 1: Mary was all about creating like a family environment and
Speaker 1: a comfortable environment for every working and making everybody feel valued.
Speaker 1: And then we got Lin Paulo to do the costumes,
Speaker 1: and she was already somebody that you know, I had
Speaker 1: been really into and loving her work, and it was
Speaker 1: great to get her too, So it was it was
Speaker 1: just this nice building process. I still work with Lind
Speaker 1: to this day. Everyone told me, because I was sort
Speaker 1: of the baby that like, you know, you really better
Speaker 1: enjoy this because this, you know, the Tony is and
Speaker 1: the Jeff's like, this is this is rare. This is
Speaker 1: lightning in a bottle. Like we've had very long careers
Speaker 1: and we've moved from group to group and cast to cast,
Speaker 1: and this is so magical. We used to get all
Speaker 1: the press used to come up to us and be like,
Speaker 1: come on, like each other, Come on, this cannot be real,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, it is real. I don't know what
Speaker 1: to tell you. We're obsessed with each other. We go
Speaker 1: to events and we only talk to each other. We
Speaker 1: don't even want to talk to anybody else. We also
Speaker 1: had so many amazing moments outside of of shooting the show, Like,
Speaker 1: we went to so many events, and one memory that's
Speaker 1: that's stuck out. I think Katie and I talked about
Speaker 1: this a few days ago, was we went to this
Speaker 1: GLAD Awards event where myself, Katie, and Carrie were presenting
Speaker 1: an award to you. Shanda was a GLAD Award. I
Speaker 1: forget uh. And we had so much fun. And I
Speaker 1: know the thing that sticks out for me is we
Speaker 1: were after the awards. We were on the dance floor
Speaker 1: just dancing it up with you and me and and
Speaker 1: Katie and my boyfriend Mike was there and at one
Speaker 1: point broke. I don't think I ever told you this, Katie,
Speaker 1: or maybe I did, but at one point we're dancing
Speaker 1: Shaunda and this dude sort of shimmy's up and saddles
Speaker 1: up in front of me and starts dancing and he's
Speaker 1: getting a little flirty and you walked up to him
Speaker 1: and you said, he got a man. Do you remember that?
Speaker 1: And I remember at that moment thinking, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is such a down woman, like she's got my back.
Speaker 1: I loved it so much. But also cut to like
Speaker 1: later on that night, me and Mike you had a
Speaker 1: three something with that guy. Really, yes, yes, but but
Speaker 1: me and Mike still talk about it to this day.
Speaker 1: Mike adores you, and he was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I fucking love Shawnda this. She did that and stepped
Speaker 1: in and was like, no, he's got a minute. It
Speaker 1: was so amazing. Um. So we do the pilot and
Speaker 1: then we wait to hear about if we're going to
Speaker 1: get a season one, and we get six episode order.
Speaker 1: How did you feel about that? I was pissed. I mean,
Speaker 1: I will just say that I was pissed. I was like,
Speaker 1: did I not deliver you know, a hundred episodes of
Speaker 1: scandal for I mean, grazing atomy for you? Did I
Speaker 1: not give you a hundred episodes of private practice? Like?
Speaker 1: Why the fuck? And I was mad? I was really mad,
Speaker 1: but I was also like, it's gonna keep going. And
Speaker 1: so we had fun writing it that season because we
Speaker 1: knew that we were like sort of writing the hell
Speaker 1: out of the show for our lives, like get it
Speaker 1: all in there just in case. But I also loved it,
Speaker 1: so I was like, they're 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? Remember that it
Speaker 1: wasn't the real name though, that was the name you
Speaker 1: put on spots. You know, I didn't know that either.
Speaker 1: I thought damage Control was the name that just didn't
Speaker 1: get approved by the studio or not. No idea. I
Speaker 1: learned that after you know Gray's that after that that
Speaker 1: we called that the entitled to Rmes project called Practice
Speaker 1: the entitled Tomes Project, And I was like, I need
Speaker 1: a name that doesn't have my name, and you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like I wanted to try to build
Speaker 1: it out. I think now all of our shows have
Speaker 1: code names. When I had no idea that it, damage
Speaker 1: Control was just like a placeholder. And I think Quinn
Speaker 1: Perkins was Quinn Riley and Harrison wasn't Harrison, right? It
Speaker 1: was Harrison. Yeah. It was once I got to know
Speaker 1: you guys that I decided where your last names were
Speaker 1: I love it. Can we can we talk about like
Speaker 1: rewatching the show. Me and Katie keep texting each other
Speaker 1: and we're like, oh my god, this show is so
Speaker 1: freaking good. And but one one person that sticks out
Speaker 1: for us is Columbus Short because he is like freaking
Speaker 1: like magic on this show and it's just such a
Speaker 1: thrill to watch him work, right, Katie, He's like genius
Speaker 1: in front of the camera. Like I absolutely loved writing
Speaker 1: for him and watching him work because he was he
Speaker 1: was genius behind the camera. I mean in front of
Speaker 1: the camera. The stuff he would do and it's just
Speaker 1: the little tiny things were so great. Phone making A
Speaker 1: did it like some sound with his Like he was
Speaker 1: so musical and rhythmic, and which worked so well with
Speaker 1: Scandal because you wrote such musical scripts where pace was
Speaker 1: such a had such a musicality that he just leaned
Speaker 1: into that and he had such a talent for that.
Speaker 1: Huntil you were great. I remember watching you two the
Speaker 1: first time doing that scene. It was great. I had
Speaker 1: never been so nervous in my life, but you know,
Speaker 1: he was nervous. He was very nervous. He was putting
Speaker 1: on a front for me of being like I'm cool.
Speaker 1: I'm cool, and I'm like, you are shipping bricks, dude,
Speaker 1: Like this is Shonda Rhymes is sitting over there and
Speaker 1: Betsy Beers is sitting over there, and I think they
Speaker 1: have a stop watch and we need to be cool
Speaker 1: and we need 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. I feel like
Speaker 1: he was offered it, but maybe I'm wrong. That's what
Speaker 1: I had heard too. You know, I feel like he
Speaker 1: came in an auditioned, or at least came in and
Speaker 1: met Oh. I think I know that he came in
Speaker 1: and then the like like everybody else, I just knew
Speaker 1: that he was right. Yeah, we thought when we you
Speaker 1: were Now that we're embarking on the Scandal rewatch podcast,
Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolbox, I'm so excited to hang out with
Speaker 1: our Scandal family is really the point. And honestly, I'm
Speaker 1: going to be real, real, honest right now, I was like,
Speaker 1: the only thing I really don't want to do is
Speaker 1: watch Scandal because I'm scared that I'm haveing to watch
Speaker 1: something and I don't think I'm good or look at
Speaker 1: what I used to look like, or look at it.
Speaker 1: You know, you're just it's all wrapped up in actor
Speaker 1: bull crap and like whatever. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's going to be fun for me to do this.
Speaker 1: I could not be more wrong. It's so much fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have experience of feeling like I've never actually seen
Speaker 1: the show that everybody talks about because I was always
Speaker 1: writing in or one episode ahead or editing one episode behind,
Speaker 1: like and it was I was too worried about like
Speaker 1: making everything perfect, so I couldn't really like I could
Speaker 1: watch the show when we were all together and we
Speaker 1: were like, you know, doing our Yeah, but I couldn't
Speaker 1: watch it just like on my own, like it was
Speaker 1: too much. And so when I sat down to watch again,
Speaker 1: which was not that long. I'm probably right a little
Speaker 1: bit before you started watching it again, it was surreal
Speaker 1: because I could actually like see and enjoy the stories
Speaker 1: that were told some of the some of the stories
Speaker 1: have been so funny. I was like, that's what happened.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, right to say when they say like
Speaker 1: thorn Gate and like all these things, I don't even
Speaker 1: think I understood what the hell was going on? Like
Speaker 1: it's really this has been such a gift. This podcast
Speaker 1: is such a gift, and all of you gladiators who
Speaker 1: are listening right now, like, give yourself the gift of
Speaker 1: going back and watching the show, or if you've never
Speaker 1: seen it, tell a friend to watch it, because the
Speaker 1: show holds up. It is better than all the shows.
Speaker 1: And I'm taking myself out of it. I'm saying when
Speaker 1: I just sit and watch like Carrie Washington and Tony
Speaker 1: Goldwin do their thing. I mean, because what's cool about
Speaker 1: the show. There's a white House half and there's an
Speaker 1: opa A half, so I can you know, I'm watching
Speaker 1: the show. I don't really remember the opay stuff. But
Speaker 1: then there's a whole part of the show that I
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with, and it so freaking good.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I can't believe what you made, Johonna.
Speaker 1: I can't. But also you have to remember that, like
Speaker 1: I had this the writing the writing staff for that
Speaker 1: show was like every best writer I had ever worked with.
Speaker 1: That was really what that was. How did you people
Speaker 1: in johnn stay? They tend to stay because ay, they
Speaker 1: know they're gonna have a job, but be like they
Speaker 1: tend to stay because they I hope that they liked
Speaker 1: it there. But what happened was is we'd have like
Speaker 1: we'd have like Sevy who went to m I T
Speaker 1: and was like telling us all the technical stuff we had.
Speaker 1: We had a journalist Matt had been a journalist, you know,
Speaker 1: on the press pool, and tell us all that stuff
Speaker 1: and the things that that room came up with just
Speaker 1: by themselves. I'd I'd leave and I'd come back to
Speaker 1: the room and I'd be like, holy crap, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Like they just had a gift for building that show.
Speaker 1: It was brilliant, brilliant minds that were just again sort
Speaker 1: of like the cast, they just really and most of
Speaker 1: them stuck with us. I mean when we when we've
Speaker 1: been doing research on the show. In the series, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm reading names of writers and directors who you've taken
Speaker 1: from a million episodes of Scandal. But then I worked
Speaker 1: with most of them on inventing Anna, Like you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's really um even even guest stars,
Speaker 1: guest stars that came on Scandal. When I would do
Speaker 1: research and google people for for the podcast and be like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, they did a bunch of Grays episodes,
Speaker 1: a bunch of Private Practice episodes like yeah, like you said,
Speaker 1: they keep they you bring them back, it's and they
Speaker 1: want to keep coming back. I like to work with
Speaker 1: people who I like to work with, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like if I've had a great experience with you,
Speaker 1: I mean I work with Jeff Perry like any day
Speaker 1: of the week, every day. Yeah, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like so would all of us? Right, God, Mr Magood
Speaker 1: that he had to play such a different character than
Speaker 1: he played before and was like so amazing. Yes, And
Speaker 1: him at the table reads he has like eight thousand glasses,
Speaker 1: like he's near sighted and far sighted. I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on, and he has to hold his cell
Speaker 1: phone as script test to be a certain way. But
Speaker 1: the crazy thing is it all looks wild and then
Speaker 1: you sit down for the table read and you're getting
Speaker 1: a three D and fifty dollar ticket front row seed
Speaker 1: to a Broadway show where is even his table read
Speaker 1: acting is epic, epic and just absolutely incredible. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say this. I remember the episode where he gives that
Speaker 1: long monologue to Fits about what's going to happen to
Speaker 1: him if he lets go check out that pencil that
Speaker 1: your father deaveut and you're gonna shoot yourself like that
Speaker 1: whole thing, And I was I remember the table read
Speaker 1: being like I wrote that, Holy sh it. I never
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be that. Like, never it
Speaker 1: was going to be that. I had a lot of
Speaker 1: that with you guys, though. I had a lot of
Speaker 1: experiences where I was like, they just elevated the material
Speaker 1: in a crazy amazing way. How did you know that
Speaker 1: monologues we're going to work on the show? I mean,
Speaker 1: monologues are very rare. I I don't think I've ever
Speaker 1: seen TV shows with the amount of you know, you
Speaker 1: would have a character talk, single space page for to page,
Speaker 1: you know, but in a lot of ways, because you
Speaker 1: said everything so fast, it didn't make it work, because
Speaker 1: there was none of that like overacting that people accidentally
Speaker 1: do when they have a monologue, or the long pauses
Speaker 1: that they think means something like you guys just threw
Speaker 1: yourselves into it. We're so natural about it totally. Who
Speaker 1: came up with the camera shutter sound, I don't even remember.
Speaker 1: I think mcgwigan came up with it with the editor
Speaker 1: in the editor directors cut. I'm pretty sure because it
Speaker 1: was already there. It was already there when I got it.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you have to ask Scott Collins, who
Speaker 1: does all our post production. He will remember exactly. Oh,
Speaker 1: we have to have him on, we have to have
Speaker 1: him on. But that is so iconic whenever I heard like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: did you know the music was going to be like seventies? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like it was the music I was listening to while
Speaker 1: writing the pilot. I listened to a lot of Stevie
Speaker 1: Wonder and I listened to a lot of ARMETHA. Franklin
Speaker 1: and I don't know, Like Washington is such a it's
Speaker 1: such a political city, but it's also like a very
Speaker 1: black city, do you know what I mean? Like the
Speaker 1: population of people of color is huge, And it felt
Speaker 1: like there was like that was the soul of Washington
Speaker 1: to me, Like it felt well and it resonated me.
Speaker 1: And I enjoyed using that music. And I love how
Speaker 1: the music sort of plays against what's happening on screen,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Because Huck will be Huckey
Speaker 1: Quinn will be torturing someone you're hearing, you know, like
Speaker 1: be like yeah, like the Temptations or whatever. So it
Speaker 1: works so so well no. We would always say when
Speaker 1: we would start to like solve a case at O
Speaker 1: T A, I would always be like at ther or
Speaker 1: like very superstitious, you know, just be like like this
Speaker 1: is what's going to come on right now. And it
Speaker 1: was so iconic. I think I use literally every last
Speaker 1: one of Cebe Wonder songs in the show, and almost
Speaker 1: without without with the exception of like her True like
Speaker 1: gospel Church singing, every last one. I read the Franklin songs,
Speaker 1: are you kidding? I love that? Didn't Stevie Wonder write
Speaker 1: something specifically for Scandal At the very end, he wrote
Speaker 1: the song for the finale. And when you keep talking
Speaker 1: about the finale, I will come back on and tells Wonder,
Speaker 1: which was insanely amazing. I mean, just to do You're
Speaker 1: gonna have to come on and tell us about the
Speaker 1: ending of the show. We'll be right back, guys. Things
Speaker 1: that were in the middle of the seven years get
Speaker 1: a little mushy, and I'm so excited to be watching
Speaker 1: these episodes again to remind myself of what was going on.
Speaker 1: But what stuck so much in my head is the pilot.
Speaker 1: I can it's and then the finale. I just remember
Speaker 1: so much about the beginning and the end of this show,
Speaker 1: and a few episodes I remember really vividly, um, just
Speaker 1: really vividly UM. That episode so dear to me and
Speaker 1: I I was so proud of it and the way
Speaker 1: it came out and the work everybody did. That was
Speaker 1: a big one. Yeah. That was another one that you
Speaker 1: came to set and you sat on set for those
Speaker 1: monologues that every character did to to Huk and I
Speaker 1: remember all of us being like, well, I was like,
Speaker 1: I just got to sit on the ground and keep repeating.
Speaker 1: Y'all got to remember, like you know, f you, I
Speaker 1: got my monologue at six pm the night before and
Speaker 1: I was first up. I used to take hits like
Speaker 1: that all the time. But honestly, I was so I
Speaker 1: was like I can do it. Like I can do it,
Speaker 1: you know. Like they used to call me the closer
Speaker 1: because I was the youngest, and they would give me
Speaker 1: the like eleven pm scene on a Friday night. Didn't
Speaker 1: give that to Jeff, give it to me. I can
Speaker 1: do it. I can do it. But Shaunda, what were
Speaker 1: your other episodes that you that sort of stick out
Speaker 1: the remember Um the trail Um to oh eight Happy birthday, Mr. President,
Speaker 1: where we shot the President. Oh my gosh, that was
Speaker 1: one of my most favorite things that we did, just
Speaker 1: because of what I got to do with the information
Speaker 1: of what happens when the president is shot, and because
Speaker 1: of just the paint it played out for everybody, which
Speaker 1: was so great, and what happened to talk and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. White Hats back on, which was the finale
Speaker 1: of season two where at the end she says, Dad, Dad, Yeah,
Speaker 1: remember that the public reading we did during while the
Speaker 1: finale was airing. We did you guys did a reading
Speaker 1: like in front of an audience. Yeah. Every single person
Speaker 1: that I've talked to that was in the audience that night,
Speaker 1: who was like friends or family or Adam, my husband,
Speaker 1: they remember it as one of the most special and
Speaker 1: out of body like theater experiences they've ever had. When
Speaker 1: we were reading the script, Joe Morton, Olivia Pope says
Speaker 1: dad to pop U Pope and came out of their seats.
Speaker 1: I remember that. I remember Debbie Allen being like, oh
Speaker 1: Dee Allen's up and the audience was screaming, pointing at us.
Speaker 1: We were pointing at them. Everybody was screaming. I lost
Speaker 1: my voice for like a month. It was so great
Speaker 1: and so special. I also remember the abortion episode. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's on my list, that's on my list. That's that
Speaker 1: Christmas episode. Babe, it's cold outside. That was my It
Speaker 1: was but also because of what like it was our
Speaker 1: Christmas episode and we got to watch Mellie filibuster and
Speaker 1: like it just felt like we were already women in
Speaker 1: so many different ways. It was great, And because you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like I write a show where I'm deconstructing
Speaker 1: what love is, like I'm trying to rip the lid
Speaker 1: off the fairy tale. And what's funny is is that
Speaker 1: everybody buys the fairy tale when I tell it every time,
Speaker 1: and then when I ripped the lid off, and they're like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? He isn't happy? Like did you
Speaker 1: not see the way he treats her? Like stuff? And
Speaker 1: also that's real life, right, Like real life isn't tied
Speaker 1: up in a pretty bow. Yeah. No, they're not fairy tales.
Speaker 1: It's just not fairy tales. Randy read super freaking Julia.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that one that was That was when
Speaker 1: Olivia comes back and you have, first of all, you
Speaker 1: have the Harrison's funeral um hawk is working as like
Speaker 1: an Apple genius or something. That's right. That's right, Katie.
Speaker 1: Your character was the only one trying to like pull
Speaker 1: everybody together. Yes, I remember that you would become like
Speaker 1: a mini Olivia. Pope, you become like a mini Olivia.
Speaker 1: I loved that episode. That made me really happening. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to get to all these episodes. I can't
Speaker 1: even stand it. On chair, run chair and run when
Speaker 1: she gets unapped. That was amazing episode. The guest stars
Speaker 1: and the stories that you tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about how you always felt, and we always felt like
Speaker 1: you you in the writer's room more ahead of the
Speaker 1: news cycle, like why would you write something? And then
Speaker 1: some ship would happen and we would be like wait what, Well,
Speaker 1: part of that is that, like the people in my
Speaker 1: room were crazy intelligent, and so they would they would
Speaker 1: like extrapolate something to its extreme degree and be like,
Speaker 1: what if there was this thorn Gate thing that was
Speaker 1: spying at everybody through their computers in their phone And
Speaker 1: we were like, that can never happened, and so he
Speaker 1: was like, technically it can, and tell us all why
Speaker 1: I could, and then we'd do it. And then literally
Speaker 1: we'd find out that that's something that actually happened. They
Speaker 1: unveiled that they had done something like that. There were
Speaker 1: so many times that happened, with so many different stories,
Speaker 1: and it was so weird to us because we felt
Speaker 1: like we were making up the crazies stuff we could
Speaker 1: think of, and then it was just yeah, it got
Speaker 1: when we had to. We were making up like crazy
Speaker 1: presidential candidates, and then that stuff happened. But yes, yes,
Speaker 1: Hollis Doyle, it was great. You know, we've we've heard
Speaker 1: some of your most memorable episodes of the series. But
Speaker 1: she and I have some questions that came up from
Speaker 1: watching the pilot. First of all, where does gladiator in
Speaker 1: suit come from? I made that up. I made that up.
Speaker 1: I just love the way it sounded, and one day
Speaker 1: in my head I was like glad and like it
Speaker 1: just sounded good to me. What I loved was how
Speaker 1: we got to like put that information down and that
Speaker 1: we told the story through the eyes of Quinn. What
Speaker 1: was important about that was nobody who was watching the
Speaker 1: show knew anything about this world, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They didn't know what a fix, they didn't know how
Speaker 1: any of it worked, and so we had a new
Speaker 1: person there to learn everything for us, which I thought
Speaker 1: was really important. Did Judy Smith say things I trust
Speaker 1: my gut or is this stuff you also made up?
Speaker 1: Judy Smith says, trust your gut. Your gut will tell
Speaker 1: you everything you need to know. That was one of
Speaker 1: the first things I wrote down in my notes from
Speaker 1: my meeting with her. That's the thing she always said.
Speaker 1: She said that, and she said stand in your truth.
Speaker 1: Those are the two that I always held onto. Yeah,
Speaker 1: never like don't lie. It's that same thing, don't lie.
Speaker 1: I never tell a lie. Yeah, And then I loved
Speaker 1: like and it's I don't know if it was aired
Speaker 1: in the broadcast show because it was too long, but
Speaker 1: made them put it in for the DVD. In any
Speaker 1: subsequent errings, Huck basically says to her, you know, we're
Speaker 1: all damaged. You know, like everybody here is damaged to like,
Speaker 1: get used to it, and I've seen that. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was one of my favorite scenes. And when I loved
Speaker 1: about it wasn't just told you who everyone was like.
Speaker 1: And when I wrote that scene, I was just gonna say,
Speaker 1: he says, we're all stray dogs. That's right. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: What I loved about that was when I wrote it,
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking as much about that, but the minute
Speaker 1: I wrote that line, I was like, Oh, what are
Speaker 1: what's everybody's problems? Like, how did they come to a living?
Speaker 1: Everyone's from the misfits, everyone's from and boy did you deliver?
Speaker 1: Did you give it to us? And that whole speech
Speaker 1: that Olivia gives to Amanda Tanner. You think she's this
Speaker 1: lovely person and then she just decimates her and you
Speaker 1: see what her job really is. She's the devil. It's horrible.
Speaker 1: She's the one who she needs to make things happen.
Speaker 1: She's the person who handle stuff, so she has to
Speaker 1: handle it whatever way works. And I just remember like
Speaker 1: the devastation on Quinn's face and the way it was shocked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had no idea that scene was like that. I
Speaker 1: remember being like, oh, you know, my your line, your line,
Speaker 1: your line, my line. I didn't work that hard on
Speaker 1: that scene because I don't have any lines, which is
Speaker 1: the worst doctor ever. I understand that. I remember standing
Speaker 1: back there and Liza, you know, she's so good at
Speaker 1: being emotional, and she's working on her so upset, and
Speaker 1: you know, Carrie has this this epic monologue that you
Speaker 1: were talking about about, Oh, this is a nice dog.
Speaker 1: And then she goes through like, oh that stint where
Speaker 1: your mom was in the nuthouse and it would be
Speaker 1: easier and better for you if you just got the
Speaker 1: hell out of here type of thing. And then I
Speaker 1: remember Paul coming up to me and being like, this
Speaker 1: is obviously my acting wasn't that great, but he came
Speaker 1: up to me and said like, this is shut out said.
Speaker 1: He basically was like, we are understanding the stakes of
Speaker 1: this scene and how fucked up this is through you
Speaker 1: and your eyes. And I was like, oh, I do
Speaker 1: at her lap. And then Olivia does the SloMo in
Speaker 1: the white jacket from Lynn Palo and gets on the
Speaker 1: phone and she just says it's handled, and then it
Speaker 1: goes to Quinn's face and she just is like I
Speaker 1: can't even believe I'm working for this woman. She's this
Speaker 1: is this is all like that she's kind of the
Speaker 1: devil but also the hero. Which is how the fact
Speaker 1: that was an exterior scene and that everybody, everybody, Bob Woodward,
Speaker 1: everybody was like, when are you in DC shooting the show?
Speaker 1: And I was like, We're never in DC shooting the show.
Speaker 1: That's all fake and how amazing did that department do.
Speaker 1: Like people would come up to us all the time
Speaker 1: and be like, Yo, when are you guys going to
Speaker 1: be in d C again? Why are you here? Don't
Speaker 1: you guys shoot the show in d C? And we'd
Speaker 1: always be like, no, it's all green screen and that
Speaker 1: that team that did that, that work was just stellar.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, people really Washingtonians really believe we're shooting
Speaker 1: in d C. And I remember, I mean, my favorite
Speaker 1: thing that we got to do was, Hey, it's awesome
Speaker 1: to have a job where you get to right inter
Speaker 1: your white House and then they build you a white house.
Speaker 1: I literally played in the Oval Office for like a
Speaker 1: billion years. But even better was like writing like the
Speaker 1: interior resident on the White House Residents, and then like
Speaker 1: the Balcony and we got to go to the White
Speaker 1: House and film what it actually looked like from the
Speaker 1: balcony and you've never been done before, which was so cool. Wow.
Speaker 1: I thought we didn't shoot the show in d C
Speaker 1: because when we did go there, it was so cold.
Speaker 1: We would complain about being in Wildcats and it being
Speaker 1: so hot, But honestly, I prefer that to the one
Speaker 1: episode we didn't you see where I was holding gear
Speaker 1: mos ears from become from the Huck's ears from turning
Speaker 1: into icicles. Also, you could have never shot the show
Speaker 1: there Scandal. The cast of Scandal, I could hide, but
Speaker 1: it was like you were a beatle when we got
Speaker 1: when the cast of Ndal got dropped into d C,
Speaker 1: or when Shawanda Rhymes gets dropped into d C and
Speaker 1: you're on a political show. It was crazy watching the
Speaker 1: reactions there. That was amazing. One of the best things
Speaker 1: Form for me was like I was I was all
Speaker 1: about a shooting in l a everything because I had kids,
Speaker 1: People had kids, people, and it's the show went on,
Speaker 1: people had more and more kids, and I just felt
Speaker 1: like people's lifestyle should not be like standing in the
Speaker 1: middle of Washington, d C. In the middle of the
Speaker 1: night hoping you can get home at somebody. And it
Speaker 1: was It wasn't only like fans on the street or
Speaker 1: fans that watched the show. It was it was like
Speaker 1: people in d C. Like when we went and met
Speaker 1: like Obama and the first Lady Michelle Obama, like her
Speaker 1: hearing her tell me and tell all of us. Oh
Speaker 1: my god. I was just watching an episode as they
Speaker 1: were doing my hair and makeup. I was like, what,
Speaker 1: like the people that were in that world we're watching
Speaker 1: our show. It was so surreal to me, so surreal
Speaker 1: that like actual washingtony and people. I mean I remember
Speaker 1: George Bush Jr. Calling up Jatie Smith and saying, you know,
Speaker 1: we didn't really have an affair, right, and like them
Speaker 1: laughing about it. Yeah, I was. My mind was blown.
Speaker 1: My mind was blown that. Oh my god. I think
Speaker 1: it was such a gift that we sort of Also
Speaker 1: that scandal was sort of a slow burn that people
Speaker 1: caught onto the show. I mean, it really wasn't It
Speaker 1: was very helpful. I think we got to a place
Speaker 1: where we weren't this like overnight thing, so we had
Speaker 1: sort of but we were obsessed with the show and
Speaker 1: doing a good job and doing the best we could,
Speaker 1: and we got to really make it in this sort
Speaker 1: of bubble where people weren't looking. And then by the
Speaker 1: time everyone started looking. I can remember being on red
Speaker 1: Carpet and they would say, like, what does it feel
Speaker 1: like to be on a hit show? Like wait are
Speaker 1: we Like? I just was so like, what right? Because
Speaker 1: it was such a slow burn. It was such a
Speaker 1: slow burn. But also, yeah, I feel like Katie, Like
Speaker 1: none of us ever got cocky about it, Like no
Speaker 1: one ever got cocky. Every season we'd be like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I hope we get picked up. It was
Speaker 1: never like we're we're working in like this is whatever.
Speaker 1: We're a hit, this ship, We're the best we wanted to.
Speaker 1: How do you think, like everyone says the show why
Speaker 1: it was so magical a lot, is that because our
Speaker 1: lead showrunner, Boss Shawnda Rhymes, and our lead actor Carrie
Speaker 1: Washington are number one, the two of you. You know,
Speaker 1: ship rolls downhill and that just never happened on our show.
Speaker 1: How did you and carry make a world where that
Speaker 1: was the case for so long? Because everyone would say
Speaker 1: in the beginning, wait till season four, you're all going
Speaker 1: to funciate each other, Like do you remember on the
Speaker 1: pilot the first day we ever shot the show. On
Speaker 1: the pilot, we're on the Graves anatomy set street in
Speaker 1: the hospital scenes, and you said, or maybe it wasn't
Speaker 1: the pilot, maybe it was episode two. No, I think
Speaker 1: it was pilot. It was the pilot. And yeah, you say,
Speaker 1: I'm never ever going to be like going to not
Speaker 1: be grateful, And I remember pulling out my phone and
Speaker 1: being like, can you say that again into my camera.
Speaker 1: I was so sure that like in four years she
Speaker 1: would be like complaining about her trailer or something. We
Speaker 1: none of us were like that, none of us, I really,
Speaker 1: but yes say it. So I was just gonna say.
Speaker 1: Carry would do stuff like, uh, when we were done
Speaker 1: shooting a scene, she would stop everyone and ask for
Speaker 1: silence and thank all the background, thank our crew. Like
Speaker 1: the stuff that that Carry would do just made the
Speaker 1: sets so special and so inviting and so warm and kind,
Speaker 1: and that's so rare, you know. I think, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: I feel like and I don't remember that Carry actually
Speaker 1: said this to me or not, but this is what
Speaker 1: I assumed that she had been on a lot of
Speaker 1: sets and seeing all kinds of behavior and knew when
Speaker 1: when it was good and when it was bad, Like
Speaker 1: knew the feeling because if you're like just starting out,
Speaker 1: you know what that feels like when something number one
Speaker 1: is horrible and sort of had bowed to never be
Speaker 1: bad number one. And also I think she felt the
Speaker 1: entire weight of the pressure of being like the first
Speaker 1: black lead actress in a drama and not wanting that
Speaker 1: to be like and she was a bit, you know,
Speaker 1: I thought about that. And she was just a lovely
Speaker 1: person to begin with, but she really worked hard to
Speaker 1: remain humble and to keep everybody around her like feeling
Speaker 1: good about what they were doing as well, to make
Speaker 1: sure it felt like a group effort. The fact that
Speaker 1: she never complained about those fucking shoes, I would have
Speaker 1: lost my mind, like for seven years cramming her little
Speaker 1: foot into six in shy heels. I but Shanna, you
Speaker 1: never you were always the same. You and Betsy would
Speaker 1: call these meeting, we would do table reads and then
Speaker 1: you would say, okay, I'd like all the actors to
Speaker 1: stay after for ten minutes, to which we would all
Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, oh my god, we're in trouble.
Speaker 1: Please dont let us be in trouble. But we would
Speaker 1: sit there and you would always say it would be like,
Speaker 1: you know, if anything comes up, or you want to
Speaker 1: talk about anything, or we should be your first call.
Speaker 1: Like I never had somebody look in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night like you need help. Someone gets in next
Speaker 1: and somebody to like, calm us, let us help you.
Speaker 1: We are all in this together. And it was just
Speaker 1: seemed like a very supportive I don't know. I learned
Speaker 1: so much. I think you've sent us all out into
Speaker 1: our other jobs to really expect nothing less than the
Speaker 1: behavior and the vibe that we created for ourselves on
Speaker 1: that show. I feel really lucky because I had the
Speaker 1: experience of never working in TV before writing a show
Speaker 1: and having it be like a crazy out of the
Speaker 1: box hit where all of these actors became famous overnight
Speaker 1: and chased by paparazzi and stuff, and that was great,
Speaker 1: and I didn't I didn't know how to handle any
Speaker 1: of that, you know what I mean. Like, I learned
Speaker 1: that through the process of like working there every day,
Speaker 1: and it was great to be able to bring that
Speaker 1: knowledge to the table, you know, and say this is
Speaker 1: what it is. And that was so much. It just
Speaker 1: made it so much better. I want to also credit
Speaker 1: Mary Howard, because really the line producer really does have
Speaker 1: everything to do with the feel and the atmosphere on
Speaker 1: a set, and I think that she was incredibly valuable
Speaker 1: in that process. Yes, and you were also like, this
Speaker 1: show is so important and your health is so important.
Speaker 1: But you all and Mary Howard were also like, and
Speaker 1: your families are super important. Like it was always like,
Speaker 1: you know, she was working, if someone was going through
Speaker 1: anything at home, or you know, people had things going on.
Speaker 1: She was very much She's a very family oriented. I
Speaker 1: think every press on the show, I think that was
Speaker 1: the thing. Like she was family oriented, we were family oriented.
Speaker 1: It felt normal, it really did. Um is there anything
Speaker 1: in closing? Can you please come back on the Scandal
Speaker 1: Rewatch podcast? Whatever you guys want me to like? I
Speaker 1: love this, I love that you're doing it. I'm well,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to give I think that our
Speaker 1: gladiators who have been just laying dormant for years, looking
Speaker 1: for a place to go and geek out and wear
Speaker 1: their gladiator shirts and drink out of their gladiator ups
Speaker 1: and eat their popcorn and wine and rewatch the shows
Speaker 1: and tell people who haven't seen it to sit their
Speaker 1: asses down and go watch it. And it's been such
Speaker 1: a gift to Gammo and I to go back and
Speaker 1: watch this show beyond I think for I think for
Speaker 1: like Gladiators, I always just want to say, like Gladiators,
Speaker 1: like this is where you're going to get the inside scoop,
Speaker 1: you know, like stuff that was that we've never talked about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't you want to know that Garmo Diaz had a
Speaker 1: threesome the night that we've presented Shonda Rhymes with her
Speaker 1: glad Award. That's amazing. Everyone didn't know things we didn't know.
Speaker 1: So since Twitter was such a massive thing for Scandal, Shawonda,
Speaker 1: We're going to finish this episode and do this in
Speaker 1: many episodes by reading some of the best tweets surrounding
Speaker 1: the Scandal momentetet, tweet at the time, tweets at the time, Yeah,
Speaker 1: tweets at the time. On April four, in two thousand twelve, actually,
Speaker 1: Shonda Rhymes tweeted, this is the best ad for scan ever,
Speaker 1: thank you for the Scandal cake. And it's a picture
Speaker 1: of a cake and they actually drew Carrie Washington on
Speaker 1: the cake and it says, my gut tells me everything
Speaker 1: I need to know. Watch Scandal Thursday's ten at ten.
Speaker 1: Who made that cake? Remember, had no idea. It literally
Speaker 1: just appeared in her office as again, shut up, and
Speaker 1: we were so excited by it. And then and then
Speaker 1: you tweeted again, Shawanda. A few minutes later or later
Speaker 1: that day, the Grace Anatomy Scandal writers couldn't take it.
Speaker 1: They had to eat the Scandal cake and it's a
Speaker 1: picture of half of the cake gone. Yeah. I was like,
Speaker 1: let's just preserve it as this beautiful thing, and then
Speaker 1: he just had to eat it and it looks delicious.
Speaker 1: It was quite good. I think everybody thought it was
Speaker 1: quite good. That's hilarious. Then you also tweeted on April twelve,
Speaker 1: Gender Rhymes tweeted, meet at Judy Smith, the woman behind
Speaker 1: at scandal abcs Olivia Pope, and get your copy of
Speaker 1: her new book Good Self, Bad Self at Amazon. Wow.
Speaker 1: When we already had this shirt, Marco, who is a
Speaker 1: who is a key player at Shondalan Mark Marco Esquivel
Speaker 1: already posted a picture of gladiator and sweatshirts and it
Speaker 1: was a sweatshirt picture that says do you want to
Speaker 1: be a gladiator in a suit? We were all ready
Speaker 1: having marches. We were having march from the beginning, which
Speaker 1: is crazy. And can you talk about how they named
Speaker 1: us our fans became our gladiators, right, Like someone on
Speaker 1: Twitter just ran with that and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden 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,
Speaker 1: I'm a Gladiator, I'm a Gladia. Oh yeah, I get
Speaker 1: that all the time. What I loved about that, and
Speaker 1: I thought was so at the time, especially Twitter, was
Speaker 1: about the fans coming together and deciding things like now.
Speaker 1: I think they put out like for other shows, they
Speaker 1: put out like tested hashtag, which I didn't understand, like
Speaker 1: we we don't didn't decide the hashtags. Yeah, they came
Speaker 1: up with Huckleberry Quinn, they came up with yes, got
Speaker 1: our job. No, it's their community. I forget. Was it
Speaker 1: your idea or Carry's idea for all of us to
Speaker 1: be on Twitter? I think that Carry I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: I think Carrie came to me and said it would
Speaker 1: be really cool if we all got on Twitter and
Speaker 1: tweeted the shows. And then I remember then she said
Speaker 1: like that and like backed away, and then I remember
Speaker 1: staying at a table and being like, you're all going
Speaker 1: to get on Twitter. We're gonna help you do something.
Speaker 1: And we did. We were like, we gotta get on Twitter.
Speaker 1: But once again, as usual, Carrie was right. It was right,
Speaker 1: she was right, She was right. Do you remember, do
Speaker 1: you remember us following I started following everybody on Twitter, Katie,
Speaker 1: like even like fans. I was like follow and but
Speaker 1: now you know you can't do that. But but I
Speaker 1: remember fans. We had no idea what we were doing.
Speaker 1: We sent Jeff Perry out onto Teter and I did
Speaker 1: did great, great without I'm like sitting next to Jeff
Speaker 1: being like this is how you do it? Or Joe Morton,
Speaker 1: I mean people, and they came up with their own
Speaker 1: sort of Twitter personalities, like Joe Morton tweeted sort of
Speaker 1: like popa Pope, these like very like cryptic big posts. Um,
Speaker 1: my favorite Twitter thing that ever happened wasn't I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know that anybody else really knows this, But
Speaker 1: Scott Foley had been playing Jake, this bad guy for
Speaker 1: a while and the audience hated him and he didn't
Speaker 1: complain about it or anything, but like the tweets were
Speaker 1: clearly the audience just wanted him dead. And so I
Speaker 1: wrote this episode where he gets thrown into that the
Speaker 1: basics certain, the whole or whatever, and you know, and
Speaker 1: then Olivia comes in because it's like the president thinks
Speaker 1: that he killed his son, and then Olivia comes in
Speaker 1: and he gives a speech that like he says, it's
Speaker 1: okay if you don't choose me, and then he gives
Speaker 1: her the number of the account that he wants her
Speaker 1: to get the money to his mom and all the stuff.
Speaker 1: And I literally, I'm needs got sick with me. And
Speaker 1: like when the scene came on, I was like, watch
Speaker 1: your Twitter feed, just watch it. Like I was like,
Speaker 1: it's gonna go from I hate this dude to oh
Speaker 1: my god, Jake is amazing. And it literally happened just
Speaker 1: like that. It took three minutes. Twitter to entirely change
Speaker 1: its too, and I was like, Twitter is a powerful,
Speaker 1: powerful force. It was past tense. If your character was
Speaker 1: against Olivia Pope, you were getting Twitter death threats, or
Speaker 1: if your character was coming at all in the middle
Speaker 1: of fits and Olivia you are my god. That was
Speaker 1: so crazy. It was just it was a movement. It
Speaker 1: was just. But then people like Oprah Winfrey and like
Speaker 1: bet Middler's and Rihanna started tweeting also about this show.
Speaker 1: Mariah Carey ya, and we were like, what is happening.
Speaker 1: Prince Once put on a suit and send a picture
Speaker 1: of himself that said gladiator in a suit. You know,
Speaker 1: that didn't, I'm would send it to you because I
Speaker 1: have a because I went, you know, Prince was everything.
Speaker 1: He also sent me a list of songs that would
Speaker 1: be okay for me to use on the show. Did
Speaker 1: you ever use one? Yes? When well, it's so sad
Speaker 1: because when Prince died, I did an episode that was
Speaker 1: all my whole the whole night of television that Thursday
Speaker 1: night was all Princes. Yeah. Man, that is the loveliest thing.
Speaker 1: I mean when that's how we also started to feel like, oh,
Speaker 1: the show is happening when someone would come into work
Speaker 1: and be like, did you see Like Rihanna tweeted that
Speaker 1: she's watching the show. I can remember being it carries
Speaker 1: l women in Hollywood dinner and I was sitting next
Speaker 1: to him mom, and she was like, my husband and
Speaker 1: I sit and we watched the show. I'm like, are
Speaker 1: you talking about David Bowie? David Bowie is sitting and
Speaker 1: watching Scandal. I mean, this is crazy. I freaked out
Speaker 1: when when Mrs Obama and the President were like, like,
Speaker 1: we have some we have some things to tell you
Speaker 1: about the show about the White House, because Mrs Mom
Speaker 1: was like, you're not getting it right. You gotta get
Speaker 1: it right and it was great. She was like, this
Speaker 1: is what the private residents look like. This is where
Speaker 1: the stairs are like, this is like, this is how
Speaker 1: the White House is set up. Show me how we
Speaker 1: were making the door using the doors incorrectly, like doing
Speaker 1: the window panes on the doors incorrectly, and I came
Speaker 1: back to change them. Yeah, oh my god, that is amazing.
Speaker 1: My god, this show man, the things we learned on it,
Speaker 1: that people it brought together. Shanda, thank you for being
Speaker 1: the first guest on the Scandal Rewatch podcast. I will
Speaker 1: show up for you anytime, you know. I love you, guys,
Speaker 1: Scandal fan. So yeah, Scandal, that's right, yea for life
Speaker 1: and we love you. Thank you for writing this show
Speaker 1: that turns out when you watch it all over again,
Speaker 1: it's still great. Yeah, thank you, thank you. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's our pleasure. You kidding. O. God, I'm just so
Speaker 1: we're so filled up that I need to keep going
Speaker 1: with my gladiator. Right, I'm gonna pour some whiskey in
Speaker 1: my Emma. It's only ten fifteen. Is that too early
Speaker 1: to have a shot to move? No, it's also a Thursday.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means. But here's another sea,
Speaker 1: it's t G I T I'll have you all this
Speaker 1: that the first episode is going to rewatch podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: packing the toolbox with guests Shanna Rhymes. Was recorded on
Speaker 1: a fucking Thursday, and Katie has a shirt that says
Speaker 1: hashtag T G I t oh and we're drinking out
Speaker 1: of our gladiator cups. And I cannot remember for the
Speaker 1: life of me. What was the name of the made
Speaker 1: up wine on Scandal? Oh, I don't know. I knew
Speaker 1: Betsy Beers would know this. See this whole This whole
Speaker 1: podcast is not about me texting people, but it is
Speaker 1: because I want to find out the correct things I wrote.
Speaker 1: Sorry about you so early doing Scandal podcast. What was
Speaker 1: the fake made up name of the wine? Again? Because
Speaker 1: I'm going to pretend to drink it on the podcast.
Speaker 1: It was shot to move to Pop and it was
Speaker 1: called Chateau do Ballet, which is complete bullshit and not
Speaker 1: made up. I love that Betsy. Remember that Bets knew
Speaker 1: that well because she was the person who they went
Speaker 1: She's she's she knows a lot about fancy wine. And
Speaker 1: I think the story goes is like the writer's weom
Speaker 1: reached out to her and was like what would be
Speaker 1: a really fancy, insanely priced bottle of wine that Olivia
Speaker 1: Pope drinking mine this morning is cranberry juice that's old
Speaker 1: as fuck and I found in the back of my
Speaker 1: and Carrie never drank cranberry juice onunset. She drank grape juice,
Speaker 1: really right, I don't know whatever had the less sugar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think her fake wine was grape juice, which I
Speaker 1: think she like loved. I remember carry being like this
Speaker 1: crape juice is so delicious. I love this. But Yo,
Speaker 1: this Scandal Rewatch podcast, you guys better to tell your friends,
Speaker 1: because it's fire. We have every single guest, an amazing
Speaker 1: person you could want who start on Scandal or start
Speaker 1: behind the scenes on Scandal, some secret guests coming up
Speaker 1: that you are not going to want to miss. You're
Speaker 1: going to get all the scoop on the scoop from
Speaker 1: behind the scenes at parties and h Gary and I
Speaker 1: are so grateful to have this show and it's been
Speaker 1: such a gift and we're so excited to be on
Speaker 1: this ride with you guys, and we love you and
Speaker 1: we want you guys to get hooked on rewatching the
Speaker 1: show like we are now Oh my gosh. Everyone tune
Speaker 1: in next week to episode one oh two of Scandal,
Speaker 1: Dirty Little Secrets. We all got him, We all got him.
Speaker 1: Better tell somebody. But thank you guys for joining us
Speaker 1: on Unpacking the Toolbox. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe,
Speaker 1: share with your friends, rate, or leave us a review.
Speaker 1: Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, Alex Alcha, Lauren Holman,
Speaker 1: Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is
Speaker 1: Vince to Johnny, with music by Chad Fisher. Scandal is
Speaker 1: a production of ABC Signature, and you can follow along
Speaker 1: by rewatching Scandal on Hulu. Unpacking the Toolbox is a
Speaker 1: production of shondalan Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from shondaland Audio, visit the I Heart
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Speaker 1: H