Speaker 1: Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Scams and Katie.
Speaker 3: G k Gee. The strike has is over.
Speaker 2: The strike is over, and the deal has been ratified.
Speaker 2: We are free to go and be thesbians again.
Speaker 4: Wesian are available for employment, and we are available to
Speaker 4: talk about more and more scam Toolbox but also which
Speaker 4: we already know because we're on episode three, but it
Speaker 4: can never be discussed enough because we're fucking stoked.
Speaker 3: Thank god we have Unpacking the Toolbox because now I
Speaker 3: don't see you on the strike lines, I know, and
Speaker 3: this is where I see your sexy face. Yes, hey, hey,
Speaker 3: what's up baby? Second season of Unpacking the Toolbox, which like,
Speaker 3: thank god, what are you wearing today?
Speaker 2: Honey, I'm wearing a T shirt with an angry black cat.
Speaker 2: See him? He's cool? Huh. I don't know what the
Speaker 2: words is. Oh, that's good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the sag actors did not rebel because we ratified
Speaker 3: the contract.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: Also, I'm still looking at your adorable faith with the
Speaker 3: nose ring that you have, and I still really want
Speaker 3: to get it.
Speaker 2: Oh, dude, let me know. I'll take you me and
Speaker 2: Katie live eight minutes away from each other, and I
Speaker 2: found this amazing tattoo slash piercing place and he's like
Speaker 2: a master piercer. It didn't hurt at all. I'm the
Speaker 2: biggest chicken.
Speaker 5: Shit.
Speaker 2: I have a ton of tattoos and they've all hurt.
Speaker 2: But the septum piercing did not hurt at all. So
Speaker 2: if you're ever down to get it and look and
Speaker 2: then you can make it. We forget a job which
Speaker 2: you and it's gone your booge stupid. Yeah, I can't
Speaker 2: do it right now, but yeah.
Speaker 3: That in my life. I've never called it that in
Speaker 3: my life. I'm disgusted with myself.
Speaker 2: Look and now it's gone.
Speaker 3: See and you can feel weird?
Speaker 2: No, not at all, you don't even feel it.
Speaker 3: What'd you eat today? What'd you eat today today?
Speaker 2: For breakfast? I had a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream
Speaker 2: cheese because my stomach has been a little bit, a
Speaker 2: little bit upset these last few days, so I didn't
Speaker 2: want to do my normal celery and parsley and lime
Speaker 2: juice every morning.
Speaker 3: I just need to lay down a layer of carbs.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: For breakfast, I had just a power bar, which is
Speaker 3: pretty lame. I've been in a rush children at the
Speaker 3: time of this recording. It's the holidays and everything is insane,
Speaker 3: but life stops for the guests that we have today.
Speaker 2: Uh, one of my favorites, one of my favor guest
Speaker 2: stars in episode three oh three, she shines her light
Speaker 2: for us, and she's just amazing.
Speaker 3: She's just a tried and true journey woman of an actress,
Speaker 3: like she just has been on everything, comedies, dramas, film,
Speaker 3: TV shows, you name it, maybe some horror movies.
Speaker 2: What what was that again?
Speaker 3: She's amazing and she so lovingly has agreed to come
Speaker 3: on and be our guest today for episode three or three.
Speaker 3: It is the one, It is the only. Yes, Steve, Yeah,
Speaker 3: First of all, it's amazing to see you again. I
Speaker 3: am such a fan.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't think either one of us worked
Speaker 2: with you actually in person in the episode except for
Speaker 2: Caring right.
Speaker 5: Yeah. It was so weird that I didn't get to
Speaker 5: connect with you guys, because you you know, when you're
Speaker 5: doing that part, like that emotional part, like.
Speaker 3: When you're like the guest star of the episode and
Speaker 3: the entire story revolves around you. A lot of times
Speaker 3: you have more heavy lifting than the lead actors do,
Speaker 3: Like you're the entire episode. You work every day and
Speaker 3: have to go through all these emotional huge swings.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, kiddie. And also you know, because we've
Speaker 5: done it, Like when it's your family, it's your show,
Speaker 5: it's your show, You're like, yeah, it's the weird an.
Speaker 5: You had to be invited to the wedding.
Speaker 2: You always feel like you have to prove something right
Speaker 2: as the guests start, You're like, I gotta be the
Speaker 2: best and be off book.
Speaker 5: Intruding somehow. I'm like always feel like, oh I'm talking
Speaker 5: too much or oh I'm talking too little.
Speaker 2: Oh me too. We all do that shit. But you know, punning,
Speaker 2: don you killed it in this episode?
Speaker 3: Killed it the bomb strap to you. I want to
Speaker 3: hear about Wait was there an audition? We have so
Speaker 3: many questions and listeners, we've already jumped into this. It's
Speaker 3: just like you, how is your scandal paced? Do you
Speaker 3: remember having to do talk really quick on this?
Speaker 5: Who's terrifying? So in the last part of that episode,
Speaker 5: there was a lot there was a little not a monologue,
Speaker 5: but like some dialogue that they cut out because I
Speaker 5: think I wasn't doing this fettle face.
Speaker 2: No, oh my god. No, you know how many monologues
Speaker 2: and pieces that we had that they cut out. It's
Speaker 2: mostly for timing or just didn't you know, work with
Speaker 2: the story. We had shit cut out all the time.
Speaker 3: You don't even know how many times Tom Veriko would
Speaker 3: come to work and say, just delivered the episode and
Speaker 3: it's eighteen minutes over.
Speaker 5: Like no, no, yes, yes, because you guys could not
Speaker 5: have spoken any faster your whole rhythm. So you must
Speaker 5: have been so exhausted at the end of this run
Speaker 5: because you're on a treadmill at highest speed all the time.
Speaker 5: And all the emotional journeys you guys took, none of
Speaker 5: them are casual. None of them were like this episode
Speaker 5: what you guys were going through.
Speaker 2: You know what it was, Cynthia. The worst part after
Speaker 2: finishing with this series, when the series ended is we
Speaker 2: me and Katie spoke at least I know because Katie's
Speaker 2: talked about it too. We just talked so fast that
Speaker 2: our next auditions and our next projects that the direct
Speaker 2: would be like, you need to slow down, and we're like,
Speaker 2: what are you going down?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I still have that problem I do too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, funny you got tightened up internally like you're nervous,
Speaker 5: is yes? No, I totally get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for all of you listeners, just to catch you up. Obviously,
Speaker 3: it already feels like me, Cynthia and g our family
Speaker 3: the last three minutes and it feels like forever in
Speaker 3: a good way. I hope that came out.
Speaker 2: I feel like a good aim, of course.
Speaker 3: But we are going to read real quick that we're
Speaker 3: talking about episode three oh three, which was entitled Wow,
Speaker 3: I think cultivated.
Speaker 2: It was entitled to shit. It was titled and entitled Yes'
Speaker 2: character was definitely a title.
Speaker 3: Missus Smith Goes to Washington, which aired on October seventeenth
Speaker 3: in twenty thirteen. It was written by.
Speaker 2: Maddy Bird and directed by Janeaul's Wark, who is one
Speaker 2: of our one of our directors who who directed a
Speaker 2: bunch of episodes.
Speaker 3: Yes, he directed a bunch of episodes, and he's directed
Speaker 3: a bunch of Gray's Anatomis too, and I believe Private Practice.
Speaker 3: He's a Shondaland All star and a real character, a real.
Speaker 2: Character, and he directed Jaws two f y.
Speaker 3: Put that in your pipe and smoke it. The episode
Speaker 3: is guest starring the one and Only Cynthia Stephenson as
Speaker 3: Mary ness Bit who we have? It was also starring
Speaker 3: Mark Moses as Congressman Jim Struthers and Ernie Hudson Yes Wow,
Speaker 3: as FBI Commander Randolph Bowles. Cynthia, do you want to
Speaker 3: take a Do you have this synopsis up in front
Speaker 3: of you? If you don't, I wish that's okay. I'm
Speaker 3: like you, grandmother, You're most Look, most people have never
Speaker 3: done any of them before.
Speaker 2: We've been doing this for so long, and I still
Speaker 2: will text Katie and be like Katie, can you like
Speaker 2: send me that link? I don't know what to do.
Speaker 3: Also, we had like Deborah Mooney on.
Speaker 2: Who played Judge Brenda Thornton on the show, and she
Speaker 2: her camera was like just like from her eyes and
Speaker 2: her forehead and that was it.
Speaker 3: And she was doing the episode.
Speaker 2: But she was amazing. She was great, all right? So
Speaker 2: should I give it? Should I start it off?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Rock it out, be a little dirty, but not too dirty.
Speaker 3: You're welcome, Hulu.
Speaker 2: As most of the OPA team takes on a new client,
Speaker 2: a mother seeking justice for her murdered son, Huck has
Speaker 2: see I already screwed it up. Take two, as most
Speaker 2: of the OPA team takes on a new client, a
Speaker 2: mother seeking justice for her murdered son. Huck has a
Speaker 2: mission of his own track down and kill pop a Pope,
Speaker 2: but two twists interrupt everyone's plans.
Speaker 3: The grieving mother plans to blow up part of the
Speaker 3: White House, and Eli Pope knew Huck was coming. Oh shit,
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, we did not getting highed. We're not
Speaker 3: getting hired. The grieving mother plans to blow up part
Speaker 3: of the White House, and Eli Pope knew Huck was
Speaker 3: following him. Olivia gets herself in the middle of Olivia
Speaker 3: gets herself in the middle of the hostas negotiation over
Speaker 3: an ultra high security dot that leads to a tragic ending.
Speaker 3: You know what, we wouldn't have booked the job. You
Speaker 3: wouldn't have.
Speaker 2: Booked, But give us a couple of minutes reading that over,
Speaker 2: we would have had it down. We would have had
Speaker 2: it down.
Speaker 3: So, Cynthia, can you take us into had you seen
Speaker 3: scandal before? Did you audition for the part where you
Speaker 3: offered the part because you fancy tell us how you
Speaker 3: got here?
Speaker 5: So this was so funny to me. Every summer we
Speaker 5: go to this cabin way up in northern California in
Speaker 5: the woods. My grandparents built it in the fifties. It's
Speaker 5: a little red cabin with yellow shutters. It's like walking
Speaker 5: into a story book. It's so great. And there's no
Speaker 5: internet there, so whenever we go, you're just fully unplugged. Right,
Speaker 5: So it does jealous, I know, it's so heaven. So
Speaker 5: we're there or at the river, and we do have
Speaker 5: a landline and the phone or whatever. The phone rings.
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, what is that?
Speaker 2: What is that?
Speaker 3: The dairy?
Speaker 5: So I answered it and it's my manager, God love him,
Speaker 5: sweetest mallin earth, Kelly Garner, the greatest guy. And he goes, Cynthia,
Speaker 5: I'm sending you something. And I said, I'm at the river.
Speaker 5: He goes, I'm sending you something and you have to
Speaker 5: get in your car and I have to drive four
Speaker 5: miles to get internet. Right, He goes, get in your
Speaker 5: car and drive to the it's called the dry yards.
Speaker 5: Get to the dry yards and read this thing that
Speaker 5: I sent you. And I go, what is it? He goes,
Speaker 5: I'm not telling you. I want you to just open
Speaker 5: it and read it. So I go, but I'm at
Speaker 5: the river. He goes, just get in a car. So
Speaker 5: I four miles to the dryards. I opened it the
Speaker 5: link and I had I have watched the show. I
Speaker 5: was a huge.
Speaker 2: Mantain, oh nice, I have.
Speaker 5: Goosebumps while I'm telling you this. So I start reading it,
Speaker 5: and you know what it is. I'm reading it. I'm like,
Speaker 5: oh my god, oh my god, this is a huge
Speaker 5: Oh my god. When I get to the end, he
Speaker 5: burst out crying. I start just crawling. What And so
Speaker 5: then I'm alone in my car and I go, I
Speaker 5: don't think I can do that. Har they made a mistake.
Speaker 5: It was an offer, and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, it's oh my god.
Speaker 5: No. At the time, this is your magical realm of
Speaker 5: Shondaland had already been a guest on her show Off
Speaker 5: the Map, so I'd done yes, Yeah, and an episode
Speaker 5: of Grays and a private practice, then Scandal, and then
Speaker 5: after Scandal, I went to do How to Get Away
Speaker 5: with Murder a little arc on that.
Speaker 3: So, oh my god, Aynthia, you are yes, you are
Speaker 3: a beloved. You are part of the shop.
Speaker 5: The team right, like they're just so wonderful. Yeah. I
Speaker 5: call him for myself and I go and I said, Kelly,
Speaker 5: I don't know. You just shut your mouth and if
Speaker 5: you don't get your ass back down to town, I'm
Speaker 5: gonna drive up there and I want to.
Speaker 2: I love your manager's so great.
Speaker 3: Did you have to cancel your trip?
Speaker 5: I think we cut it short a little bit, and
Speaker 5: that's why he was like, oh, well you have to
Speaker 5: leave the river jut down here.
Speaker 2: Isn't that old, doesn't it? That always happened. I remember
Speaker 2: being Inwai in Hawaii for one of my best friend's
Speaker 2: weddings and I had to leave early because I booked
Speaker 2: like a Law and Order episode. That that's been like
Speaker 2: our lives so.
Speaker 3: Long, right, just like okay, yeah, all the actors listening there,
Speaker 3: it's like book a trip, book a job, like no
Speaker 3: one will want you in the minute you actually spend
Speaker 3: money to leave town and do something else is when
Speaker 3: Hollywood will get It's because I need a.
Speaker 2: Job, yes, is yeah in the universe is like.
Speaker 5: Hey, cool guy, Hey cool girl, here's your job.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: So do you remember like you're fitting with Lynn Pollo
Speaker 3: or like first coming on too Saturday to prepare for
Speaker 3: the role, were you nervous to work with Carrie?
Speaker 5: Like tell us all of them, I'm always I literally
Speaker 5: am the most If you know what HSPs are I
Speaker 5: highly sense to your person. I'm like, my son, is
Speaker 5: that tweeked up to the max? So I'm always like,
Speaker 5: oh god, what's happening. It's just so much craziness. So
Speaker 5: and everybody's so lovely. And the other thing about your
Speaker 5: show is that season three, right, so everyone's comfortable. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you guys were all the cool people at the reunion. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: betting super casual. And then the prop guy came in
Speaker 5: to the wardrobe fitting and here prompt man was so
Speaker 5: sweet and he was so excited about that best right, like.
Speaker 2: It was probably George George.
Speaker 3: It had to be George, and George props, he's the
Speaker 3: bast You've taken so.
Speaker 5: Much pride in it, and it was incredible. So he
Speaker 5: came into the wardrobe fitting to see how it fit
Speaker 5: over the blouse, and yes, they were all excited about it,
Speaker 5: and so I'm like, that was super cool. And then
Speaker 5: I remember in the makeup and the hair and makeup,
Speaker 5: I think Carrie wasn't there yet, the Bellamy, who had
Speaker 5: never met before. So here comes this amazing angel person
Speaker 5: and she's like, yeah, I was all my nervous craziness
Speaker 5: just disappeared in an instant. She was like, you're got
Speaker 5: kill it. You're killing you crazy weirdo. You're gonna be
Speaker 5: like with that ball of just kindness and amazing, you
Speaker 5: can't be nervous anymore. But I don't think I met Carrie.
Speaker 5: I don't think i'd met her until Oh, I guess
Speaker 5: it was our little thing in your office, in the office,
Speaker 5: the scene in the office, and that was oh so
Speaker 5: much to do. And I remember she kept carrying around
Speaker 5: her huge blinder.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh my god, we even talked about that
Speaker 3: yet on this podcast. Yeah, Carrie Washington's nerd ass binder.
Speaker 5: I looked at her blinder and I actually got a
Speaker 5: stomach ache. I was like, oh god, I remember what she.
Speaker 2: Would be memorizing lines for like the next episode while
Speaker 2: she was memory while she was doing the scenes for
Speaker 2: the episode we were shooting.
Speaker 3: She would take down an entire tree of post it
Speaker 3: notes through the binder, color coded what was shooting, what
Speaker 3: she had memorized, what she hadn't learned yet, what the
Speaker 3: long like, how things connected to each other.
Speaker 2: Crazy. We'll be right back guys.
Speaker 3: Now, you've been a lead of so many shows. What's
Speaker 3: so amazing about you is like you are so versatile
Speaker 3: in I mean, you carry sitcoms.
Speaker 2: Really quickly too. I love horror movies and I had
Speaker 2: not ever seen a horror movie that that Cynthia had
Speaker 2: had been in called Jennifer's Body, and I just watched
Speaker 2: it like last night.
Speaker 3: This is Ghermo Diaz six Degrees of Horror. Every episode
Speaker 3: we relate some shit to horror. We got.
Speaker 2: Cynthia Stevenson was in one of the best freaking horror
Speaker 2: movies written by Diablo Cody, who was an amazing writer.
Speaker 2: That writer was gonna was in the midst of writing
Speaker 2: Madonna's script about her life that Madonna's gonna direct, and
Speaker 2: then something happened and she has a different writer.
Speaker 3: Now Giermo's life has two lanes horror, yeah, Donna, yes.
Speaker 3: And so Diablo Cody and Cynthia Stevenson are meeting at
Speaker 3: the crux of horror and this is big for Gharamo.
Speaker 2: And Cynthia plays Chip's mom who provides him with a
Speaker 2: spray that says something pink on it, which he uses
Speaker 2: or the other character uses to spray like the woman
Speaker 2: that's possessed by all this devil stuff. Anyway, you were
Speaker 2: so funny, so lovely, in that movie, and the movie
Speaker 2: was so good. But then today this morning, I watched
Speaker 2: A thirty nine, which is another horror movie that Cynthia's
Speaker 2: in with Renees Eliger and Bradley Cooper.
Speaker 3: Cynthia, see, I have a hard fast rule. I do
Speaker 3: not watch horror. I do not like it. I only
Speaker 3: hear about it all.
Speaker 5: And thank goodness, like in all of those things that
Speaker 5: you're referencing, I didn't have to do the horrory part
Speaker 5: of it.
Speaker 3: You didn't, Yes, for those of you listening and that
Speaker 3: don't have a computer in front of you to know
Speaker 3: every single thing that Cynthia has been in, which is insane,
Speaker 3: and of course why you would get a straight offer
Speaker 3: on Scandal and be on every single Chondalin show. But
Speaker 3: it's like, it's unbelievable. It's like my talk show, Bob
Speaker 3: Hope and Gloria Oh Baby, Robert Altman's film The Player,
Speaker 3: Forget Paris Home for the Holidays, Air Bud Golden Receiver.
Speaker 3: I mean, come on, Agent Cody Banks, dead like me,
Speaker 3: Men and Trees. I mean, your career is ridiculous, and
Speaker 3: you're so versatile between comedy drama, Like there's really movies
Speaker 3: film like the TV. There's nothing you can do.
Speaker 5: And hey, what about IMDb, you guys, I gotta say
Speaker 5: I go on IMDb for a million years now and
Speaker 5: it says my tashow various episodes.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it won't change it. And it says I'm sixty.
Speaker 3: It says you're six feet tall. What fucking forty two?
Speaker 3: I'm forty one.
Speaker 2: It brings up it actually says I'm younger. So I'm
Speaker 2: not mad at IMDb, but I'm mad that it says
Speaker 2: that I was born and raised in New Jersey. Now
Speaker 2: that's worse than being six feet tall and being forty two.
Speaker 2: It says I'm from fucking Jersey. No, no offense from Jersey.
Speaker 2: I do love Jersey Jersey. But you're from fucking watching Manhattan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's culturally such a huge part of who
Speaker 3: you are. That's so muched up.
Speaker 2: But you're right, Cify, it's so hard to get things
Speaker 2: changed on the it's ridiculous.
Speaker 5: You can't, guys. So you say this, look what your
Speaker 5: show gave you.
Speaker 3: Best friend, right, Yes, yes, that's so true.
Speaker 5: One of the greatest of all time. And I will
Speaker 5: say this that so many people could not have done,
Speaker 5: never could they have done your roles? Going back to
Speaker 5: you sang listen to your silvers, you too, come on.
Speaker 5: Your storylines were insane, and.
Speaker 3: You were so they were insane, amazing, We were so lucky.
Speaker 5: When did I feel like you were outside of it?
Speaker 5: You just you can't or you can't do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's the way I felt watching this episode
Speaker 2: with you. I was like, I could not imagine anyone
Speaker 2: else doing that part. You were so emotionally available, and
Speaker 2: you talked a little bit about being that person that
Speaker 2: sort of feels everything, and so I'm sure that helped
Speaker 2: playing this character. You were just so there. Man.
Speaker 5: In real life, I have one son, so of course
Speaker 5: I was using.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I was going to ask, how did
Speaker 3: you prepare? Like what do you do for that stuff?
Speaker 5: Do you guys do this? So when I was reading
Speaker 5: it in the dry yards way back and like I'm
Speaker 5: at the river, I was reading it and I knew
Speaker 5: immediately she's a single mother. The husband had left many
Speaker 5: years before. She raised her son alone, and she I
Speaker 5: don't know why the song him to me in a
Speaker 5: giant flood. And she's a home ch teacher, she taught
Speaker 5: home ex she was just a teacher.
Speaker 2: She's just oh my god, I'm chilled Midwest.
Speaker 5: Woman and her whole life was her son. That's all
Speaker 5: she had and that was enough. And so when that happened,
Speaker 5: I remember saying, as that character, I can't live with it.
Speaker 5: I can't, So I don't. I didn't know it's the character.
Speaker 5: I was going to do what I did at the
Speaker 5: end of the episode until I get the news from Carrie.
Speaker 5: But it's like my whole was done. Yeah, it was heartbreading.
Speaker 5: So that was a good place to go all during
Speaker 5: the episode when you have to stay in that place,
Speaker 5: right and it it made me go insane. Remember when
Speaker 5: she says like he's just been laying in the morgue and.
Speaker 2: Not oh yeah unclaimed, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just begune unraveling.
Speaker 3: Can I ask you something selfishly and then we'll talk
Speaker 3: a little bit more about the episode. But because we
Speaker 3: didn't get to be with you, did you do you
Speaker 3: like not socialized? You like listen to music and like
Speaker 3: an iPod? Do you like? I mean, I'm gil I
Speaker 3: have tried so many different things when she's not there,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh, hey, let's just think about if
Speaker 3: something really fucking bad happened to my mom or like
Speaker 3: whatever bring And then I'm like the biggest person for that.
Speaker 3: What were your tips and tricks for this episode or
Speaker 3: for all the other stuff you've done.
Speaker 5: I do the same thing for all the time. And
Speaker 5: I had this wonderful teacher who actually is still teaching
Speaker 5: in la Ian Tucker. He's amazing, and he always says,
Speaker 5: always keep your character here. Then when you're rolling, it
Speaker 5: counts here. Put it right here.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, for those of you guys listening, she's putting
Speaker 3: like her character sits on her shoulder, sits on your shoulder,
Speaker 3: and then when they call action, they move from your
Speaker 3: shoulder into you. Is that what you're kind of meaning?
Speaker 5: Because think of us walking into an audition room, which
Speaker 5: now at ZUM we don't really have to do it anymore,
Speaker 5: but you walk in, hey, and sometimes your character is
Speaker 5: so far away that when it becomes time to like
Speaker 5: here's my moline, you start reading, you're like, oh, picture,
Speaker 5: our character is writing in with us, we're chatting, we're us,
Speaker 5: we're not so crazy that and then it's just only
Speaker 5: got this distance to travel, and then you're right there.
Speaker 5: It gets harder when there's something really emotional right, and
Speaker 5: so much easier on a sitcom that you're like, it's
Speaker 5: all just light, yea, But to keep that character close.
Speaker 5: I also don't ever want to do a job. But
Speaker 5: please don't talk to me. Please call Meveut my character name.
Speaker 5: Oh god, but you're just you keep that kind of
Speaker 5: energetically really close to your heart and don't get so
Speaker 5: far away they actually think. I remember a couple of
Speaker 5: times saying to Mark, who I was just pouring on
Speaker 5: that venom too. I said, I'm so sorry, I'm really
Speaker 5: hateful to you. I just hate you. My character hates
Speaker 5: you so much, and he goes, oh, it's okay, it's okay.
Speaker 2: Mark moses gentlemen that plays the Congress, Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: you know yeah. I feel like Katie is the complete
Speaker 2: opposite Katie. We've talked about this before. We'll be cracking up,
Speaker 2: talking a mile a minute, telling a story about what
Speaker 2: happened the night before. And as they're saying Rolling, she's
Speaker 2: still talking, and the directors already knew once scandal. They
Speaker 2: were like, just keep calling Rolling, slate, rolling, and when
Speaker 2: she hears action, she snaps right into it.
Speaker 5: I can totally see you doing that. I love that.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she can do that, and then she she still
Speaker 2: does a kick ass job.
Speaker 3: I mean I probably do better if I like took
Speaker 3: my ship more. Seriously, I just love everybody so much.
Speaker 3: Being on set is so fun with being all the people.
Speaker 5: See Katie, that's your magic.
Speaker 3: And I want to eat my snacks and I want
Speaker 3: to you know, like.
Speaker 5: And then you want to get into the same Yeah,
Speaker 5: that's that's a huge skill. So don't ever say, oh,
Speaker 5: you're in it.
Speaker 3: We will be back with more after the break. This
Speaker 3: episode there we always have like some uh some Kerry
Speaker 3: Washington School of acting moments or word for words like
Speaker 3: monologues that knocked your socks off or made us go
Speaker 3: holy shit Sean Rimes and these writers are unfreaking believable.
Speaker 3: And this episode, that Melly speech at the end with
Speaker 3: the accent, I mean, I I cannot. Also, I think
Speaker 3: this is the second or third time she's called Olivia
Speaker 3: popehor but I never get I never am born of it.
Speaker 5: I love.
Speaker 3: So oh my god, it's hilarious, like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: Matt Burne wrote this episode. But I just can't, like,
Speaker 3: we never heard I think, you know, if Olivia Pope died.
Speaker 3: It would be so bad, because it would be she says, spectacular.
Speaker 3: But you can't compete with religious fervor. So no, I'm
Speaker 3: not hoping that she would be blown up today. Tell
Speaker 3: us your other acting favorite moments of the app.
Speaker 5: For me, I think it was when Melly looked right
Speaker 5: at me and said, you shut up.
Speaker 2: It was so great, Yes, you shut up. Oh my god,
Speaker 2: that was so good.
Speaker 3: Melly might be the winner of this app. It's a
Speaker 3: tie for me between Melly and between Mary nest Bit.
Speaker 5: Well, no, but you had had some She walks into
Speaker 5: the office and you're just sitting there. You were so
Speaker 5: scary in.
Speaker 2: That episode, you guys. This was the This was around
Speaker 2: the time. Do you guys remember the grumpy Cat meme
Speaker 2: that was going around. This is the episode that people
Speaker 2: started posting that meme with my face in this scene.
Speaker 3: In that scene, I am dead.
Speaker 2: With grumpy Cat.
Speaker 5: But your whole journey in that episode is so heartbreaking.
Speaker 5: When he walks out of the trailer and you just
Speaker 5: have the gun right in his head. Oh my god,
Speaker 5: there's so much.
Speaker 2: This is also the episode where Sion knows Wark our
Speaker 2: director first came up to me after I we did
Speaker 2: the first take of that scene where carry walks into
Speaker 2: the office and he came up to me and he said, yes,
Speaker 2: you're too maniacal, Yes you're too it's too much. And
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my, okay, okay, because we have
Speaker 2: to keep going.
Speaker 5: So then when you were when she cradles you and
Speaker 5: you're crying, yeah, and then it just flashed back to
Speaker 5: all the time you were in the box.
Speaker 3: Was such a wounded wound.
Speaker 2: I loved doing this episode for me. The king of
Speaker 2: this episode, of course Cynthia, I mean with her performance, yes,
Speaker 2: But secondly, is freaking baby Teddy in that opening scene
Speaker 2: where I have never seen a baby on screen give
Speaker 2: less than any fucks before in my life. He was slept.
Speaker 2: He was leaning on one one hand with a look
Speaker 2: like I don't know what the hell I'm doing. He
Speaker 2: looked like he was sixty five.
Speaker 3: Years old, I'll give And they kept putting.
Speaker 2: Like food on his face. You could tell because in
Speaker 2: different takes there'd be more food or less, and he
Speaker 2: just had this look like, get me the fuck out
Speaker 2: of continuity.
Speaker 3: Must have had a real heyday.
Speaker 2: He wasn't like the guying and like he was just
Speaker 2: like he was like staring.
Speaker 5: With disdain at both of them, like, really, this is parents.
Speaker 3: I felt bad for baby Teddy because Baby Teddy was
Speaker 3: a set of twin girls I'm pretty sure, and they
Speaker 3: just had kept having Baby Teddy girls in and cutting
Speaker 3: her hair short like a boy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when he was really young, it was too. It
Speaker 2: was twin girls, and then when he was older. I
Speaker 2: think it was too at some point.
Speaker 3: But you know, G and I love food and our
Speaker 3: favorite acting on cameras when anyone eats, And so of
Speaker 3: course maybe baby Teddy is the winner since he is
Speaker 3: crushing baby food. Not the best acting.
Speaker 2: He was amazing at the acting, but he was terrible
Speaker 2: at the eating because he wasn't his mouth was shut. Clothes,
Speaker 2: you just have food smeared on um.
Speaker 3: He must have eaten in like other takes, Like he
Speaker 3: must have liked, you know what I mean, Like he
Speaker 3: must have like I don't know what went down, but
Speaker 3: it didn't really work, and I thought it was very distracting.
Speaker 3: But I do think that he might be and winner.
Speaker 2: I think he's a king actor in this episode for sure,
Speaker 2: and Cynthia is the queen that works. Another moment is
Speaker 2: when Carrie is on the phone at the end of
Speaker 2: the episode when you guys you still have the bomb
Speaker 2: and she's talking to fits and she turns away from you, Cynthia,
Speaker 2: and you could see it all on her face, and
Speaker 2: she says, don't make me do this, and she and
Speaker 2: then she turns back to you and just oh my god.
Speaker 2: It was just so full of emotion and so heartbreaking.
Speaker 5: I decided that she was a princess, and I crazy,
Speaker 5: she's like a princess. She's like a princess, and she's
Speaker 5: going to save me. Yeah, my character fell in love
Speaker 5: with her and she was my safe.
Speaker 2: You could feel that, Yeah, I could feel that watching it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we also have to add to the ah, we
Speaker 3: have body count to add in this. We have some
Speaker 3: death to add to the ever loving scandal body count,
Speaker 3: which is sadly nessa Congressman, Jim Struthers.
Speaker 2: And then Peter Poster, the.
Speaker 3: White House intruder, and then yeah, hey.
Speaker 5: Episode three, three deaths. There's some good syncretis.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, Yeah, the Trinity.
Speaker 5: You have to tell this story to remember so at
Speaker 5: the end that what you just referenced caver where Tony
Speaker 5: Goldwin has a giant two page monologue talking to and
Speaker 5: her phone and I remember saying, how are they going
Speaker 5: to do that? Did they recorded or is it God forbid?
Speaker 5: The script supervisor, which thank so I remember on the
Speaker 5: night because it was really late when we shot that.
Speaker 5: I look over, I go what because he wasn't on
Speaker 5: the call sheet, Tony wasn't on the cauchet, and there
Speaker 5: he is sitting on the floor and he came he said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: I was having dinner with my wife, but I wanted
Speaker 5: to come in for Carrie. And that's when I said, Okay,
Speaker 5: this show.
Speaker 2: Is yes forever. Yeah.
Speaker 3: He shot that scene at one o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 3: So line huge monologue into a phone call scene, which
Speaker 3: is how you know they took those phone calls very soon.
Speaker 2: We would do that all the time, Katie right. They
Speaker 2: would give us a heads up and be like, hey,
Speaker 2: you have a phone call with Carrie or with Katie
Speaker 2: or whoever, and we would make ourselves available to actually
Speaker 2: get on the phone while they were shooting the scene
Speaker 2: and do the scene with them, or we would come
Speaker 2: to set. There were a couple of times I came
Speaker 2: to set, or if we were already on set, of
Speaker 2: course we would do it and just actors listening.
Speaker 5: That's really unusual. A lot of the time, that's when
Speaker 5: there's just oh yeah, support and that's the way it
Speaker 5: should be, right, but it isn't.
Speaker 3: A lot of the time, and sometimes it is Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: that's definitely how you do your best act that's a
Speaker 3: really good point to bring up, and that I love them.
Speaker 3: They yeah, that's really really nice.
Speaker 2: I did a move a big movie once and I
Speaker 2: did most of my scenes with the actors stand in.
Speaker 2: We would do all his stuff and then not the
Speaker 2: whole movie. But like like I remember like two or
Speaker 2: three like big scenes, and I ended up with doing
Speaker 2: all my coverage with his stand in, and I was like,
Speaker 2: this is so weird, this is shitty. But yeah, it's
Speaker 2: not the norm to be there for your actor when
Speaker 2: you're not in the actual scening or just on the
Speaker 2: phone or whatever.
Speaker 5: To you for doing that, because it's really hard. It's
Speaker 5: really hard cameras in your face. Yes, So even if
Speaker 5: you're your partner's there for you, which the perfect world
Speaker 5: they are, but when they're not, that's really tough on
Speaker 5: them and great on you that you could do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Real.
Speaker 2: Although I feel like I've had some of my best
Speaker 2: acting moments acting with like a tennis ball. There were
Speaker 2: times where I had to act with just the actor
Speaker 2: couldn't physically be there or they were like off to
Speaker 2: the side, and I was like, this is the best
Speaker 2: work on this tennis ball.
Speaker 5: Even more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because sometimes you can look in the eyes of
Speaker 2: the other acting you could see them being like, oh God,
Speaker 2: what am I going to have for lung?
Speaker 3: And one of the biggest hardest monologues I ever had
Speaker 3: with an actress who will remain unnamed, and she may
Speaker 3: or may not be a part of sand Land, but
Speaker 3: we're going to leave it at that, and so all
Speaker 3: you listeners can guess, but I'm not going to say
Speaker 3: who it is. I do this like massive monologue and
Speaker 3: like there wasn't nobody home, like nobody was listening, nothing
Speaker 3: behind the eyes, nothing behind the eyes. And I was like,
Speaker 3: this person is so bored and I am sobbing I
Speaker 3: am having to go there and she does. I'll never
Speaker 3: forget it, Like I'll never forget it. I'm like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, this person like I'm either terrible or like
Speaker 3: they don't care or I mean they're sick. I don't know,
Speaker 3: but I Cynthia, do you have any like horror stories
Speaker 3: in your long career.
Speaker 5: Again, I won't name I won't name them. I was doing.
Speaker 5: I was doing a guest part that I was like, okay,
Speaker 5: I wasn't super excited and literally like a cartoon. Her
Speaker 5: off camera for me was this, no.
Speaker 2: Freaking nails, put the.
Speaker 5: Nail file in her pocket and then pulled her phone out. No, like.
Speaker 3: That person should be fineired.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: My thing about where is that? It's not our job
Speaker 5: as the guest. It certainly isn't. I don't want to
Speaker 5: stand there and make a big scene on someone else's show.
Speaker 5: But the producer needs to step It needs to happen
Speaker 5: because young people just sometimes don't know. You think, where
Speaker 5: are you?
Speaker 2: Cynthia? Was Was it a show where it was an
Speaker 2: established show? Was it like successful? And she was like the.
Speaker 5: Least, she's a really good actress.
Speaker 2: She was really really amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah what wow, I am wasting all my energy off camera,
Speaker 3: really holding up. I should just be filing my fucking
Speaker 3: nails and checking my phone so that when it turns
Speaker 3: to me, I'm full of energy and rare into go
Speaker 3: because I've given them nothing.
Speaker 5: Oh no, you're doing it because it's a gift. It's
Speaker 5: the gift that you want to give and you want
Speaker 5: to give her. That's the drug. A huge piece the
Speaker 5: joy of creating this family and creating this altered world,
Speaker 5: which is so magical, amazing.
Speaker 2: I am in to know who this person is. We
Speaker 2: finished recording, we will all name name.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, we have also were you on Twitter
Speaker 3: at this time? Or you are you on Twitter?
Speaker 5: God? I am like, I'm like the character in Downton Abbey,
Speaker 5: was it Maggie Smith who comes to goes, Oh, these lights,
Speaker 5: this is never gonna last. The vapors.
Speaker 3: Good for you.
Speaker 5: I'm the most untechnological person on earth. And the thought
Speaker 5: of to live tweeting. I never because talk about my
Speaker 5: characters here. Mary nesmdn't tweet. I can't. It's too far
Speaker 5: for me to go. I can't go out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: No, you're not wrong. We read some Scandaled tweets of
Speaker 3: the time and they're kind of like a real nice
Speaker 3: time capsule for us to see what people thought of
Speaker 3: the episode. There's some wow, oh I forgot about this line.
Speaker 3: Kevin Costly, who oh my gosh, worked on Scandal in
Speaker 3: publicity at Kevin Costly on October eighteenth, tweeted now we've
Speaker 3: got a bimbo on the loose. Happy graduation hashtag Melly
Speaker 3: Grant greeting cards hashtag scandal at bellmy Young So people
Speaker 3: were making all of these like leading cards that had
Speaker 3: Mellie's official photo on it. So it was a happy
Speaker 3: graduation photo, but it said, now we've got a bimbo
Speaker 3: on the loose. I'm dead, okay.
Speaker 2: At Scandal Feelings tweeted, I think we'll need further inspection
Speaker 2: to tell how presidential his balls are hashtag oops, hashtag
Speaker 2: that slip, hashtag scandal.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 3: So women love that Tony goldwin Man, so women behave
Speaker 3: like absolute imbeciles around him? Yes. At Joe Morton tweeted
Speaker 3: work unfortunately or fortunately, Oh happy birthday, big Daddy Rowan.
Speaker 3: What does a head honcho do for his birthday? I
Speaker 3: guess maybe it was Joe. Was it Joe's birthday?
Speaker 2: Joe Morton's. Maybe? I don't know.
Speaker 5: I don't try to kill tried to kill him.
Speaker 2: I tried to kill him. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. The other thing is at. Brown Eyed Girl
Speaker 3: twenty three tweeted the Disney Studio lot is again showing
Speaker 3: some love to add scandal and at Once upon a Time.
Speaker 3: So this was at the time, and there's a picture
Speaker 3: of up on the ABC a lot of the poster
Speaker 3: of Lana Parrilla, who's me and Giermo's friend played the
Speaker 3: Wicked Witch. It's her face up behind an apple on
Speaker 3: the What's upon a Time poster and then carry's I
Speaker 3: mean gorgeous face, I mean her face on those posters.
Speaker 3: Are you joking? It'd be like her lips, her eyeball,
Speaker 3: her nine, her profile, her dead on center, and all
Speaker 3: of it was perfection and you could never get Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh damn. Trish tweeted, I'm scared of Hawk hashti scandal. Awesome,
Speaker 2: anybody calls me hawk? That's a fan of scandal?
Speaker 3: Wait, what does it hawk? By the way, it's a
Speaker 3: very cool name. It's a very cool name.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, someone tweeted at Anna. Labor eighty seven tweeted
Speaker 3: watching hashtag scandal again, OMG, Melly and then quotations you
Speaker 3: shut up. So that moment that you always talked about
Speaker 3: really it really affected with the people even of the time.
Speaker 5: I forgot to tell you guys this, So this is
Speaker 5: another so crazy thing. So in the room where when
Speaker 5: I'm holding the hostage and they're saying, what do we
Speaker 5: do blah blah blah. Tony Goldland's characters and they're the
Speaker 5: presidents having his briefing with like, how are we going
Speaker 5: to get this crazy woman? Either my oldest friend Cheryl Bricker,
Speaker 5: who I met when I first moved to LA in
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty whatever. She plays one of the people and
Speaker 5: one of her lines, oh no, wait, pumping some gas.
Speaker 5: So we watched the episode together and we were laughing.
Speaker 5: I was like, you were trying to kill me all
Speaker 5: I was trying to do it?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Waite.
Speaker 3: Are you guys good friends now or you had run
Speaker 3: into or you were.
Speaker 5: I don't get to see herzona because I don't live
Speaker 5: in LA anymore, but she's one of my oldest friends.
Speaker 5: She's amazing. She's a wonderful actress, and she had more
Speaker 5: dialogue in Their Worse you know.
Speaker 3: But did you know that she had booked the job
Speaker 3: or were on set? How did that happen?
Speaker 5: Yeah? We were just talking and I said, oh, gosh,
Speaker 5: you know, I just got this offer on Scandal and
Speaker 5: I'm so excited. She was like, what really, I'm going
Speaker 5: to be on that? Like that really?
Speaker 2: Oh my God, where are you, Cynthia? Do you where
Speaker 2: do you live in.
Speaker 5: Tucson, Arizona?
Speaker 2: Oh? Wow, don't ask me.
Speaker 5: Why spirits just let us here for some crazy reason.
Speaker 2: Oh man, do you do you ever watch Long Island
Speaker 2: Medium a lot about Spirits. She always refers to it
Speaker 2: as spirit and I mean, so every time you say that,
Speaker 2: it reminds me.
Speaker 3: We love the Long Island Medium. We love it so much.
Speaker 3: Wait tuson Arizona. Do you love it?
Speaker 5: We've been here almost two years. I like it. I'm
Speaker 5: not sure. The deserts in tenth California. We're in a desert,
Speaker 5: but we don't feel that we're in the desert right right.
Speaker 5: It's cool. There's it's actually really cool. There's a huge
Speaker 5: music seeing here, really interesting quirky art, cool street fairs,
Speaker 5: and it's got a cool life to it. I'm still
Speaker 5: not ground.
Speaker 3: Just figuring it out.
Speaker 2: What do you do like for auditions? Of course you
Speaker 2: do a remotely. You'll just audition remotely and then if
Speaker 2: you book something, you'll get to LA and order wherever
Speaker 2: it's shooting.
Speaker 5: Ye.
Speaker 2: Yeah, has that been challenging at all?
Speaker 5: Or? I mean my careers I remember being my twenties.
Speaker 5: You guys and meeting much older women and they'd say, I, well,
Speaker 5: it was here, because after fifty it's all over. And
Speaker 5: I remember hearing that probably fifty times, and I'm saying, hello, negative,
Speaker 5: what the heck? I'm a character, right, A character is
Speaker 5: not gonna work forever. And I swear to god, I
Speaker 5: was like, did that thought virus infiltrate my subconscious mind
Speaker 5: could get out? But after fifty ish fifty five ish,
Speaker 5: it definitely slows down. It definitely does. And I was
Speaker 5: never the dynamo. I'm gonna get my own thing going.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna I'm always so distracted, I'm so add and
Speaker 5: I have a carousel going in my head. Very hard
Speaker 5: to pin me down. I'm like, oh no, really, if
Speaker 5: you look back, I could have done it really differently
Speaker 5: and been much more aggressive. I don't like that.
Speaker 2: And it sounds like you have a bunch of other
Speaker 2: stuff that you love doing in your yeah time and
Speaker 2: energy into Yeah.
Speaker 5: I'm just going where you feel like it was like
Speaker 5: that started naturally close down. I'm open to that, you
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying. Yeah, so we'll see.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you are an inspiration killed this episode and you
Speaker 3: are so wonderful for taking the time out of your
Speaker 3: life and bringing out so lucky, So lucky.
Speaker 2: I was super shocked and excited when they said you
Speaker 2: were going to be the guest, because I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're not going to be a ready to get her.
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden they were like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this episode, Cynthia's gonna be there, and I was like what.
Speaker 5: I was so happy. We were so happy, thrill and
Speaker 5: you guys are so great on the show, and your
Speaker 5: love for each other just just so infectious and it
Speaker 5: makes people want to come and listen.
Speaker 2: Good, oh good, Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3: I always say I did this podcast because it would
Speaker 3: force Cameron hang out with me, like at least for
Speaker 3: however many episodes we have a season.
Speaker 5: I love it so much.
Speaker 3: Like Cynthia Stevenson, you are the greatest. Thank you for
Speaker 3: doing this. I'm glad you SiO. Thanks for listening. Here
Speaker 3: we are at season three of Unpacking the Toolbox and
Speaker 3: next up episode three oh four titled say Hello to
Speaker 3: My Little Friend.
Speaker 2: What from that's from Scarf?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 3: Thank you god?
Speaker 2: But check it out. So this episode is called Missus
Speaker 2: Smith goes to Washington. Right. There was a nineteen thirty
Speaker 2: nine Jimmy Stewart movie called Mister Smith Goes to Washington.
Speaker 2: So I wonder if they did a play on the.
Speaker 5: Idea of that movie. And then they did, right, yeah,
Speaker 5: so good is it?
Speaker 2: Really? I haven't seen it now. I think Claude Rains
Speaker 2: is in it and and Stuart.
Speaker 5: Like I said, amazing and weirdly, here's a fun fact.
Speaker 5: My uncle I met and worked with Jimmy Stewart for
Speaker 5: like a decade. He was who was a fundraiser for
Speaker 5: some I think it was muscular dystrophe or something, and said,
Speaker 5: Jimmy Stewart was the chose to be the face of that,
Speaker 5: the celebrity face.
Speaker 3: And he said, I'm the biggest Jimmy Stewart fan. I can't,
Speaker 3: I can't. I love so much much.
Speaker 5: Said he's kinder than we could ever imagine.
Speaker 2: Really, Oh, I love that.
Speaker 3: I love that. Cynthia Stevenson, we love you, rip to
Speaker 3: your amazing character.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you guys for joining us on Unpacking the Toolbox.
Speaker 2: If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe, share with your friends, rate,
Speaker 2: or leave us a review.
Speaker 3: Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, Alex Alcea, Lauren Homan,
Speaker 3: Tyler Klang and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is
Speaker 3: Vince de Johnny, with music by Chad Fisher.
Speaker 2: Scandal is a production of ABC Signature, and you can
Speaker 2: follow along by rewatching Scandal on Hulu.
Speaker 3: Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in
Speaker 3: partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit
Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.