ABC

Paley Fest 2015: Scandal

By Rueben | March 10, 2015

On Sunday night, the entire cast of the popular ABC Washington DC-based series Scandal – including Kerry Washington (Olivia Pope), Tony Goldwyn (President Fitzgerald Grant), Scott Foley (Jake Ballard), Darby Stanchfield (Abby Whelan), Guillermo Diaz (Huck), Katie Lowes (Quinn Perkins), Jeff Perry (Cyrus Beene), Bellamy Young (Mellie Grant) and Josh Malina (David Rosen) – took to the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, treating the packed audience to a night of laughter, insight and revelations.

With well-known late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel moderating, the panel held a quick pace with questions and lots of laughs, first focusing on this past week’s episode of the series that was screened prior to the start of that night’s panel.

Kerry shared that filming that “torn-from-the-headlines” episode entitled “The Lawn Chair” was like a “period of reflection” for Olivia; in fact, while during their table read before they began filming the episode was “very different (from any of their table reads), it was very quiet (around the table).”

The discussion then shifted gears to Josh, who is known for pulling pranks on the set, especially on Twitter, for which most of the cast are very involved on a regular basis. Darby chimed in that Josh, during the filming of an episode for which Tony directed, kept pushing a chair that she was sitting on as soon as Tony would call action. While Tony shared that he could see Darby crying – partially out of frustration and laughter – he had no idea that Josh was pranking her.

When asked if the cast members had known each other prior to being cast in the show, several of them chimed in sharing their past connections. Kerry and Tony knew each other before hand; Tony and Scott knew each other and even Tony and Bellamy knew each other. Perhaps the most interesting past connection came from Jeff and Katie, though. Katie attended a summer school program for aspiring actors and, at the time, Jeff was the master trainer of that program.

Jimmy then asked the cast if they had ever been surprised by viewers of the show, beyond President Obama and the First Lady [who have shared they watch the show]. Among the names the cast members tossed out where singer Pink, actress Lena Dunham (who will actually appear in an upcoming episode), former President Clinton, a number of NBA players as well as model Iman and her husband rocker David Bowie.

The term “gladiators” has become synonymous with the show’s fans, specifically as one of the top hashtags on Twitter; with Kerry sharing that the name, of course, originated in the pilot episode when Harrison Wright (former cast member Columbus Short) first interviewed Quinn Perkins (Lowes) to come work for Olivia Pope & Associates. A viewer asked right after the airing of that pilot episode if the fans could call themselves “gladiators” and “it stuck”.

Kerry then shared, when asked by Jimmy what the casting process was like, that Darby was the last of the original cast members to join the show; and it wasn’t until she appeared that they “knew the team was together; it was surreal”. It was then that a video of series creator Shonda Rhimes and fellow executive producer Betsy Beers was shown where they talked about casting Katie in her role of Quinn Perkins, and showing her reaction to getting the role. Needless to say, it was a priceless presentation.

Then when asked how far in advance any of the cast knows where the storylines are going, they shared they are “not allowed in the writer’s room” and only know about 10 to 14 days ahead, but they usually only get limited information. Although Kerry did share that Shonda will ask her very odd, random questions such as “how do you feel about running in your bare feet”.

The evening came to an end with audience questions; and the best of those queries was “What was the hardest episode they have filmed?” with Tony sharing that emotion-wise it was the episode where Fitz’s son died.

The next new episode of Scandal will air on ABC on Thursday, March 12 at 9/8c.