2013 TCA Set Visit

Olivia Pope, obviously. He’s kind of achieved a kind of clarity with almost losing his life and he’s done playing games. He sees there’s like an opening and he uses it to just speak the truth. I think Fitz is going to become very insistent on that in every department. He’ll approach work in the same way, leadership, everything. It just going to be very straight-lines and not accepting all the political compromises, machinations, and all that.  

I think he’s completely scared away from love right now. I mean, wouldn’t you be if the person you thought you loved shot the president? I think he was taking all the right steps forward in his life trying to get sober from his lifestyle, his addiction, and now that this happened. I think he’s taken 10 steps back.  

Knowing Shonda’s work, I was thrilled when I read the pilot and I thought, “Okay, this is a political thriller that has a novelistic structure of a bunch of stories going on at the same time. She’s going to be great at this. I think she loves this.” So that kind of revealed itself early, the structure of it. But what kills us is that they are such professional surprisers, as a writing staff. It felt like about 10 episodes ago, “You guys have probably shot your wad, right? There can’t be anymore surprises that have any credibility.” And they keep cooking them up. So it’s a thrill. I didn’t imagine that I would find television was as satisfying as theater, and this is. There’s always something going on, a friction in the scenes. It’s endlessly fun to play.  

I would argue that I’m the only true hero, both as a person and as a character. There’s a lot of talk about the “white hat” early on in the first season and I think now I’m the only “white hat.” Everything else is fifth-shades-of-grey. But my hat remains white. I believe.