On April 5, 2012, ABC premiered “Scandal” by Shonda Rhimes starring Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn. Since then, the hit drama series which wrapped in 2018 continues to be a topic that circulates on social media as fans reference and rewatch the show’s seven seasons.
At the time, Washington, who played the show’s leading lady Olivia Pope, made history as the first Black woman to lead a primetime drama since Diahann Carroll in 1968. And while fans and social media were celebrating the moment, the actress reflected on those years in a conversation with Goldwyn.
“I was talking yesterday with my manager about like being so grateful that ‘Scandal’ didn’t happen earlier in my life because I would not have been able to handle it. It required so much leadership, responsibility, accountability, communication skills, and teamwork. It required such a level up for me as a human being,” Washington told her co-star. “If any of that had happened sooner, I would have destroyed it, so I do think like maybe things were harder earlier on because I needed to grow and learn to be able to meet this moment.”
And that moment’s cultural impact has lasted 14 years. So much so that fans still have debates online about the relationship between Olivia Pope and fictional President Fitzgerald Grant (Goldwyn).
“People are so passionate about Olitz, still,” she said. “Also, have you noticed this thing online where some people are like, ‘Now that I’m older and I watch the relationship, I’m not sure how healthy it is.’ Have you seen any of that? They weren’t the healthiest couple. That doesn’t mean they weren’t madly in love, but they had some difficulties, which is why people loved it.”
“I feel that what we had at the root of it was very real, and it’s why we could never get away from it — as opposed to being something that was ultimately dysfunctional. I thought ultimately these two people were their answer to each other,” Goldwyn added.
Now, while both actors firmly agree that the two characters should be in couples therapy, they both recognize the impact of their on-screen romance.
“The other day, I was thinking people were like ‘it’s so groundbreaking that Kerry’s the first female [lead] since Diahann Carroll in a drama,’ and to have an interracial relationship at the center of this thing. It’s so [wow],” Goldwyn recalled. “Now you don’t even remark on it.”
“The world is constantly catching up to her,” Washington said, speaking of Shonda Rhimes. “She is like, I’m going to write what I see. I’m going to write what I feel. And I’m not going to let anybody silence me or put me in a box. And I do I think there is something about that courage and vision that really has sort of impacted so many of us in how we live our lives. Not just the choices we make as artists, but how we live our lives.”
