Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety From 2012 through 2018, Kerry Washington played Washington, D.C.—fixer Olivia Pope alongside Tony Goldwyn’s President Fitzgerald Grant on “Scandal,” the Shonda Rhimes-created sensation. Olivia and Fitz — “Olitz” to their superfans — couldn’t stay away from each other, never mind that he was married and the president of the United States and that they met when she was hired to work on his campaign. “Scandal” was appointment television, as Olivia and her staff, whom she proudly declared “gladiators in suits,” used every trick available to them to win.
Not only was “Scandal” a total blast, but the casting of Washington — a Black woman — as its lead revolutionized representation on television. Rhimes would say, according to Goldwyn, “I just write the world as I see it, and I think it should be,” and Washington finishes his thought: “The world is constantly catching up to her.”
Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety Washington is the star and an executive producer of her most recent project, the Apple TV thriller “Imperfect Women.” With it, she sought to build “an environment where people feel safe enough to take big risks and big swings,” she tells Goldwyn during their Actors on Actors conversation. On the limited series, based on Araminta Hall’s 2020 novel of the same name, Washington plays Eleanor, a successful CEO whose life is upended when one of her best friends is murdered.
Goldwyn is a double threat this television season. On “Hacks,” he plays Bob Lipka, the dickhead media overlord holding comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) to the strictest interpretation of her contract’s noncompete, after she quit being a late-night talk show host on his network. And on “Law & Order,” which Goldwyn joined in March 2024 as Manhattan district attorney Nicholas Baxter, he’s filled the role Sam Waterston played for decades. When the show’s producers approached Goldwyn for the part, he says, “it felt like a privilege.”
In the series finale of “Scandal,” Olivia walked away from the White House, literally, as a montage showing each character played. Her future is the most mysterious, since the audience is shown that there will be a painting of her in the National Portrait Gallery, an honor usually reserved for presidents. As for Olitz? Fitz’s last moments on-screen with Olivia are them saying “Hi” to each other, which was always their way of reconnecting. Do Washington and Goldwyn think their characters ended up making jam in Vermont together? You’ll have to read on to find out.
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