Tony Goldwyn played two-term President Fitzgerald Grant III in Scandal, but has he ever considered taking on the role in real life?
“Do people always ask you to run for president in real life?” Goldwyn’s Scandal co-star Kerry Washington asked her former TV beau, 66, during the Saturday, June 6, episode. variety‘s “Actors on Actors” series.
Mr. Goldwyn said he is “usually” asked about his political ambitions when he is “on a street corner.”
“I always said thank you, but that’s a really bad idea,” he added.
Washington, 49, took a different position on the issue.
“I don’t think you’d be a terrible president, to be honest with you,” said Washington, who starred as Olivia Pope in “Scandal.” “You’re going to build a really great cabinet and team around you. And you care!”
Mr. Goldwyn has made clear he is interested in the job and said he plans to pursue Washington for a Cabinet position.
“You won’t take me. I won’t be available,” she joked. “You’re a very nice person, obviously.”
Scandal, created by producer Shonda Rhimes, follows a DC fixer named Olivia Pope, who had an on-and-off affair with Fitz despite his presidency and marriage. Scandal ended in 2018 after seven seasons, with Olivia and Fitz getting back together.
“They weren’t the healthiest couple,” Washington admitted on Saturday’s episode. “That doesn’t mean they weren’t madly in love with each other, but there were some challenges. That’s why people loved this movie. What did you think of the ending?”
Goldwyn and Washington both agreed that they “loved” the finale’s story arc.
“It feels like Fitz and Olivia together,” Goldwyn prophesied about the beloved Oritz ship. “I feel like what we have at our core is very real, and that’s why we were never able to escape from it, rather than what ultimately became dysfunctional. Ultimately, I felt these two were the answer to each other.”
Washington similarly believed that Olivia and Fitz ultimately worked out their romance, but noted that they were likely undergoing “couples therapy.”
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“Yes, regularly!” Goldwyn joked. “Because they know they have to do it to survive. But I think Fitz also spent some time in Vermont. He needed to break out of a toxic pattern. I think Olivia taught him how to make jam, and then when she eats his jam, she’s like, ‘Your jam sucks!’
Even though Fitz had no talent for making jam, Goldwyn was sure of one thing about Olivia and Fitz’s destination.
“I think he was very supportive of her trajectory. I think he was very supportive of her trajectory, even if she became president of the United States, whatever she was about,” he said. “I feel like his real joke was to help this woman be her best self.”
