WASHINGTON – The first lady of “Scandal” played what real-life GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump would call “the woman card” Thursday, saying gender politics is alive in the ABC drama as well as this year’s election.
Bellamy Young, the ABC show’s first lady-turned-presidential candidate, took a turn for the political when discussing real world parallels with her character after a screening of the latest episode and discussion that featured the entire cast and executive producer, at the University of the District of Columbia.
“[My character] was a very powerful woman and yet held back a bit by her station as it were,” Young said. “I think gender politics were still at work and hopefully we might crash through that ceiling in November,” Young said.
Scandal’s Executive Producer Shonda Rhimes, who created the show, said that the 2016 president campaign “has been mirroring the stuff that we’ve been writing!”
“Every show that we do is some story that I can’t get out of my head, and some story that’s itching around in my brain,” said Rhimes. She spoke specifically about an episode from last season that focused on a police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.
“I just was sick about everything that was going on and I kept having this vision of a parent sitting in a lawn chair over the body of a dead kid, holding a shot gun,” she said.
Washington, visibly emotional as cast members spoke about the episode, said she was grateful to be able to talk about such pressing social issues on the silver screen.
“There are certain moments as an actor that I just cannot believe that I am blessed to be part of a community that is so aware, that is so ‘woke’ as we like to say on social media,” she said.
“There are a few times that I have been completely humbled to be able to live in the words.”
And as for plot spoilers? No luck. The cast and crew remained tight-lipped on any season cliffhangers, save Washington who left the audience with one snippet of advice about next week’s episode.
“I bawled my eyes out at the table read because I couldn’t believe the things that we as a company were going to say,” she said. “I think [it is] one of the most important hours of television that this country will be privileged to [see].”