The very best good friend vibes between Katie Lowes and Guillermo Diaz are going sturdy because the Scandal friends delve into the second episode of the present and set up a rhythm for the podcast. For their premiere episode, they’d the unstoppable Shonda Rhimes as a visitor. This week, Lowes and Diaz are by themselves, giving a extra detailed breakdown of the episode they’re rewatching, in addition to extra day-to-day behind-the-scenes particulars.
Huck reveals the little bit of Scandal he took dwelling.

Credit score: Shondaland / ABC Studios / Kobal / Shutterstock
The wall of cracked home windows within the convention room is a centerpiece of the OPA workplace and was regularly used to tack up pictures of purchasers or numerous suspects — a type of extremely symbolic (these cracks!) model of a yarn wall. Diaz obtained permission to take dwelling a window panel as a memento, which he nonetheless has in his dwelling.
“It is proper on the entrance of the home, on the wall….It is one in all my favourite issues that I’ve in my home,” he mentioned.
“It makes me sleep higher at evening, understanding that you’ve one of many window panes,” Lowes declared. “And our OPA convention desk desk is the primary convention room desk at Shondaland Places of work in Hollywood… I used to be there as soon as earlier than COVID, and I walked previous the massive convention room, and it is the OPA convention desk that you just and I boned on!”
They cracked up. “We certain did,” Diaz teased. However that is for a a lot, a lot later episode(opens in a brand new tab)!
The writers’ room was psychic, possibly.
“You recognize what’s so beautiful [about rewatching], I can see what the writers have been seeing about Huck taking Quinn below his wing,” Lowes mentioned, “You’ll be able to already see I all the time go to you. Abby’s simply so imply to Quinn, it is insane and nice and wonderful and I like it, and Harrison simply does not have time as a result of he is Mr. Man About City, and also you’re actually the one individual — “
Diaz added, “Katie, do you bear in mind we used to speak whereas we have been filming the present, like, how do the writers know and the way does Shonda know {our relationships}? Since you and I began to get actually shut, after which we would be like, are there microphones in our trailers? After which we would see it…mirrored within the scripts, proper? We have been like, how did they know?!”
“They have to have bugged the make-up trailer!” Lowes agreed. “On units, make-up trailers are the place a lot of shit-talking will get executed, and that is largely since you’re there at 5 o’clock within the morning, your make-up and hair persons are those which can be closest to your face always — like, while you’re in your interval, while you’ve had a tough evening… So, the make-up trailer simply type of turns into this place — and I used to be like, this shit has gotta be bugged! As a result of… we might have relationships forming and belief issues occurring, after which we might see them 100% mirrored in scripts down the highway.”
How did Scandal discover its breakneck tempo?
Shonda Rhimes and the Scandal writers’ room had nothing on the Gilmore Women when it got here to packing loads of info into not loads of onscreen time. Lowes and Diaz mentioned how a lot time they spent operating traces behind the scenes and of their downtime.
“We have been actually studious, and we might drill traces [in the makeup trailers]!” laughed Lowes.
“We needed to! We needed to Scandal tempo our dialogue,” Diaz mentioned. “It first began as a result of the scripts have been so lengthy, proper? And there have been so many phrases that I believe it was Shonda that mentioned, ‘You guys have to speak quick to get all these things out,’ and that is, I believe, the place it began. However then all of us found little by little that the sooner you communicate — I imply, the intention [matters], and we’re nonetheless appearing below the quick tempo, however each time it made the scene higher. Each single time! Even past Scandal. Generally I am on units, I am like, ‘Y’all gotta pace that shit up!'”
Diaz admitted that though they’d loads of enjoyable whereas filming, he spent a ton of time simply operating traces. “There was no room to mess up.”
The key about Lindsay Dwyer was there was no secret (but).

Credit score: Shondaland / ABV Studios / Kobal / Shutterstock
The continuing subplot about Amanda Tanner requires Quinn to make just a little confession to the younger lady about having her personal darkish previous, in an try to get Amanda to belief her — and return to OPA, natch. The title of the episode is, in spite of everything, “Soiled Little Secrets and techniques,” and Quinn definitely has just a few herself.
Lowes recalled, “Amanda Tanner and I meet, I believe, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and we get a glimpse into Quinn’s previous, which is Lindsay Dwyer, and I say, Quinn says one thing like, ‘I used to be in hassle as soon as. Lots of people wished to…I used to be in hassle. I used to be alone, and it was terrible.’ Now, you suppose we’re getting a glimpse into Quinn Perkins’ previous, however at that time, the writers’ room didn’t know what Quinn’s previous was!”
“No one knew the place that was gonna go!” Diaz exclaimed.
“They did not know!” Lowes declared. “They did not know! So what I believe is fascinating is that issues have been already being constructed, however I additionally generally surprise if I had performed it in a different way. Like, I performed it as fact, like, Quinn does have this factor, this secret. However I may have performed it as like, I am tricking her. Like I am making it up —”
“Simply to get her to be a consumer, yeah,” Diaz agreed.
“As a result of Olivia advised me to, and I all the time am like, wow, had I been enjoying [it like that], would issues have been totally different? Who is aware of.”
The key behind taking pictures Scandal that fooled us all is correct in plain sight.
Most of Scandal was truly filmed in Los Angeles, on numerous soundstages, so scenes like those Lowes described above have been filmed in native parks, with monuments later added with digital results.
“If you see the Lincoln Memorial and different historic websites in DC, that’s all greenscreen! The crew that did that have been so freaking proficient, too, as a result of bear in mind individuals would come as much as us on a regular basis like, ‘You guys shoot the present in DC?'” Diaz gushed.
“Folks nonetheless suppose that now!” Lowes exclaimed. (Uh, I definitely did!)
“We might all the time be exterior in parks, throughout L.A., after which they’d have this huge greenscreen that they’d then superimpose, such as you’re saying, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, no matter, the Mall, and we might be wearing coats, sweating balls,” Lowes laughed.
“In California, the place it by no means will get chilly, excerpt for at the moment,” Diaz agreed.
“And Lyn Paolo — we will have her on too, she’s an incredible costume designer — Lyn Paolo, she I believe simply set the world. I don’t know if that was her selection or Shonda’s selection, that it was only a ‘eternally fall’… which implies we’re similar to all the time in peacoats, a shawl. Olivia’s clearly in essentially the most unimaginable gloves you have ever seen in your total life that go as much as her elbow, however loads of occasions we would be in 110 levels, in a wool coat — the chafing that was happening in my pencil skirts! I deserve all of the appearing awards, individuals!” Lowes joked.
Unpacking the Toolbox wraps up with another factoids concerning the present, a continuity error or two, and a glance again at some tweets from when the present aired stay. (Keep in mind when live-tweeting was so enjoyable as a result of Twitter truly labored and wasn’t a damaged toy deserted in a tantrum by its proprietor? Sigh!)
New episodes of Unpacking the Toolbox(opens in a brand new tab) drop each Thursday. Scandal is at the moment streaming on Hulu.(opens in a brand new tab)
Originally posted 2023-02-22 20:19:00.