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Emmys: 'New Girl,' 'Scandal' Directors Reveal Their Toughest Scene»

This story first appeared in a stand-alone special Emmy issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Tom Verica
Scandal (ABC), “Nobody Likes Babies”

James (Dan Bucatinsky) confronts his partner, Cyrus (Jeff Perry), the White House chief of staff, about Cyrus’ role in rigging the election.

Finding that arc and flow with the final declaration of what Cyrus did to get into the White House was hard enough — not just to honor the words but also to cover all bases on how to let it all come out so that it’s not predictable. Then we layered in the element of them being completely nude, so we had to work around simple things like sound. We usually wire our actors, but we were like, “Not for this one — there’s no place to hide a wire!” Then there’s the obvious issue of camera angles, what you can show, what you can’t show, knowing that we’d be tight on certain moments but also doing wider shots to show where they’re at, and their comfort level doing all of that. You very quickly lose the novelty of, “Oh, there are two naked guys in a room having this five-page scene …” What was always important to me was what was really happening between these two actors, and all those challenges took care of themselves once we got into doing the scene. It all came together in kind of a symphony.

Entertainment Weekly - Mellie Grant, Scandal, 12 Movie/TV Trust Busters. ”Nobody likes babies,” says Mellie Grant after, you know, just having a baby. Mellie will fake a miscarriage, go all in on voting fraud in the presidential election, play the victim, and basically do anything to be one step ahead of the president’s similarly conniving Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry). The thing that makes Mellie so intriguing is that she knows exactly who she is. She plays the game, she plays it well, but she hasn’t falsely convinced herself that she’s the good guy (like some characters on this show). Also, there’s the whole question of why she gave up trying a political career to be a politician’s wife. Clearly she can handle things better than her husband. Mellie Grant/David Rosen 2016? They’ve got our vote! —Sarah Caldwell

Entertainment Weekly - Mellie Grant, Scandal, 12 Movie/TV Trust Busters.

”Nobody likes babies,” says Mellie Grant after, you know, just having a baby. Mellie will fake a miscarriage, go all in on voting fraud in the presidential election, play the victim, and basically do anything to be one step ahead of the president’s similarly conniving Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry). The thing that makes Mellie so intriguing is that she knows exactly who she is. She plays the game, she plays it well, but she hasn’t falsely convinced herself that she’s the good guy (like some characters on this show). Also, there’s the whole question of why she gave up trying a political career to be a politician’s wife. Clearly she can handle things better than her husband. Mellie Grant/David Rosen 2016? They’ve got our vote! —Sarah Caldwell

Photo Sneak Preview: Tony Goldwyn on The Ellen Show.

You gotta love what he’s wearing and I especially enjoy that Olitz promo photo on the screen there. Hats off to Lyn Paolo for Tony’s outfit! 

From Ellen.com: Tony Goldwyn stars on one of Ellen’s favorite shows, “Scandal.”

Get ready to see Tony Goldwyn on the Ellen Show at 4 PM EST!