Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety
Jun 6, 2026 6:00am PT
Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn on ‘Scandal’ Fans Telling Them to Run for President and Why Fitz and Olivia Are Still Together — and in Couples Therapy
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.”
