Hypable spoke with Katie Lowes and Guillermo Diaz about their parts playing Quinn and Huck, and the show’s dramatic final two winter episodes! Read our exclusive interview below!
As the first half of season 3 comes to a close on Scandal, Thursday night’s must-see drama does not let audiences relax for a second. The writing team and creator Shonda Rhimes keep both the audience and the actors on the show in suspense week in and week out, never letting the dust settle on any story line. Hypable had the opportunity to speak with two of the stars, Guillermo Diaz and Katie Lowes, who bring Huck and Quinn into your homes each week. Read our exclusive interview below to find out what it is like to go through a Shonda Rhimes script and catch a few teasers about tonight’s winter finale!
If you missed last week’s Scandal proceed with caution. Spoilers lie ahead!
Shonda Rhimes does a great job not allowing viewers to get too comfortable with any story line for too long. What is the experience like at the table reads when you hear your stories for the first time each week?
Katie Lowes: It’s awesome! I think we all trust the writers so much, we trust the quality of the writing and since it is so great, we are so excited when we come to table reads. We know that not only is your character’s story going to be great, but also all of my friends on the show are going to have great material. It’s funny because I’m on the show, but I’m such a fan of everyone else, and I don’t get to do stuff with the white house. So I love sitting and watching Jeff Perry, Bellamy [Young] and Tony Goldwyn, all of them do their thing.
It must be cool to find out about your characters, but everyone else’s at the same time.
KL: Everyone’s stuff is just so great. Sometimes I just put the script down and just watch because I feel like I am getting a $250 ticket to a front row show.
Now taking a look at Huck and Quinn specifically, your characters are going through an interesting territory of your friendship, especially after last week! What was it like to torture someone you’ve come to know really well and for you [Katie] what was it like to be on the receiving end of the torture?
Guillermo Diaz: Oh man, I was really nervous when I first read that script. I got very emotional. We both were very emotional during the table read. I was really nervous because I wanted to do a good job because it was so well written and so out there and I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, can I pull this off?’ And then we get there and it was a really long day, it was Halloween. We shot all the torture stuff in one day. It was exciting, it was strange, it was exhilarating, Huck is going back and forth with his emotions and he is crying and he is saying, ‘I’m not going to kill you,’ and then he licks her. It was just the back and forth of all these emotions. I was an emotional mess. And I think Katie was, too.
KL: UGH!
GD: But it was exciting; it was fun, being able to do that with Katie.
KL: You know on one hand you feel so scared for Quinn and for and also that we are being asked to do such a challenging and scary thing. And is it going to be safe, I mean we are using real pliers in your mouth and you’re going to be lying duct taped and naked in front of 100 of your friends and you’re going to be laying there for 14 hours, you know? It’s crazy but at the same time as an actress you feel so blessed and I know Guillermo feels the same way. It’s these scary things that when someone asks you to do them, these are reasons why you want to be an actor. It’s days like these that are worth everything. These are the days you dream of because they are scary, they’re exciting and they’re challenging, and do you think you can do it? How are you going to do? I just could not be luckier because my partner in crime Guillermo Diaz, is a [explitive] genius, pardon my language!
I know he is going to bring his A game, so it is my job to do the same. And we have an incredible crew and camera department that stuck with us the whole day, and they are very respectful and driven. They are the reason it looks so good. It was really just so worth it in the end.
As a viewer, you made it worth it, as I sat there and cringed the entire time! Katie, as a fan of the show, would you prefer for Quinn to remain a part of B613 or do you want her to go back to Olivia?
KL: Oh gosh, that is such a hard question!
GD: That is a tough one!
KL: I really feel like my heart lies with Olivia Pope and associates because I feel like that’s what Quinn would want. That is her home, but as an actress sometimes the B613 seems so badass and scary and challenging and twisted and dark and messed up, which is really really interesting to me as well. To be honest they both have their things and I feel like, whatever the heck Shonda Rhimes and the writes want to write for Quinn, I am 100% game. Whatever it is, it’s going to be good. That’s what allows me sleep at night.
GD: It is great that it is always going to be good.
KL: And it is always going to be better than what I can come up with.
Now that the tables turned yet again, and Rowan may be end up being a force of good, how will that impact Huck’s loyalty to Olivia and his intentions to stop Quinn’s bold move?
GD: I think it is going to change the game for everyone I think he is going to question himself. I mean Rowan is the man who took his family away from him. He took the love of his life away and his child and threw him in a hole! Huck has a lot of very intense feelings towards Rowan and to find out that he is not the bad guy or not as bad as everyone thinks has to mess with him. And I think now that he has tortured Quinn, it has pulled Huck back into that dark world. You know he was trying to take steps away from it by going to AA meetings, because there are no torturers anonymous meetings. He really was trying to change as a man and a person. But now that Rowan is changing and he is torturing Quinn, Huck is going to be more messed up.
KL: YAY! [laughs]
One final request before we wrap up. Describe the winter finale in one word.
GD: Damn.
KL: I am so bad at things like that. Umm…
GD: But like, DAMN [a lot of emphasis on the DAMN!]
KL: I think mine would be, “WHAT?!?”
From the looks of their responses, the winter finale of Scandal is not one to be missed! Be sure to tune tonight and live tweet all of your one-word responses along with the cast!
Watch Scandal season 3, episode 10 ‘A Door Marked Exit’ tonight at 10 p.m. ET on ABC
Missed an episode? Head on over to ABC’s website to catch up on all the shocking twists and turns!
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