Hypable speaks with Scandal star Jeff Perry about his role as Cyrus on the hit show! See what he had to say about what’s in store and working with Shonda Rhimes!

There is a reason at the close of every Shonda Rhimes production her trademark stamp is a rollercoaster with the production name, “Shondaland.” For actors and audiences alike, you never know which way the car is going to take you in a single episode. Hypable got the chance to chat with one of Scandal‘s key players, Jeff Perry. Each week, Perry brings White House Chief of Staff, Cyrus Beene, to life ensuring the Fitz administration and the first family remains in office.

Perry has a fair share of Shonda experience, previously appearing in her other smash drama Grey’s Anatomy as Meredith Grey’s father. Check out what Perry has to say about Cyrus, riding the Shonda roller coaster, and the public’s response to the show!

Each week ‘Scandal’ jams about a season’s worth of plot twists into each episode. What is the experience like when you read each new script on your end?

It’s a blast. It is the most fun. It is kind of like going for an advance degree for actors. It begins with Tony [Goldwyn] and I, Kerry [Washington] and I, alone and together parsing through it. Where have we been? And who knows what? We get our individual realities together because, of course, the audience knows some things, but individual characters don’t.

Sometimes Fitz will know some stuff I don’t know. Once in a while I will know things that the audience does not quite yet know. First there is a level of orienting and organizing. Where I am, what do I know? What’s my next move on the chessboard? It’s a blast; it’s fun and very challenging.

Speaking of moves on the chessboard, at the end of the last episode we were left with quite the cliffhanger for James and Cyrus. Are we about to enter a silent, cold war between the two to see who will use the information first?

Yea, we certainly are left in that kind of suspense. I have imagined that after looking at those photos with some anguish, that there is a railroad worth of growing dread for Cyrus that he quickly does the math on. “No, no. Could it possibly be that I have been that architect of screwing everything up that I care about? If I don’t have leverage with these pictures, with Sally, because all it looks like is consensual adultery, how do I keep her in the fold? And if I can’t keep her in the fold, how do I get Fitz reelected? Have I fundamentally screwed that up? Have I fundamentally screwed up my marriage?”

This represents a pretty rare, emotional blind spot for Cyrus. He never had a contingency plan for this. He just didn’t imagine that James would do anything, but refuse the pass. So the two things he cares most about, I think, Cyrus realizes the absolute horror he has caused. A problem he cannot see a fix for.

Cyrus has always put Fitz first, but now the choice to do so may cost him greatly. Does he do it once more with the risk of losing his marriage?

Yea that is part of the equation that is going through his head, definitely. He has kind of created simultaneous nuclear problems on both fronts with this grave miscalculation.

And in [episodes] 9 and 10, all I can say, those are the second to last and the last of the winter season, that Shonda [Rhimes] exclusively has Cyrus in hell.

It is interesting to see Cyrus hesitate for even a second without a plan to jump into.

Yea. [Shonda] is taking him to a place she has not taken him before. It is a mess!

Each week Twitter explodes during ‘Scandal’ and creates an in-the-moment community buzz. Did you ever expect to have such an intense response over social media like that?

No, I did not have any expectations about that. It was kind of very early on in [the show’s] life, but not at the very beginning, that Shonda and Kerry and ABC social media geniuses said this is the exact kind of show where a live dialogue with the audience might be wonderful. And it has proved to be that.

I know that the sheer subversion of expectation and the level of surprise Shonda and the writers are just ingenious at. We felt that really early on. We [the cast] watched the first three episodes before the public did in the first season at Shonda’s house. It was a bunch of superstitious actors kind of whispering in between each other, “Hey guys do you think it’s just because we drank the Kool-Aid or is this feels like crack cocaine?”

I can’t wait believe the roller coaster of shock in any single episode and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Those were like goose bump kind of feelings. For people working on the show and people watching the show. In a sense we were hopeful that the public would feel it.

They certainly do! Gay rights and portrayal of gay actors on TV has progressed rather quickly in the past few years. Have you noticed any major changes through portraying the role of Cyrus on ‘Scandal’?

There is such an authentic and organic inclusivity in how Shonda writes. You felt it in Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice and in this there is kind of a seat for everyone at the table.

And [Shonda] just loves it and creates great complications and dichotomy. I remember this one quote when Shonda was talking about the show, she said, “So you’ve got the somewhat closeted gay Republican Chief of Staff threatening to falsely out the First Lady as a closeted lesbian.”

To which, Shonda said it’s so wrong that I love it. That’s the kind of wonderful perversity,[laughs] or authenticity Shonda is capable of.

Be sure to tune into Scandal season 3, episode 9 “YOLO” tonight, December 5 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC

Missed an episode? Catch up on all the drama on ABCs Scandal page!