Kerry Washington on Notifying Obamas of 'Scandal' Plot: 'Lil Awkward'

One of Kerry Washington’s most well-known roles is Olivia Pope in Scandal.

The show’s first season aired in 2012 when the actress was also a member of then-President Barack Obama's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

In a recent conversation with The View, Washington remembered having to make an awkward phone call to Obama’s longest-serving senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, to find out if Scandal conflicted with Washington’s political work.

She recalled telling Jarrett, “I just want you to know that I’ve been cast in this show. Lil awkward, because on the show, I’m sleeping with the president,” Washington said. “But like, you know, it’s gonna be fine, right?”

“I wanted to give them a chance to distance themselves if they needed to,” Washington explained. “But they were like, ‘It’s fine. It’s TV.’ Again, for art, everything’s OK!”

Washington starred in Scandal from 2012 to 2018 alongside Tony Goldwyn, who played President Fitzgerald Grant II. The two were involved in an affair from the first episode.

Shonda Rhimes’ fictional Pope was inspired by Judy Smith, who was President George H. W. Bush’s deputy press secretary. She also became the first Black woman to deliver a White House briefing, per People. She left the White House to launch her crisis management firm, Smith & Company.

Smith told People in 2022 that she told the late Bush about Scandal’s storyline.

"I remember he left a message on the cellphone because he's always a joker. It was like, 'I love you. I want you. You left me. By the way, I'm the former leader of the free world. Call me,'" she recalled. "I called him up. I said, 'See, this is why I'm calling you now. Let's stop joking about this stuff.' And so I told him what the storyline was going to be, and he said, 'Oh, yeah. No, yeah. I remember that.' I said, 'No, there's nothing! There's no relationship. Don't even be joking that any of that stuff is true!'"