Special Thanks to The Cast And Crew Of Scandal After I Spent One Day As A Background Actor in the 100th Episode!

Kerry Washington stars as Olivia Pope in ABC’s top rated drama Scandal

Photo from IMDb

As I wrote about in my California Dreamin‘ blog entry, published on April 12, 2017, I spent part of February and all of March 2017 appearing as a background actor in nine different television shows filmed in the Los Angeles area, including VEEP, Speechless and American Housewife.

One of my favorite experiences was appearing as a featured background actor for the 100th episode of Scandal “The Decision”, filmed on February 27 and airing on April 13, 2017.

I am a 55 year old widow from Arkansas. I have two daughters who are 24 and 20 years old and who both live out of state. I am a 15 year Lymphoma Cancer Survivor and I love to use my blog to promote support for both cancer survivors and widows.

After graduating from Arkansas State University more than 30 years ago with a degree in Radio/Television, I have always dreamed of the opportunity to be involved in a television or film production.  I spent more than 20 years working as a Technical Writer and last year I decided to follow my dreams. So here I was, portraying a wedding greeter and guest on one of the most loved television dramas in years. And one of the most secretive filming!

One of the two outfits selected for me by the costumer designers at Scandal during my costume fitting on February 21, 2017.

Top 10 List of Favorite Memories of Filming Scandal

10.  The casting director asking me, “Have you appeared on Scandal this season?” after I submitted for a casting call asking for females in my age range for an unnamed television show. When I answered “No”, I was then told I booked the job and given a work line telephone number for more information. After that I spent the next ten minutes jumping up and down in my friend’s house!

9.  Riding in the backseat of an Uber to the studios on the day of my costume fitting and after telling the security guard my name he said I was on a list of approved visitors and let me in the gate.

8. Meeting the fantastic costumer designers at the studios who had already selected two different beautiful outfits based on my sizes supplied by Central Casting.

7. Treated special by the wonderful and talented makeup and hair stylists on the day of shooting who did an amazing job!

6.  The delicious food provided by Catering for lunch and Crafty for snacks!

5.  Watching the production assistants, the camera operators, the hair, makeup & wardrobe people, the assistant directors and all the crew work together as a team to develop and produce such a memorable episode.

4.  Filming on location at St. John’s Cathedral, located just a few blocks from where I attended the 2016 Summer Program at the School of Cinematic Arts at USC  In fact, I would drive by this church almost everyday when I drove to my on campus apartment!

St. John’s Cathedral 514 West Adams Boulevard Los Angeles, California Photo from yelp

3.  Actor Dan Bucatinsky (@DanBucatinsky) who portrayed the character of James Novak smiling and saying “Hello” to me as we passed each other as I was walking back to the church at the location. He is so cute in person and I was surprised to see him because his character died a few seasons ago on Scandal. I found out later that day that this episode was a flashback to an earlier year so that explained his appearance. Did I mention that the actor is adorable in person?

2.  While waiting between scenes filmed in the church, speaking to actor Joshua Malina (@JoshMalina) who plays Attorney General David Rosen. He was very friendly and outgoing when I told him that he was my first celebrity tweet when I was included in a retweet from actor Dule Hill from Psych and Josh was a guest actor.

1.  Before wrapping for the day, having actors Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn address all the background actors and thank us for all our work in helping to film such a special episode of Scandal.

I’m wearing a beautiful pink suit and pink hat standing near the entrance of the church in this photo from Episode 100.

Wow! I wished I owned that suit and hat! The whole outfit was beautiful and comfortable. I’ll always have my memories of that day.