First Lady Mellie Grant’s intense personality and sharp wit has been an integral part of endless plot twists on ABC’s “Scandal,” but the character was intended to have only a short stint on the show.
Actress Bellamy Young joined HuffPost Live on Friday and said that showrunner Shonda Rhimes originally planned to break off Mellie’s rocky relationship with President Fitzgerald Grant, which would have left the character with a mere three-episode storyline. She explained to host Alyona Minkovski:
It’s a story about Fitz and Olivia, so I think that it was ancillary in their minds, initially. I just had two lines in the pilot and then when we got picked up, Shonda went around the table and started telling everyone what their arc would be over the first seven episodes… She got to me and… she said, ‘So I want to write a presidential divorce and I think you’ll be here about three episodes.’ And I was dying inside, but I was trying to keep smiling because I didn’t want to disappoint her.
Luckily, Young’s character made an impression on the writers, who decided to keep her around.
“Somehow they just found Mellie’s currency as a lever, as a wedge, and they started writing for it. And it’s been the most amazing ride,” Young said.
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with Mellie Grant here.
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