Kerry Washington and Sandra Oh chat about their time working on Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy

Their biggest television roles to date came from collaborations with producer and writer Shonda Rhimes.

But Sandra Oh, 48, revealed Friday that she had also wanted star play the role of Olivia Pope on Rhimes’ Scandal, which was eventually played by Kerry Washington, 43. 

The two actresses spoke about their projects in a video chat hosted by Variety.

Sandra revealed in their chat that she wanted the star-making role of Olivia Pope that after getting her hands on the first script.

‘I’ve got to tell you, I remember exactly where I was when I read that damn pilot,’ Oh said.

‘I was on Grey’s. We were on stage five. Someone snuck it to me, I don’t know who it was, but I got my hands on that pilot and I read it and I was just like, “How could I play Olivia Pope?”

‘I remember going to Shonda, and it’s like, “How could I do this?”‘ she remembered. ‘”What is this script? Could I do this too?” She goes, “No, you’ve got to play Cristina Yang!”‘

‘You have a job girl!’ Kerry jumped in.

‘But I also feel like it’s so wonderful and rare when you get in your hands something that you know is electric, that you can feel,’ Oh continued. ‘I’m so glad it was you.’

Elsewhere in their conversation, Sandra wanted to know how Kerry came to work with Reese Witherspoon on their Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere.

‘Reese read Celeste Ng’s beautiful novel. We’ve been casual friends for a long time. So she emailed me and said, “I found the thing for us.” When I read it, I loved the material, and I loved the deep exploration of the many paths to motherhood,’ she explained.

‘I think we tend to think in such a duality of good mothers and bad mothers, and we ignore the beautiful spectrum of the ways that we mother. All of that was so ripe for exploration.’

The Django Unchained actress then asked Sandra if she had any idea how she and her Killing Eve costar Jodie Comer would become ‘queer icons’ on their dark comedy.

‘No, not at all. We were very isolated, insulated in our bubble, when we were doing this,’ Sandra said.

The Sideways actress described shooting in the UK and feeling disconnected from Hollywood amid #MeToo and Time’s Up discussions. 

‘But what I felt was “People are ready for something new, and here it is.”‘

The actresses also touched on the never ending preparation necessary for their work, like when Kerry had to bring her lines with her at all times to memorize them while she was expecting her first child.

‘I remember when I was pregnant, it took me twice as long to memorize. I actually remember being with you at a Producers Guild Award event, and we were both maybe presenting to Shonda,’ she said.

‘We were at a table together, and you were filming the next morning, and you had your scene pages at dinner because you were memorizing and working on your lines. And I was like, “She’s my people. That’s me!”

‘I go to every award show with a monologue in my purse because I didn’t have time to not be doing that. I didn’t have the luxury of not working.’