In advance of the season four premier of ABC’s “Scandal” Thursday night, actor Tony Goldwyn — who plays President Fitzgerald Grant — spoke to Mother Jones about politics and the inspiration for his performance.
Ironically, Goldwyn revealed that he crafted his performance of President Fitz , a Republican, by studying Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in order to make his character a “modern president.”
“The two that I really focused on for ‘Scandal’ were Clinton and Obama,” the actor explained, “because I wanted him to be a pretty modern president and also they had certain attributes I wanted in Fitz — of being very accessible and down to earth, and really good communicators with people: Clinton can make everyone feel they’re important to him; he makes you feel like he’s just a regular guy. I wanted Fitz to have that. Obama’s the same way.”
Goldwyn also said that the goal of Fitz’s presidency is to “drag” the Republicans back to the center.
“Fitz’s presidency is about bringing the Republican Party back to something that makes some sense,” alleged Goldwyn. “Kind of what Clinton did in the opposite way with the Democratic Party. To drag the Republican Party, perhaps kicking and screaming, back to the center, although his vice president is very much of the Michele Bachmann wing.”
“I think he views himself as a pragmatic president in the way Clinton was,” he continued of Fitz. “I think he would want his own version of Obamacare. There’s been much mention of immigration reform in ‘Scandal,’ and he has this Dream Act that he’s pushing.”
Goldwyn described himself as a “moderate Democrat” and insisted that he would never consider running for office because he likely isn’t “smart enough.”
The actor also recalled his first White House Correspondents Dinner last year at which he met “Scandal” fans like the first lady herself.
“All that these incredibly prominent, sophisticated, impressive people wanted to talk about was ‘Scandal,'” Goldwyn said of the event. “I was pretty startled and kind of embarrassed. There’s so many politicians! And this year there were 10 times that, from Nancy Pelosi to Mrs. Obama to the president himself — although I expect he doesn’t actually watch it. He’s a little busy. I suspect he was briefed.”
Considering the amount of time Obama dedicates to the sport of golf, he likely makes a bit of downtime to watch “Scandal” too.
