Joshua Malina, Scandal’s amiable, bespectacled Attorney General David Rosen, has been having a bit of a dour post-series finale press tour since the episode aired on Thursday night. For one, his castmates savagely pranked him by making him believe he gave a Shondaland-loving old woman a fatal heart attack. And, you know — to address the dying elephant in the room — his character suffered a pretty gruesome death, thanks to a fatal combination of poison and pillow-smothering. A death scene that, much to his chagrin, had to be filmed a lot. “We did that death 17 times,†Jeff Perry, who portrays Cyrus and did the murdering honors, told Vulture at the Scandal finale table-read event in Los Angeles. “I said, What’s your safe word? and he said, How about, you’re killing me?â€
As to how Malina himself feels about meeting his (fictional) maker, he has but one word: “Bad.†But, grateful regardless. “Having made it to the finals, I famously was always concerned about dying and I let my guard down,†he joked. “To my delight, Shonda did call me the night before to tell me and then I started to get excited about the idea, how and who.†Today, gladiators, we toast to him.
Additionally reporting by Antonia Blyth.