LOS ANGELES -- Laryngitis and laughs. That's what fans got from a coughing Kerry Washington and playful Scandal cast during their panel at PaleyFest on Sunday night.
"If they don't tweet every 14 seconds, Shonda [Rhimes] goes nuts," moderator Jimmy Kimmel quipped about the show's creator at one point when Washington paused mid-sentence to pose for an impromptu photo Katie Lowes was snapping on her phone.
Amid the jokes, cast members rattled off fascinating tidbits about themselves and their characters. We condensed the hourlong panel into these 10 standout moments.
1. Lick, lick, lick
Tony Goldwyn (President "Fitz" Grant) described stopping to take a selfie with a fan, who unexpectedly proceeded to lick his neck for the photograph.
Guillermo Diaz (Huck), whose character once intensely licked Quinn's face and pulled her teeth out, confirmed that "people have asked me to lick them." Lowes (Quinn) echoed Diaz: "I get that, too -- there's a lot of licking and teeth-checking going on for me."
Later in the panel Washington said "Scott [Foley] told me to lick you face" to Goldwyn.
2. The moment when Shonda hired her Quinn
Washington wiped away a tear after Kimmel showed a video of Rhimes surprisingly hiring Lowes as Quinn in person instead of calling her on the phone. Rimes tricked Lowes into thinking she was coming in to test/audition again during a second reading.
"I'm sorry about this," Rhimes said, "but... we've decided we're not going to be able to test you... because we're going to give you the part." Cue Lowes' shocked reaction.
3. Beyoncé on Scandal?
When asked whether Beyoncé, if she had a guest role, would be a character in Olivia Pope & Associates or in the White House, Washington quickly said, "O.P.A. -- O.P.A. for sure."
4. Mellie's fried chicken obsession is real offscreen
Bellamy Young (first lady Mellie Grant a.k.a. the fried chicken lovin' Smelly Mellie early in Season 4) admitted she loves the fried chicken featured on the show.
"I would be eating right now if I could," she proclaimed. "They made the most delicious chicken. Even the pieces I bit into I took it home. I love that chicken. It's vegan chicken."
She revealed it's from Doomies in LA.
“@NatalieAbrams: Not a vegan, just a vegetarian, but now I’m dying to find out where #Scandal got BY's vegan fried chicken from” @Doomies — Bellamy Young (@BellamyYoung) March 9, 2015
5. Darby completed the "superhero" team
Washington on casting: "We were all cast except for Darby [Stanchfield] (Abby) and there was a big mystery about what actress was going to be in that role, and we were all sitting in rehearsal and we got this call that this deal was closed and she was on her way."
"I remember the feeling of Darby walking in the room and feeling like 'OK, this is our team,'" she added. "It felt like that moment in a superhero movie where you're like 'Alright now we've got to go out there and do something.'"
6. Scott Foley's favorite episode
Scott Foley (Jake), who received the loudest cheers when the cast members were introduced individually, told his fans that "752" from Season 2 is his favorite episode ever of Scandal.
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/scandal-752-episode.jpg" caption=""752": When Huck was homeless, he saw his son at 7:52 a.m. one day. His boy didn't recognize him." credit="ABC/Scandal" alt="scandal-752-episode"]
Then Foley made a noise.
"Scott makes that fart noise between every single take and it never gets old," Washington added.
7. A familiar face returns: "We were shocked"
A fan asked about Henry Cusick (Stephen), who departed after Season 1 but who returned for Season 4 to save Olivia after she was kidnapped and auctioned off.
"We were shocked, we were so shocked. Our first question was, 'How? Is this really happening, Shonda? Have you spoken to him? Is this really going to happen?' She said she had," Washington recalled.
Stanchfield chimed in: "I had a short cry."
Who is Stephen? We got all you need to know right here. #Scandalhttp://t.co/8kYLLXBGPH pic.twitter.com/S2hoAvkTpk— Scandal (@ScandalABC) February 20, 2015
"I will say in terms of working with [Cusick]," Washington added, "that the one thing he and I kept saying was, 'Let's not even talk about it,' because what we really felt as actors was so similar to what our characters felt -- this kind of unbelievable homecoming and relief in seeing each other and having some closure. So we kept saying, 'Let's not act, let's not talk about it, let's just be in the truth of this moment.'"
8. #BlackLivesMatter and #BringBackOurGirls
Washington likened Olivia's kidnapping and subsequent rescue, in which Fitz declares war on West Angola to save her, to two timely events that became hashtags: #BringOurGirlsBack and
I will say something slightly serious if you will forgive me for a second. Tony and I had a really great conversation about that whole idea about how the president went to war for Olivia. [...] At a time in this world when we were begging the media for attention to hundred of black girls that missing overseas, the fact that Shonda wrote the ultimate Bring Back Our Girls, that it became the epitome of Black Lives Matter, that rather than ignoring the hundreds of black women that were missing, she made a president go to war for this one person. It just seemed like a very powerful idea. And because she's Shonda, she put that black woman on an auction block because everything's complicated, but I just really thought it was a really wonderful, poignant choice of hers.
9. Dream guests are fit for the White House
Goldwyn wants President Barack Obama or any of the Clintons to appear on Scandal.
"I kind of fantasize about President Obama being on the show." -@tonygoldwyn #Scandal #PaleyFest pic.twitter.com/c2Kdy7I645— Scandal (@ScandalABC) March 9, 2015
10. The favorite lines of the cast
Favorite Huck line: "I will peel you like a grape." @guillermodiazyo— Scandal (@ScandalABC) March 9, 2015
.@tonygoldwyn's favorite line: "How could I be such a coward." #Scandal #PaleyFesy pic.twitter.com/P40gqQcpRI— Scandal (@ScandalABC) March 9, 2015
"Pervy, sexting pervy-perv." @darbysofficial's favorite #Scandal line. #PaleyFest— Scandal (@ScandalABC) March 9, 2015
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