Scandal [1]'s Olivia Pope has had plenty of intense relationships [2] over the course of the show's five-season run, but perhaps none of them has been as complex or as nuanced as her precarious bond with former First Lady and current presidential hopeful Mellie Grant. Bellamy Young, the actress who has breathed fierce life into Mellie, took a break from bringing awareness to the world about migraine relief with Treximet [3] to chat with POPSUGAR about why fans should be excited for the jaw-dropping season five finale, what's in store for Mellie and Liv, and which scene has been the most fun to film so far.
![POPSUGAR: Olivia and Mellie's relationship has also gone through a massive overhaul on Scandal this season — would you say their friendship is genuine, or one borne out of necessity?
Bellamy Young: I really believe it to be genuine. Kerry [Washington] and I have talked all through these years about how sad we are that Mellie and Olivia never got the chance to be friends, because they have so much in common, and DC can be such a crucible. True friends are few and far between, but they had Fitz as a lever between them, so they could never be on the same page, or easily in the same room. Now that they're both post-Fitz, to some degree or another, it's left room for that warmth to really come in.
PS: What has it been like for your character to suddenly shift gears and be on the same side as Olivia for once?
BY: We've had so much fun this year, so much fun doing the scenes as Kerry and Bellamy, but also so much release as Liv and Mellie, to be able to lean on someone. Neither one of them has a person that they can really, actually lean on. They've both been through the fire, and have similar experiences and such shared history, that there's a lot of ease at this point now, and camaraderie. But life is like that, right? Life is complicated, and love is complicated, and I think those characters really have great, great love between them, and are smart enough women to transcend the pettiness of their history. I think they're both beyond that chapter, so it's enabled them to be warm and supportive of each other.
PS: Will they continue to be friends in the coming seasons?
BY: I hope so!](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/gxV4xO2Bcusq0YNHfa9B-FyeazI/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2016/05/05/779/n/1922283/be67565a44a977dd_mellie/i/POPSUGAR-Olivia-Mellie-relationship-has-also-gone-through.jpg "POPSUGAR: Olivia and Mellie's relationship has also gone through a massive overhaul on Scandal this season — would you say their friendship is genuine, or one borne out of necessity?
Bellamy Young: I really believe it to be genuine. Kerry [Washington] and I have talked all through these years about how sad we are that Mellie and Olivia never got the chance to be friends, because they have so much in common, and DC can be such a crucible. True friends are few and far between, but they had Fitz as a lever between them, so they could never be on the same page, or easily in the same room. Now that they're both post-Fitz, to some degree or another, it's left room for that warmth to really come in.
PS: What has it been like for your character to suddenly shift gears and be on the same side as Olivia for once?
BY: We've had so much fun this year, so much fun doing the scenes as Kerry and Bellamy, but also so much release as Liv and Mellie, to be able to lean on someone. Neither one of them has a person that they can really, actually lean on. They've both been through the fire, and have similar experiences and such shared history, that there's a lot of ease at this point now, and camaraderie. But life is like that, right? Life is complicated, and love is complicated, and I think those characters really have great, great love between them, and are smart enough women to transcend the pettiness of their history. I think they're both beyond that chapter, so it's enabled them to be warm and supportive of each other.
PS: Will they continue to be friends in the coming seasons?
BY: I hope so!")
POPSUGAR: Olivia and Mellie's relationship has also gone through a massive overhaul on Scandal this season — would you say their friendship is genuine, or one borne out of necessity?
Bellamy Young: I really believe it to be genuine. Kerry [Washington] and I have talked all through these years about how sad we are that Mellie and Olivia never got the chance to be friends, because they have so much in common, and DC can be such a crucible. True friends are few and far between, but they had Fitz as a lever between them, so they could never be on the same page, or easily in the same room. Now that they're both post-Fitz, to some degree or another, it's left room for that warmth to really come in.
PS: What has it been like for your character to suddenly shift gears and be on the same side as Olivia for once?
BY: We've had so much fun this year, so much fun doing the scenes as Kerry and Bellamy, but also so much release as Liv and Mellie, to be able to lean on someone. Neither one of them has a person that they can really, actually lean on. They've both been through the fire, and have similar experiences and such shared history, that there's a lot of ease at this point now, and camaraderie. But life is like that, right? Life is complicated, and love is complicated, and I think those characters really have great, great love between them, and are smart enough women to transcend the pettiness of their history. I think they're both beyond that chapter, so it's enabled them to be warm and supportive of each other.
PS: Will they continue to be friends in the coming seasons?
BY: I hope so!
PS: Mellie is really focused on her presidential campaign at the moment, but can we expect romance in her future?
BY: You know, I have no idea. I can never, ever, ever, ever predict what's going to happen. I mean, our season finale this year . . . things happen that I just could never have foreseen. I don't know, but I hope Mellie gets to be happy in that way at some point. It's Shondaland [4], though, so it's much more interesting for everybody to have a little drama than to have a lot of happiness.
PS: Well, that's for sure.
BY: Yeah, I never really bank on anything, but I hope she gets to be president, and I hope she gets to be in love.
PS: What has been the most interesting scene for you while playing Mellie so far?
BY: One of the greatest blessings of my job, besides having it at all and sharing it with actually good-hearted, beautiful people, is that every time we get a script at our table reads, we are completely surprised by what our characters are gonna do. I swear, it would be like Sophie's Choice to even pick a favorite scene. I can remember that when I got to scream, "Get over her!" at Fitz, back in early season two, I thought, "Well, that was a lot of fun." It was so much fun to finally just scream it at him. I also think of the filibuster, because I couldn't have been more proud to be the girl who got to say some of that truth, because we didn't make those facts up. Those were real facts, and to get to say them in front of a wide television audience, I was really proud to be a part of that episode. Anytime you can have a long thought on a TV show, you know you're a really lucky person.
PS: What has surprised you the most about this season?
BY: Gosh, I've loved watching our writers respond to the mayhem that actually is the political season that we're actually living through in real life, and I've also been surprised when we have been completely outstepped by how crazy things are in reality. We've made things up that, before we even shot them, eclipsed by something even crazier in real life. Few and far between are the times that real life is crazier than Scandal.
PS: The similarities between Hollis Doyle and Donald Trump are uncanny.
BY: Yeah! We actually did a panel this week at the Smithsonian in DC, and it's always so much fun to be on a panel with Shonda because we learn so much. So she said that they've planned for years that Hollis would run, and they just thought they were being so cheeky. They never imagined that they would be beaten to the punch by what's happening in American politics right now.
PS: What is one thing that fans should expect to see in the season finale?
BY: Well, it sets up season six beautifully, but in the most unexpected of ways. I think everyone just needs to get on the sofa, and get ready for their jaws to drop. It is a twisty, crazy ride.