On "Scandal," Joe Morton's character Rowan – aka Eli Pope – strikes fear into everyone he meets, but this week the B613 former commander is set to face a major fear of his own. At least, that's what he wants his daughter Olivia (Kerry Washington) to think.
"If Rowan says he's afraid, there's only one of two possibilities," Morton, who plays the brutal yet captivating force on the ABC drama, told Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview. "Either he's lying and he's just trying to set something up, or he is truly afraid. Something is after him, something is closing in on him that for the first time, in a long time, he's truly afraid of."
The threat may indirectly involve Olivia, who spent the last year dismantling B613, the black ops organization her father built and financed by siphoning funds from other government agencies. She and former operative Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) managed to put Rowan behind bars for extortion related to his legitimate job at the Smithsonian, but she recently helped him escape prison in exchange for information on congressional members involved in the president's impeachment trial.
Everyone who has come into contact with Rowan seems to walk away with blood on their hands – some more literally than others – but one man has yet to have the displeasure of meeting him: David Rosen (Joshua Malina).
"Josh is kind of the only white hat left on the show," Morton said about Malina's U.S. attorney general who has not met face-to-face with Rowan. "It would be an interesting sort of collision, if you will, to have somebody's who done so many things against the law collide with somebody who's done so many things to protect the law."
For those unfamiliar with "Scandal," or Morton's intimidating gravitas, check out the viral clip from an episode of "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" that ran this summer. The Comedy Central show asked the 68-year-old guest to comment on the Confederate flag controversy that erupted after the June mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. The catch was that he had to do it as Papa Pope.
"If you remember, all I did was I took 'The Boy' speech [from the 'Scandal' episode 'A Door Marked Exit'] and made a parody of it," Morton said.
Like most "Scandal" stars, Morton is an active Twitter user during the show's broadcasts and usually keeps his tweets to show happenings, but he's bantered with one or two Twitter users on topics like the American Confederacy and the Confederate flag. Last year, he drew major attention after weighing in on the use of the N-word and eliminating it completely, writing a short essay called "The N-word as Sculpture." The essay was inspired by a Twitter conversation involving journalist Roland Martin.
"It was sort of the typical conversation where Roland was of course saying he couldn't abide by that word in any shape or form, and this young man was saying he owned the word," Morton recalled. "I got in the middle of it and wrote a piece called 'The N-word as Sculpture,' which basically was a metaphoric piece... of where that word comes from and its history."
Morton heard the word frequently growing up on Army bases where either he or his father were targeted with its use. His father, whose job it was to help integrate the U.S. armed forces overseas in the 1950s, died when Morton was just 10.
"I remember I was a kid and I went into a gym and there were a couple of black soldiers calling each other 'n----r' so I went home and said, 'Dad, what's that all about?' His response was that it doesn't matter who uses that word or how they use that word; all it does is denigrate the race, so he would have no part of it," Morton said.
Morton's friend, comedian and American civil rights activist Dick Gregory – the subject of his latest project, a play called "Turn Me Loose" – is someone who has used the N-word to make a profound statement. Gregory titled his autobiography "Nigger" and dedicatated it uniquely: "Dear Momma – Wherever you are, if you hear the word 'nigger' again, remember they are advertising my book."
Gregory's quick rise to fame as a stand-up comedian as well as his close friendship with Mississippi civil rights activist Medgar Evers is the basis of Morton's theater production, which takes its title from Evers' last words before death.
"The play is basically about a man who has the opportunity to become very wealthy and very famous and opted, through a certain amount of inner conflict, to become an activist," Morton said of the man who was the first black stand-up invited to sit down with Jack Paar on "Tonight Show" precursor, "Tonight Starring Jack Paar."
Morton staged a reading of "Turn Me Loose" this past summer in Los Angeles and will start rehearsals for the play in April. He anticipates the show will open in May at The Culture Project in New York City.
While the play and "Scandal" are keeping him busy, Morton is also working with an old friend from college who talked him into writing a two-hour special on the Voting Rights Act and voter suppression. When he started his research last year, he wasn't sure the subject would find any traction, but his view of recent developments with voter I.D. laws, early voting and alterations to the 1965 Voting Rights Act convinced him otherwise.
Morton argues, "Republicans in the South... are trying to find ways, not so much to block black and brown people from voting, but to block black and brown people from getting people they want elected, which is a far more subtle thing to do."
Their greatest challenge lies ahead as they try to find an outlet that will air it without concern for political affiliation or because it has a "pointed view." He hopes to attract some big names to the project to help it sell, including Chris Rock, Don Cheadle, "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah and Gregory as well as historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Taylor Branch.
The current state of America in terms of its racial relations is one that fills Morton with "despair and disappointment," whether it's the Confederate flag controversy, two men stockpiling for a race war in Virginia or Donald Trump suggesting an immigration plan similar to President Eisenhower's highly criticized "Operation Wetback."
"I think we have made steps backwards over the last several years," he said. "When it comes to certain portions of our history, we've just forgotten it all... and in fact, if we start looking back, we'll start to see that there's a pattern of why we are where we are today."
Even if, as a nation, we don't spot the pattern, Morton will continue protecting the Republic on "Scandal," airing tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC.
