Henry Ian Cusick Talks SCANDAL’s Twists and Turns and His FRINGE Guest Spot

It’s certainly not a bad week to be a fan of Henry Ian Cusick.

Not only can you catch him on one of my new favorite shows, ABC’s SCANDAL, where he’s a series regular (playing Stephen, a member of Olivia’s crisis management team), but Cusick is also heading over to Fox’s FRINGE for a top-secret spot in Friday’s infamous episode 19.

Given everything he has going on, I hopped on the phone with Cusick to find out what he could tease about both of his projects…

Now that SCANDAL has been on for a couple of weeks, what kind of reaction have you gotten from fans?
Henry Ian Cusick: You know, I’m in New York at the moment working on a film, and I’ve been doing insane hours. I hardly see daylight and the only people I see are the people I work with and they’re so exhausted, so this is the first set of interviews I’ve done since the show started and I have not — the only people I’ve spoken to about it with are my wife and my children and that’s pretty much it.

Well, hopefully they like it.
HIC: My wife and children do. They love it!

That’s a good start. What can you tease about this week’s episode of SCANDAL?
HIC: “Hell Hath No Fury” is the title and it is about a young boy who is accused of rape and his mother is friendly with Olivia. And Olivia is called in to help and she takes the case, but there are certain twists and turns in it. That’s a really interesting storyline.

And then you also have all the stuff with Olivia and the president as usual, which we bring up for the rest of the show.

What do you feel is your biggest episode in this first season?
HIC: Probably the one you saw last [week] with the brothel. That was probably my biggest episode.

Did you like getting to have that focus on him a little bit more?
HIC: It was a surprise. I remember we did the pilot and then I think once we finished filming the pilot, we wait and we find out whether we got picked up. And we got picked up and we were very excited, but we weren’t allowed to read the pilot until the table read and we were like, “Oh, okay.” I had one idea where Stephen was going — at the end of the pilot, he was going to get married. And when I read this, I was like, oh, I didn’t know it was going to go in that direction. But I’m sort of used to that with LOST [where Cusick played Desmond]. Things just turn on their head and you just figure out your character. You just figure out your character as you get your script.

There’s a whole lot more to be revealed about the affairs the president had. Will Stephen be more involved in trying to contain the information that is revealed at the end of tonight’s episode or will his focus be more on the week-to-week cases?
HIC: At the moment, nobody in the office knows…or do they? And that’s the kind of way the show is — who knows what and what do we really know about all of the characters? With the show, you slowly learn about each character and they aren’t what they seem. Stephen is in that group and he knows certain things and, yeah, that’s how the show goes on from there. That’s a vague answer, I’m sorry.

Totally understandable. You’re also on FRINGE this week…
HIC: That’s right. Episode 19, which is supposed to be the strange episode. I can say this because I know [FRINGE star] John Noble (Walter) has said it, but it sets up season 5. My stuff is mainly with John Noble and [guest star] Georgina Haig (Etta) and it’s very high stakes and pretty cool.

Since they have been open about it being a possible glimpse into season 5, if FRINGE gets their renewal and SCANDAL gets their second season, has there been any discussions about how they could work you back on to FRINGE given that I assume your first commitment is to SCANDAL?
HIC: No, SCANDAL is the show I’m in. FRINGE is just a one-off. But with a show like FRINGE, the storylines are such that anything can happen. SCANDAL is my show, and I’m waiting to find out if we get a second season.

I do hope you guys get a season 2. Is there anything you can share about what you’d like to see in SCANDAL’s second season?
HIC: The cliffhanger at the end of [the season] is so strong that there is one thing that is so overriding that it’s just what you want to know. That’s all I want to know at the moment and how that’s going to [impact] our relationships with the person we find out is not what he or she seems to be. If that makes any sense.

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SCANDAL airs Thursdays at 10 PM on ABC. (And seriously, if you’ve missed the first two episodes, go watch them at ABC.com now!) Cusick’s episode of FRINGE airs Friday, April 20th at 9 PM on Fox.

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