After seven seasons, popular TV drama Scandal is finally coming to an end, putting a pin on the adventures of Olivia Pope and her crisis management firm. To celebrate the series wrap, star Kerry Washington has been giving gifts to the cast and crew, including a luxury bed for everyone on set.
“This is a work environment where we have treated each other with a great deal of love and respect and I really want that to be part of our legacy,” the Emmy Nominee explained to Entertainment Tonight of her intention behind the gift giving. “We have the opportunities to love and respect the people we work with and we all have worked so hard.”
To commemorate this hard work, the 41-year-old actor assembled “Scandal Survival Kits” for all of her co-stars, comprised of items she hoped would help the team catch up on all the rest they’ve missed out on since the show’s first season way back in 2012.
“It had work-out classes and sneakers and wine and food and books… it’s all the things you haven’t had a chance to do while we’ve been working,” she said. “But I wanted to end with a mattress.”
The mattress in question was the Tomorrow Sleep, a hybrid bed-in-a-box designed for pressure relief and support. For Washington, giving the gift of a good night’s sleep was the best way to say thanks to all the people who had worked so hard to make the show a reality.
“We work 16-hour days and sometimes some departments have eight-hour turnarounds, which means they’re sleeping five, six hours a night, and I just really feel like having a mattress is something you’re supposed to do for yourself but you don’t do it enough,” she shared. “I wanted to give that to our Scandal family.”