What the Huck Did He Do? 'Scandal' Star Guillermo Diaz Previews Big B-613 Storyline

When a TV character’s name becomes a verb, that character’s “made it.”

On Scandal, you don’t want to get Poped (Olivia or Rowan-style). And you definitely don’t want to get Hucked!

Last week on the ABC drama, everybody’s favorite slightly-psycho killing machine made a jaw-dropping decision with lasting consequences: Huck pulled back the curtain on B-613. What this means for him, for Olivia, for her father, for the president — hell, for the world — remains to be seen. But he did it for love of his wife and son, and perhaps for a little redemption.

Yahoo TV chats with star Guillermo Diaz about Huck’s surprise move, Lena Dunham’s guest appearance in this week’s Scandal, and which of the cast member is really the fastest talker on set.

Huck’s confession last week was such an intense scene. At PaleyFest, you mentioned that you like to have alone time before big scenes like that. Did you do that to prepare for this one, too?
I tend to go off on my own, especially when I get to the set and I know I’m playing an intense scene. I just tried to find a spot at the stages where I can just be by myself. Often times we don’t have much time to prepare; sometimes, we’ll get a script and have to shoot it the next day. I think that was the case with this episode and that monologue you saw. I didn’t have a lot of time to overthink it and prepare and make choices beforehand. I just had to show up and just do it and trust my instincts, and trust my director, the lovely Allison Liddi-Brown, who directed “Seven Fifty-Two” as well. I think a little bit of magic comes out of that, when you don’t think about something too much. Sometimes, something really beautiful comes out of that.

The cast talks about filming emotional scenes:

I imagine this opens up a huge can of worms!
For sure! I don’t think Huck expected it to go this route at all. I think he went into Rosen’s office thinking, “OK, I’m going to lie about this” and that he’d say the B-613 files were all made up. And then when he got there, and he saw his wife sitting across from him and so emotional and so wanting him to tell the truth, he couldn’t help himself. It just came out. Regardless of the consequences that come from that, he didn’t care in that moment. He just wants to be with his family. And that was the right thing to do. It might hurt some people and it might get some people killed, but it was the right thing.

Yeah, Huck was planning to cover it all up, because he was choosing to protect Olivia. Instead, he reveals everything. How will this affect their relationship?
It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out. I don’t think he’s ever kept anything from Olivia, perhaps torturing a couple of people he shouldn’t have. But nothing like this, certainly. Again, I hope that when Olivia finds out, she’s going to understand where he’s coming from. It was the right thing. All he did was tell the truth. If that backfires him and on Olivia, that’s going to be upsetting and sad for them both. But you can’t go wrong when you tell the truth. That’s what little Hucky did!

Huck and Kim seem to be on the road to reconciliation. Will his confession further that?
I hope so! First of all, I wish I could tell you what’s going to happen. But I’m hoping for that. I can’t imagine she won’t come back before the end of the season, her and Javi. I certainly want to see them happy. I’d love to see Huck move back in with his wife and kid. But that’s Guillermo thinking that. But I don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon. And the investigation into B-613 will continue. In the next few episodes, we’ll get more information on what’s going down with that.

Related: ‘Scandal’ at PaleyFest LA: The 10 Funniest Moments

But can you really see Huck being happy?
I don’t know! I can see him happy-happy and being in a normal family life, but I don’t know if I want to. I kind of enjoy that Huck is a little emotionally crippled and that there’s something so completely broken about him, I feel like that’s what makes him interesting to watch. Even if it all did turn out well, and he was able to reunite with his wife and kid, and everything was going to be OK and nobody was after him — I feel like it wouldn’t be that easy. There’s a long road to go for Huck to be a normal, happy dude. That’s like Season 9, I think [laughs].

With Huck moving toward reuniting with Kim, what does this mean for HuckleberryQuinn?
There was an episode last season where Quinn finds out information about where Huck’s family is. Ultimately, I feel that Quinn wants Huck to be happy. I think she’ll always be in his life, and they’re always going to have each other’s backs. I think that sexual tension will always be there between them. They have a connection that they don’t have with anyone else, because they’ve been through very similar things. I feel like they’re almost best friends now. And who knows? They might want to jump on each other again and have sex on top of a car again.

Scandal stars tease the status of the show’s various couples:

What can you tease about this week’s episode with Lena Dunham?
[Robot voice] It’s going to be good. The episode will be good. Lena is good. I like her a lot. [Laughs.] It’s going to be great. Lena is a huge fan of Scandal. She’s super-excited to be on the show. I’m a huge fan of Lena’s and Girls. I think the audience is going to love that she’s playing a very different character than she plays on Girls. It’s a really great episode.

Related: 'Scandal’ Sneak Peek: Lena Dunham (and Her Wig) Is Olivia Pope’s Problem

So, at PaleyFest, we had a chance to talk to some of your co-stars and we put them to a speed-reading test. Do you think you would’ve fared well?
Yeah, I talk pretty fast.

Is that something you guys joke about on the set — like, who’s the fastest talker?
Oh my God, all the time, and it’s Katie Lowes, hands down. She’s the fastest talker ever. We have some scenes today and it’s a ton of dialogue. When we get to set, we practice going over the lines, just saying them as fast as we can. But yeah, Katie Lowes wins every time.

See Diaz’s co-stars take on an Olivia Pope speech:

Scandal airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.