Scott Foley Dishes on What's Next For 'Scandal' and #IHeartMyDog Campaign
Scott Foley doesn’t just wear a white hat on screen as Jake Ballard on Scandal — he wears one off-screen, too, in championing a very good cause.
As Jake, Foley spent the past season fighting the good fight against Olivia Pope’s murderous father. He was a hero on many levels — working to get her back when she was kidnapped, testifying about the evildoings of the black ops group B-613, and generally saving the day. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the girl in the end (she chose to be with Fitz), but Jake’s still one of the good guys.
Related: We Recap the Explosive ‘Scandal’ Season Finale
Now that the season is over, Foley is fighting another good fight. He’s teamed up with Merial, the maker of Heartgard Plus, to promote canine health. We chatted with him about his efforts, and got his take on how the Scandal season ended — and what might be coming down the road.
Tell us about this campaign, #IHeartMyDog.
I’ve teamed with Merial, the maker of Heartgard Plus, on this campaign called I Heart My Dog, and I made a video love letter to my dog, Frankie. And I’m asking dog owners around the country to make their own video or take a picture with their dog, then post in anywhere on social media. If they do that with #iheartmydog, Marial will sponsor a dollar toward Canine Companions For Independence, which trains and provides assistance dogs to people with disabilities. They’ve been around for 40 years, and they’ve provided almost 5,000 dogs. It’s really a fantastic, nonprofit organization that needs attention.
Watch the video below to find out why the “I Heart My Dog” campaign is so close to Scott’s own heart:
Video: Watch the ‘Scandal’ Cast at PaleyLive NY
How do you feel about how this season of Scandal ended?
This is the finale to what I think has been a really great season. It wraps a bunch of things up. It also opens a door to what I think will be a better season next season. They’re leaving a lot of things up in the air. There are a lot of roles that are going to shift.
The show kept teasing deaths, but luckily, Jake survived — this time. Do you constantly prepare yourself to be killed off?
No, as an actor, especially in this day, since Game of Thrones unceremoniously killed off the lead character in the first season, anything can happen. I had a close run-in with death a few weeks ago when Jake was stabbed repeatedly, and the teaser for the next episode had Olivia Pope and Quinn Perkins saying, “Jake is dead!” It was sort of like reading your own obituary. It’s something you have to be aware of and know that it’s a possibility. But if you think about it too much, you’ll go crazy. This business is so unstable; to dwell on that will ruin you.
It seemed like people on Twitter were upset about Jake dying. That must’ve been nice to see!
I was pleasantly surprised with the feedback from that! Jake was the character everyone loved to hate in the beginning, but his transition was really apparent to me after that episode. There was a lot of disappointment in the fact that Jake might be dead. People were upset about it, and it made me feel great. You want people to want you to be there, and they really did. I think people enjoy the Fitz or Jake of it all, and if you lose one part of that — well, you can’t have a triangle without three sides.
Plus, watch the video below to see what Scott Foley can tell us about next season of Scandal:
Scandal returns for Season 5 this fall on ABC.
