She might be playing her on the small screen, but it looks like even Kerry Washington can't keep up with the energetic and intense Olivia Pope on the hit drama Scandal. The Hollywood actress opens up about her on-screen alter ego and how she is trying to decide on whether she wants to move to Vermont with President Fitzgerald Grant (played by Tony Goldwyn) or pursue Jake Ballard (played by Scott Folley).

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In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Monday, Washington says it takes a lot of energy to play someone so charismatic as Pope.

She said, "It's pretty intense. What's really interesting is last season, we were able to see Olivia unravel and have to deal with facing the truth of her past. This season, she's having to deal with her past and really having to face the things that scare her the most. Olivia is having to say, 'OK, if I'm going to be an adult, I have to let go of these generational, pathological ideas and relationships and frameworks.' "

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What's more, Pope has also been dealing with a lot of family issues this past season, including her terrorist mother Maya Pope and hunting down the head of black-ops group B613, who also happens to be her father. Pope faced the difficult task of sending her mother to Guantanamo Bay and holding her father at gunpoint.

Washington said, "You get the sense that the messages that come from her mother and her father are so destructive. So her ability to disconnect herself from that, we hope, allows her tremendous freedom. Except that it also may lead to her kidnapping."

Scandal airs every Thursday at 9 p.m. EST/PST on the ABC Network.

Tags: scandal ABC television