Tony Goldwyn Inspired by Innocence Project

Innocence Project Artists’ Committee Co-Chair Tony Goldwyn recently sat down with Mother Jones magazine to promote the fourth season of the ABC hit drama Scandal. In addition to speaking about his starring role as the leader of the free world, Goldwyn also discussed his inspiration for creating WEtv’s first scripted drama, The Divide, about a powerful district attorney whose career is jeopardized by an investigation conducted by a fictional innocence clinic. He says:

I directed and produced Conviction, a movie about a man who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. I got to know Innocence Project Co-Founder Barry Scheck very well — he’s a character in the movie — and I got very passionate about the cause. It’s just so inherently dramatic. My co-producer said, “There’s a TV series in this.” Then Richard LaGravenese and I came up with the idea of a prosecutor who gets it wrong. I never wanted to do a polemic. What interested me was the moral divide: In trying to do the right thing, where’s the line you cross?

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