How 'Scandal's' Katie Lowes Got Her SAG Card

— -- Actress Katie Lowes reminisced about the unusual role that earned her a Screen Actors Guild card, as she prepared for tonight's SAG Awards.

"I got my SAG card for doing a birth control commercial. It was awesome," the "Scandal" star told ABC News. "I had to pay my [membership] dues really quick otherwise I wasn't going to be able to shoot the commercial.

"I remember calling my parents hysterical[ly] crying because I had to borrow the money because I was a waitress and I didn't have it," Lowes recalled. "They let me borrow it and then I quickly paid them back with the money from the commercial. So thank you SAG and thank you Mom and Dad."

The actress who portrays Quinn Perkins on the hit ABC drama is also the social media ambassador for the awards show, which will air live on TNT and TBS from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Lowes, 34, said she's not nervous about her gig.

"I feel good about it only because 'Scandal' is so present on all social media platforms and we have been for like five years," she said. "So I think I was a great candidate for this ambassador job."

The actress also explained why the SAG Awards is one of her favorite awards shows of the red carpet season.

"The performances are voted on by your peers and the award show is a room full of actors. And actors are like my favorite people," she said. "I'm so proud to be one. And I feel like ... there's been an amazing group of performances and movies and TV this year and so to all get in one room and celebrate those performances as a group and as a union I think is really great."

Although she won't reveal who or what she voted for, Lowes did give a big hint.

"I'm a huge fan of 'The Big Short.' I loved that movie. I laughed, I cried, I understood something way better than before I had seen it, which is good, I learned something," she said of the 2015 film. "I love Steve Carrell and Christian Bale in that movie so I'm excited to meet them. ... Hopefully I will, as the SAG social media ambassador."