Kerry Washington Paley Center Interview, Talks New Scandal Season

The world is watching Kerry Washington, and she absolutely knows it. The Emmy Award nominee and media shy actress gave a revealing interview at The Paley Center For Media Wednesday afternoon and #TeamBeautiful was on-hand for the event.

Kerry made us even bigger Gladiators fans than we already are as she candidly discussed evolving from a bookworm growing up in New York City to landing the role of a lifetime as the White House power player Olivia Pope on ABC’s “Scandal.” The big sister in our minds also shared how an all-girl school education taught her to embrace relationships with women and not compete with them, how she was a late bloomer to the fashion game and the reason why she’s keeping events in her personal life, like her new marriage, hush-hush.

Check out Kerry’s Paley Center interview below to gear up for Thursday night’s “Scandal” premiere (ABC, 10|9c)!

On her ”Scandal” alter ego, Olivia Pope: 

“I knew that I had never seen a woman like this on television before. Somebody who so clearly embodied the extremes of feminine identity. Kind of that modern, workplace woman who has to be fierce to survive in a man’s world, and also would be the romantic, heartbroken woman who longs to be partnered and live a personal life that is fulfilling. I had never seen those two identities combined into one character. And the writing was so elegant. I remember getting to that last scene where she says, ‘Sweet baby,’ and you realize that Olivia and the president had been together, and I threw my script across the room like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ So I was really in. I was a fan, I was a Gladiator from day one.”

On being a role model vs. playing a character with questionable values:

“I just never gravitated toward playing perfect people, because I just don’t think that’s real, and it’s not human. I think there’s a time in our history, particularly as African American actors or as women, that we felt like we can only play a certain type of role, because there are so many negative stereotypes to the contrary. But I felt like for me that my responsibility has almost been the opposite. It’s been to kind of often take a stereotype, like the teen mother or the prostitute or the drug addict, or the trans-woman, to take this thing that society looks on with a lot of judgment and make people take pause, and to see that person as a real human being who has feeling and has history, and is valuable.”

On being a good “Number 1”: 

“I’ve been really lucky in my career that I’ve had good set behavior modeled to me. I’ve worked with actors who have been, the language for it in the business is “number 1” on the call sheet because you’re the number 1 character on the call sheet. Jamie Foxx is a phenomenal number 1. He is a model citizen and a leader. He feels like his job there is to not only do great work but to make everyone feel good about being there and to make sure other people do great work. I learned it from Forest Whitaker and Julia Stiles.  Shonda Rhimes is a big part of it because she sets the tone, and she has something that she has probably talked about called the ‘No Asshole’ policy. She really vets. I mean I felt like I got vetted for the show the way I got vetted for the White House to work for the White House in real life.”

On her Emmy nomination and why black actors need more opportunity for lead roles:

“There was a lot of talk when I was blessed with the Emmy nomination. There was a lot of talk about the historic nature of that nomination, because it had almost been 20 years since a woman of color had been nominated. And no woman of color has ever won best actress for television. Not black woman, no woman of color has ever won. I think it’s important to say is that is not because of a lack of talent in the industry, that is because a lack of opportunity. It’s not that it’s been 20 years since there’s been an actress who could do what I’m doing It’s just that the job hasn’t been available. No network or studio has wanted to take the risk to put a woman of color in the number 1 position on a network television show.”

On why she values her intellect over looks:

“I was really lucky because I went to an all-girl school and that single sex education really helped me because I really learned to bond with women and to not compete with or compare myself as much because we were all allowed to be ourselves and be unique and kind of have our unique strengths. But I I always felt like my value was much more in my intellect than it was in my appearance, and so that’s what I spent time cultivating. And some of that I get from my mother , some of that comes from the schools that I went to, and some of that comes from probably insecurity. This feeling that my value is what’s on the inside, because what’s on the outside can’t really compete with other people, so I’ll place my focus there. Which I think has been a blessing for me. Because I’m not stupid.”

Who are Kerry’s role models? Keep reading!

On her family’s humble beginnings:

“My mother literally cried when I told her I wanted to be an actor [laughs]. She kept finding these interesting ways to convince me that I would be good at other things. Like she would say, ‘Closing arguments are a lot like monologues.’ Or she would say, ‘psychiatrists also make a living by studying how other people think and feel.’ So she kept pitching me these other careers that were similar to acting. Both my parents both came from working class families. I mean, my mother’s parents were immigrants who came to NY from Ellis Island. My dad’s father, he worked as a janitor for the UN. My parents come from very humble beginnings and they really created success for themselves through education and hard work, and so they wanted me to go further. And their nightmare would be that I would become a starving artist living on the street. They really didn’t want me to starve [laughs].

On black female role models and brown Barbie dolls:

“I’m on the cover of ESSENCE for the month of November, and that means a lot to me because I grew up in a household where my mother was a subscriber to ESSENCE. And so I grew up feeling like black women should and are on the cover of fashion magazines. And my mother did not grow up in that world, which is part of the reason why her subscription meant so much to her. I remember Vanessa Williams winning Miss America and I remember the impact that had in my household. My mother was very conscious of, for example, making sure I had dolls that were brown, brown Cabbage patch kids so they looked like me, brown Barbie dolls, so they looked like me. I was allowed to have white ones, too but [laughs].”

On why growing up in New York City delayed her foray into fashion:

“I think that really the fashion and beauty stuff is fun for me because I came to it really late in life. I really was a bookworm, nerd, theater kid. I think I had a lot of fear around it to be honest because growing up in New York City if you look too cute, it means something when you walk down the street. It calls a certain kind of attention to you that can be devastatingly terrifying. So I think for a lot of my life I tried to avoid that kind of attention, and just thought no, I’m just going to be smart and funny, and not worry about being pretty. And so when I came to this stuff, I came to it like a student. And I decided, you know what, I think I’m going to start to learn how to do this red carpet thing, because it’s part of my marketing department as an actor, for me to be a smart businesswoman, I should take advantage of this opportunity in this section of my life and my work. And there are eyes on me and I don’t want to take that for granted. I want to show up in this part of my life in a way that feels responsible. So I studied like the child of a professor that I am, I studied. I was going to learn the difference between Louis Vuitton and Lanvin, and I did. And so it excites me. You know, now when I watch the shows, for me, it’s like going to an opera or going to the museum. It’s a great artist, previewing their new work and I enjoy it, and I celebrate it.”

On protecting her privacy:

“I just have to be more conscious about my boundaries. I just have to be more careful and more conscious about the choices that I make, the things that I say, the places I go, the things I do in order to maintain my own identity and personal life. I really put it in the work. I try to be really naked emotionally in my work. Because if I do that, I don’t have guilt in keeping my life for me, because I’m giving all of it.”

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