- I've just been really lucky to play people
that I think are worth spending time
with and that audiences have too.
I feel like I'm drawn to projects where
we are forced to see each other and to know
that everybody is on their own hero's journey
and has a story worth telling and deserves
to be at the center of at least their own story.
I'm Kerry Washington and this is the timeline of my career.
[upbeat rock music]
My first IMDb credit is for, I believe,
an ABC Afterschool Special.
I played a very important supportive role as,
I think, a cheerleader [laughs].
And actually, the thing I remember most about it is that
that production was the job that got me my SAG card,
so I was officially in the union thanks to ABC.
Little did I know that many years later I'd spend
seven seasons on ABC doing all the things they
tell you not to do in Afterschool Specials [laughs].
At that point of my career when
I was doing the Afterschool Special,
my parents were super supportive because it was really
just a hobby and provided supplemental income.
My mom really used my extracurricular acting as somewhat
of a carrot that she dangled before the rabbit because
I wasn't allowed to audition if my grades weren't up.
It had to not interfere with my school.
I think she didn't mind me doing
acting as an extracurricular activity,
but later on when I chose it as a career she was devastated.
It was not an easy decision to go to college,
but I guess I kind of have always known
that as much as I love acting,
it's not the only thing I wanna do in the world.
And so, I really wanted to have a liberal arts degree.
I really wanted to give myself the opportunity
to learn and grow and study for several
years before becoming an actor.
But I actually had a very pivotal audition in my career
where I said to my agents at the time,
if I get this job then I will defer college,
and if I don't get this job then
I'm gonna go to college for four years.
I didn't get the job.
It came down to me and one other actress
and it went to that actress, Tandie Newton,
so thanks to Tandie I have a college degree.
- Hey, I'm here for you.
Your dad and I love you very much.
- I know, I love you too.
So my first film was this really beautiful
indie movie called "Our Song."
It actually got nominated for a Cassasvetes Award,
a Indie Spirit Award.
It was a very low budget film,
but I didn't know how films were made, so you know,
our entire transfer department wasn't
like a bunch of Teamsters in trucks.
It was like four Metro cards,
and sometimes my mom would drop us off [laughs]
and all of the cast members at our various homes.
But it was a really special movie.
The director is Jim McKay, who I adore.
I learned so much making that movie.
To be able to be in a film playing a real
girl in a marching band in New York.
It was every day I felt like all of my dreams had come true.
And while I was making tha movie I learned about
"Save the Last Dance" and read the script and auditioned.
- What's wrong with him?
- He don't know you, Kenny.
- I'm his father, he knows me.
What should I do?
- Come around more often.
- See, I can't talk to you.
- And I can't depend on you.
In a lot of ways my character, Chenille,
in "Save the Last Dance" was inspired by a lot of
the real kids I was working with in Brooklyn filming
"Our Song" because in order to film "Our Song" we had to
learn all of the routines and even be in parades.
Like, we really, I joined a marching
band in Brooklyn to make that movie,
but I was very, very close to a lot of the band members.
They were my friends.
And so, "Save the Last Dance" and "Our Song",
those films will always be, for me, very tied to each other.
I actually wound up not being able to go to Sundance for
"Our Song" because we were filming "Save the Last Dance".
So when I was a kid I grew up in the Bronx
in the same neighborhood as Jennifer Lopez.
We both studied with an incredible teacher
who was really like a teacher to me but a mentor to her,
Larry Maldonado.
He became ill and had to not
come to class for several weeks,
and Jennifer substituted 'cause
she was one of the big girls,
so I always brag that Jennifer Lopez taught me to dance.
She was, in many ways, kind of a lighthouse to me
'cause being a kid from the Bronx,
I didn't come from a show biz family.
I didn't know anybody who had a career in this business,
but knowing her and watching her,
I used to like finish my homework on Sunday
night so that I could see her being
a fly girl on "In Living Color".
So I think in some ways there was always
a little part of me that thought maybe
it was possible 'cause Jennifer did it.
So there you go.
Tandie gets credit for my college degree.
Jennifer gets credit for me even
going for a career in acting at all.
If you don't stop using that needle
they gonna take away your music and put you in jail.
Is that poison worth losing everything?
I've had several opportunities in my career
to play characters inspired by real women,
but Della Bea in "Ray" Charles was, I think,
the first where I got to, I drove out to Palm Springs
with my boyfriend at the time and we found her in this
tiny town and spent hours and hours and hours with her.
She was incredibly generous,
and she really helped me to understand the character.
But "Ray" was an extraordinary experience.
It was my first time working with Jamie, who I adore.
He's my movie husband forever.
I learned a lot making that movie,
and it was the first time in my career, you know,
"Save the Last Dance" was a huge commercial success,
and it was a bit of a phenomenon in pop culture,
but "Ray" was the first time that I was part of
a film that was so critically lauded.
It was the first time I ever went to the Globes.
First time I ever watched the Oscars and knew
the people that were there [laughs].
It was a very special time.
A big change for me in my career.
"Ray" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival,
so I'll never forget being part of like an elite festival,
circuit, making sure that the film lived in the world
in the way that the studio wanted it to.
Making sure that it was considered for awards
that many of us won awards and were nominated for awards.
I didn't really understand until that moment
in my career why people called it a campaign,
but it's work, it's work to go after those awards.
I watched Jamie do it and I watched it again with
"Last King of Scotland" with Forest Whitaker.
At that point I thought, oh, I'm like a lucky charm.
Like if you hire me to play your wife,
dead or alive, you're gonna win an Oscar,
so that was cool [laughs].
Here's the upside.
You don't love him.
- I know.
- You'll kill him,
and nobody's better at that than you are.
And then it'll be over.
I loved working on "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," I really did.
I thought it was so fun.
I really loved doing the stunt work.
I loved working with Angelina.
She is so smart.
That film went through a lot of changes
while we were making the film.
Doug Lyman is just a brilliant filmmaker,
but also, like constantly inventing a new perspective,
new ideas, new materials, so you have to be
in a constantly-evolving process.
I watched Angelina navigate that so brilliantly
and just always have the right perspective
about what was right for the narrative of the film,
and also in particular, for her character.
It was fun to climb a mountain with her.
It was fun to learn how to climb a mountain.
I mean, one of the things I love about acting is that
I get to learn to do so many new things all the time.
Like from dancing in "Save the Last Dance"
to shoplifting in "Lift" to joining a band
to riding a horse in "Django."
I'm now in "Little Fires" learning to be a photographer.
Like I get to grow my own skillset by having to
step into the shoes of another person.
If you don't do something now,
I'm going to have find a place to go.
I'm going to have to get it done in one of the villages.
Is that what you want, Nicholas?
- No, no you don't.
Whatever you do, you don't do that, all right?
- That was one of the first projects I didn't audition for.
Forest and I actually decided to work with the same
accent coach so that we were approaching the accent
from the same perspective, the same tactics.
And then, when I got to Uganda I basically
only spoke in the accent all the time.
My goal was to just try to have it be
invisible to the people around me.
I spent a lot of time hanging out with the women there
just like trying to absorb as much of the sound
and the music and the culture and the demeanor as possible.
A lot of people in Uganda at the time when we shot that film
had visceral memories from their childhood of Idi Amin,
so we would be driving to work one day and I would say,
well, why doesn't anybody take that road?
I remember my driver saying, well,
that was a road where Ida Amin's army used to kill people.
It was just matter of fact.
It was profound to be in a place where also you felt
like you were allowing people to tell their own story.
To have their history be seen for the world,
and Forest, of course, is so brilliant in the film.
When we got there he started to transition and transform,
and I did not see my friend Forest
again until we wrapped the movie.
There was this other sort of darker,
more depressed and enigmatic version
of a man that was not the man I know.
I love working with James Mackelvoy.
I think he is incredibly talented,
and I remember one day, actually,
he was working so hard on that movie because he really,
you know, carried that movie beginning to end.
The journey of his character was the arc of the film.
As brilliant as Forest was.
He's deserving of every accolade.
James was our way into that world.
He was working so hard,
and I remember a few of the actors and I,
we kidnapped James to take him on a one-day safari while
we were there because he wasn't taking advantage of this,
you know, magical experience that
we were having living in Africa, and he had a blast.
I have immense respect for him and admiration
for his talent and his work ethic.
I think he can do anything,
and I'm dying to work with him again,
if you're listening, James Mackelvoy.
Maybe you could win an Oscar if
you hire me to play your wife.
I have to be your wife.
- [speaking foreign language]
[gasp]
[bang]
I loved the experience of making "Django"
and it almost broke me [laughs].
It was, I mean, I used to say it was
the hardest thing I've ever done,
but I actually don't think that's true anymore.
But for a long time it was the scariest
and hardest thing I had ever had to do as an actor
to step into the legacy of slavery and be willing
to stand in those places where slaves,
I mean, we shot on actual plantations.
To make myself that psychologically and emotionally
and physically vulnerable was a huge challenge
and cost me a lot for awhile in terms of my spirit.
But it also gave me the ability to
feel like there was nothing I couldn't handle.
Not just as an actor, quite honestly, but in life.
I don't know if I could have walked through
seven seasons of "Scandal" without doing "Django."
It really made me feel like I could do anything.
I have to credit my costars to a lot of that.
Jamie and Leo and Christoph,
they kind of surrounded me and took care of me.
They were immensely supportive and also just a lot of fun.
I will be forever indebted to Quentin Tarantino
for trusting me with that role.
She is the siren in that film.
She is what he is questing for.
Quentin really trusted me to be worthy of the journey
that Django takes in the film and trusted me to dance,
so to speak, alongside Christoph,
'cause most of our scenes were together,
and Christoph was massively supportive
with the German and just in general.
So it was a really special project.
It was hard for all of us,
forced us to find new levels of strength,
but we were all better for it,
and I think audiences can feel that commitment.
When you look a Jamie's performance
or Leo's performance and you just know that
everybody's heart was right out there on the table.
- I am never going to be over you.
- Your wife is at house Blair House
and she's about to explode your political career.
You'll never get reelected if you don't get her back.
Your time as President will be over
and you're worried about getting your mistress back?
- How many times do I need to tell
you that you're more than that?
- You want me, earn me.
Until then, we are done.
"Scandal" did not come to me [laughs].
"Scandal" was, you know, has been talked about a lot.
There had not been a black woman as the lead
of a network drama in almost 40 years.
Every black actress in Hollywood wanted to be Olivia Pope.
When I read it I loved the script so much,
and I felt like it was mine, but unfortunately,
I knew about 10 other girls that felt the same way.
It was a pretty extensive audition process.
I think I first met with Shonda and Betsy,
her producing partner, and I remember,
actually, Shonda saying, you know,
are you up for television because you
have this really great film career?
If this is a hit, we could be like,
for all intents and purposes, married for seven years.
In my head I was like, that's not happening.
What are the odds of that [laughs]?
I loved Shonda and I loved the script
and I loved the world of the show.
I loved Judy Smith, who was the inspiration for Olivia Pope,
who was then called Olivia Price in the original draft.
I fought for it.
I remember I bought a suit for my audition.
I did not have the income to go out and buy myself a suit,
but I did, I think at Loehmann's in New York.
As an athlete would say,
I left it all out on the field in my audition,
I knew I did, but I still didn't know if it was mine.
And then, when it was I felt really, really blessed.
I never, ever thought that it would be
the cultural phenomenon that it became.
Never in my wildest dreams.
I knew that I had never been number
one on the call sheet before, and so,
that this was the opportunity of a lifetime,
and I have worked with some of the best number ones in the
business from Forest to Jamie to Meg Ryan and Julia Styles.
I mean, really great, incredible, inspiring number ones,
and I wanted to be that kind of number one,
but I also knew that if I didn't give it my all
and do the best work I was capable of,
they weren't gonna put another black woman in
the number one role on a TV drama for another 40 years.
I really felt like it was my job to do my best work,
and I didn't know if the world was ready for it
'cause everybody was telling us that it was a
risk to put a black woman as a lead of a network drama.
I didn't know if anybody would tune in to watch,
but I knew it didn't matter even if the only
four eyeballs watching were my parents,
we had to make the best possible show for my parents
so that if the world wasn't ready,
at least we were proud of what we made.
Luckily, the world was ready for not just Olivia Pope,
but also, Annalise Keating and Priyanka Chopra,
and tons and tons of women of color on every network since.
It's momma again, baby.
He's been gone since eight o'clock last night.
- [Man] There was an incident...
- Where is our son?
- I have kids too.
- Any of them black?
The world still looks at him like it looks at me.
- I don't know what you expect me to do.
- Find my son.
So when "Scandal" was ending, there was a brilliant,
prolific Broadway producer named Jeffrey Richards
who I had worked with almost 10 years before
on my Broadway debut called "Race,"
which was right before "Scandal."
It was a play with David Mamet.
And so, Jeffrey Richards called me and said,
"Scandal"'s ending, you should come back to Broadway.
And I hadn't had a chance to do
Broadway since "Scandal" started.
Our haitises weren't long enough.
I thought, no way.
The only thing I wanna do when
"Scandal" ends is take a nap [laughs].
I don't want to go do the hardest
version of acting there is.
That's just ridiculous.
But yes, send me whatever you want, Jeffrey.
Send me whatever you want.
One of the things that he sent me was "American Son,"
and I knew that Kenny Leon was attached to direct,
and I adore Kenny and I trust him as a theater director.
I read the script and was blown away
and could not imagine not doing it.
I jumped onto the project as an actor and as a producer,
and we brought the production to Broadway.
Before previews even began for the play
I was already in talks with various platforms
and networks and studios about possibly
transforming the play for the screen.
We have been lucky enough to partner with Netflix,
who really understood from the very beginning
the importance of the production and its value globally.
That these are issues that resonate all over the world
and a story that deserves to be told all over the world.
We're really excited to be taking this
really special play that had a
tremendous impact on audiences in New York,
but could only, you know,
be performed to 900 people at a time,
to now bringing that narrative, that story,
this journey of this family,
to millions and millions of people all over the world.
One of the things that Kendra taught me as an actor
was how to draw the line between myself
and the character because there was no way
that I could be Kendra 24 hours a day.
And I always take my characters home with me a little bit,
but playing Kendra required me to leave her at the theater.
And so, I actually would get to the
theater earlier than most actors.
I had actually had a great conversation with Alec Baldwin.
He's the same way, he likes to get to the theater
like two or three hours before the performance
because he doesn't want to be thinking about
the play in the rest of his life,
but he wants to give himself the right amount of time
to transition into the character.
She belonged at the theater,
and I spent a lot of time at the theater.
When I was at the theater, she got all of me.
But when I was not at that theater
I had to be in the joy of the rest of my life.
Our storytelling canons have, for hundreds of years,
taught us that heroes look one way, right?
That most heroes happen to have
been straight and white and male.
So just by being a woman and being a person of color,
when I stand in the center of a story and I say like,
this is about me and my journey,
that is somewhat of a political act.
I guess I'm proud to have been able to do
projects that have allowed me to build
full humanity around the characters.
Even if I'm in a supporting role on "Save the Last Dance,"
I knew that it was my job so that you don't
think of black teen moms in Chicago as statistics anymore,
but you think of them as people.
And I guess for the future I just wanna keep doing that
for myself and for other actors and other writers
and other producers and directors to be able to
tell stories where we put people at the center
who may not obviously be at the center,
and that we remind everybody that heroes come in
all shapes and sizes and colors and genders.
That we're all heroes of our own moment.
That's what I just wanna keep doing
is creating opportunities for that.