Kerry Washington on Hollywood sexism and racism
WASHINGTON as Anita Hill in “Confirmation”
LOS ANGELES—Kerry Washington, who stars in “Confirmation,” a TV movie about the controversy ignited by Anita Hill’s sexual harassment charges against Clarence Thomas, shared a powerful quote about her sexism and racism experience in Hollywood.
Read below for the actress’ short but stunning summation of prejudice in Tinseltown. The two-time Emmy nominee for her “Scandal” series has certainly come a long way from the first time we interviewed her in 2004 for “Ray,” the Ray Charles biopic.
She built up her reputation as an actress in such films as “The Last King of Scotland” and “Django Unchained.”
Now, she’s an executive producer as well of “Confirmation,” where she plays Anita Hill, the lawyer and academic who came out with harassment allegations against her former boss, Thomas, just as he was going through Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991.
The compelling HBO film, showing on the 25th anniversary of the political circus that grabbed the United States and the world, features Wendell Pierce as Thomas and Greg Kinnear as Joe Biden. Both Kerry and Wendell turn in solid performances.
In our latest encounter, the star who’s been riveting viewers for five seasons as Olivia Pope, Washington’s ultimate fixer in “Scandal,” sounded even more articulate and passionate.
At 39, she’s a committed artist, married to retired NFL player Nnamdi Asomugha, with whom she has a daughter (born in April 2014), and a dedicated advocate for gay rights, arts education and ending violence against women and girls.
KERRY Washington. Ruben V. Nepales
Excerpts from our talk:
What is your own experience with sexual harassment?
I always think about a quote that a very dear friend of mine said. He’s a very powerful executive in marketing. He said to me, “Kerry, the thing to remember is that the most sexist and racist thing that’s ever been said about you, you don’t even know about it because you weren’t allowed in the room.”
That’s something that I carry with me, because I think it’s very true.
What do you remember about the Anita Hill controversy from that time in 1991?
I was about 13 so my memories of the hearings are really not based on my own perception. It’s based on my parents’ perception.
I have the most fantastic parents. They didn’t argue a lot when I was a kid but this was one of their big arguments.
This was one of the first moments when I saw my dad have one opinion as an African-American man and my mother had a different opinion as a woman in the workplace.
They were in conflict with each other. It was one of the first moments where I was aware of my own identity, the intersection of gender and race and how it may be more complicated for me to understand that sometimes I was going to feel one way about race and sometimes a different way about gender and how to sort through that.
For me, it echoed again in 2008 when people were like, “You have to vote for Hillary Clinton because you’re a woman but then you have to vote for Barack Obama because you’re a black person.” I was like, “But I’m both (laughs).” This was the first moment in my life when I became aware of identity politics.
In terms of my relationship with Anita Hill, it’s been a really special journey I’ve had with her because as an executive producer, my involvement…was really to try to make a well-balanced film.
We wanted to make a film that was courageously complicated, where all of these characters were fully realized human beings. So, all of my research and my interviews with Anita in the beginning with our writer Susannah Grant was really based on pulling together lots of different voices.
HBO is an amazing place to work in, with Michael London (executive producer), Susannah Grant and our director Rick Famuyiwa. I said, OK, now you guys have to take care of the other people because my job is Anita.
At that point, I let myself become very close to her. And what a gift to be able to have her in my life. She’s such a profoundly poised woman. You get that sense when you watch the film.
No matter how hard I could work as an actress, I would never have the grace and poise that she has. She’s so controlled, dignified and elegant and yet authentic. She’s just so thoughtful. She’s a very moving person to get to know and to have in my life.
Looking back, who do you think ultimately prevailed in that issue?
One of the things that I love about the film is that it shows you that life is not simple. There are no good guys and bad guys and no winners and losers.
You could say in a way that Thomas won because…he holds one of the most powerful seats in our government and in the world in terms of decision-making and legal authority.
But when you also look at Anita’s legacy…the fact that our government started to evolve and change and that more people were inspired to participate in our democracy because of the hearings, I think it points out that there’s a lot of ways to win.
So you got to know the dirty, sleazy side of Washington politics. Does that make you cynical about what’s going on or do you view it differently?
The irony for me is that I worked for the real White House before I got the job on “Scandal.”
I was appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in 2009. I went to college in DC so I’ve always had a really interesting relationship with Washington.
One of the things that drew me to this role (in “Confirmation”) was that for the past five years now, I have played somebody (in “Scandal”) who is a DC power player, who for the most part is always the most powerful person in every room she’s in in Washington. She will do almost anything as we’re seeing to get power and stay in power.
I thought it would be an important exercise for me to explore being somebody in that same environment, in that same context but on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of access and power and what kind of courage that takes to be somebody who stands up against those powers that be.
I haven’t grown cynical because while this show is based on facts, what’s happening on “Scandal” could not be farther (laughs) from what’s going on in the White House right now.
So I remain hopeful, inspired and proud to live in this country where we get to have a voice and get to have a say.
Can you talk about how people are more aware now about the words “sexual harassment” and what they represent?
The film is about understanding the dynamics of power.
Before we started shooting this movie (“Confirmation”), everybody sat around and had our sexual harassment talk where we talked about what’s appropriate and what isn’t. It was amazing to have that talk and know that this movie is exactly why we’re having this talk.
Harassment conversation is no longer even just about sex; it’s really about being aware of gender, religion, race, being able to respect another person’s identity and boundaries and being able to hold power without making other people feel less than who they are.
What’s the most courageous thing you’ve done so far in your life?
I’m definitely not as courageous as Anita Hill, but I think one of the most courageous things I’ve had to do up to this point in my life is to play her.
I knew why I was drawn to the material. It would be an artistic challenge, but I was shocked at how much of my own emotional history was in line with hers and what I needed to get in touch with and be willing to reveal in order to honor her story. I didn’t expect playing her to transform me as much as it did.
A woman might be sitting in the White House in November. How do you see Hillary Clinton?
It’s no secret that I’m with her. And yeah, it would be really exciting and wonderful.
We have done such a beautiful job over the past hundreds of years getting closer and closer to living up to the idea of “We the People.”
Through progressive movement, change and people showing up and having their voices heard, we’ve been able to have “We the People” be more inclusive. I just don’t want to see that reversed.
What do you think of social media as an instrument of change?
Social media is a great democratizer because everybody has become a critic now and everybody is a journalist (laughs).
There are terrible sides of that in terms of privacy but there is something also great about the voice of information, that who controls information is not isolated to a small community anymore.
When you are not on a set, what do you do?
A great deal of my time when I’m not working is devoted to my family—to my husband and kids. That’s really important to me but I do have other interests.
I’m very proud to work with an organization called the Purple Purse. It’s part of the Allstate Foundation. They discovered in their research that the No. 1 reason why women stay in abusive relationships is because of financial dependence.
They put together a curriculum for teaching women how to be economically independent and financially literate. They asked me to be involved.
I mentioned that I also work with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and we do a lot of work around arts education and transforming underperforming schools by using integrative arts education.
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