Kerry Washington — Acting as a Devotional Practice

Sep 28, 2023

Kerry Washington, a 'learning actor' known for her elegance and moral rigor in various roles, discusses acting as a devotional practice. Topics range from her experiences in bringing racially mixed audiences together to the impact of 'Scandal' on representation and diversity. She also delves into emotional reactions, the dehumanizing aspect of recognition, motherhood, and interracial relationships. A rich and insightful conversation on the evolution of the roles we play in our lives.

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INSIGHT

Scandal's Impact

Washington became the first Black woman to lead a network drama in decades with Scandal.
This success paved the way for increased representation in television.

INSIGHT

Learning from Olivia Pope

Playing Olivia Pope helped Washington step into a leading role in her own life.
The character also sparked unresolved questions about her relationship with her father.

ANECDOTE

Family Secret

After Scandal, Washington's parents revealed her father was not her biological father.
This revelation both shocked and validated her intuition about hidden truths.

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“Becoming other people” for a living, as Kerry Washington likes to describe her craft, turns out to be a revelatory lens on the high drama that is the human condition. As a “learning actor,” a kind of actor/anthropologist, she has brought elegance and moral rigor to all kinds of roles: as the uber-glamorous, tough-as-nails Olivia Pope on Scandal; as the wife of Idi Amin and the wife of Ray Charles; from Little Fires Everywhere to Django Unchained. Just after Scandal ended seven triumphant seasons, she starred on Broadway as Kendra, a jeans-clad mother in a Miami police station waiting to hear what has happened to her beloved son. Krista was in that audience, and saw how Kerry attended not just to her role on stage but to bringing a beautifully racially mixed audience to participating and reflecting together.

So this conversation has been a while in coming. It is rich with grace and surprising angles of insight — on the roles we all learn to play in the stories of the lives that we are given, and the evolution that is possible in how we assume those characters and leave them behind and grow them up.

This episode of On Being was produced with consideration of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike and with external legal guidance. In distributing this episode, we attest to our belief that no statements made involve promotion of struck work in violation of the SAG-AFTRA Strike Order.

Kerry Washington is the author of a new memoir, Thicker Than Water, and founder of the production company Simpson Street. Her many credits include the television series Little Fires Everywhere, the Broadway play — and Netflix film — American Son, and the film Django Unchained. She starred as Olivia Pope on seven seasons of the hit TV series Scandal.

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

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Kerry Washington — Acting as a Devotional Practice

*Scandal*'s Impact

Learning from Olivia Pope

Family Secret

Scandal's Impact