I love Kerry Washington so much. She’s gorgeous, she’s brilliant, and unlike Zoe Saldana, she doesn’t sound like a self-loathing colored who makes comments that make me want to fight the air.
The Scandal star is hotter than ever and there’s no greater proof of that than seeing Ms. Washington stand tallest on the latest cover of The Hollywood Reporter. Inside, Kerry reflects on the worst jobs she’s ever had to do, bad auditions, and learning how to act on Twitter before joining.
Captions below (courtesy of Madam Bitchie)
On Negative Backlash Because of Her Real Life Political Involvement:
I come from a family where people really participate in the democratic process. I don’t think that being an actor should prevent me from continuing to do the things I do. A lot of people fought for me to have the right as a woman to be able to participate, and as a person of color, and so I don’t want my acting to get in the way of that. I do it as an American. And blowback? Absolutely. After I spoke at the Democratic National Convention — our show has a very active life on Twitter and Facebook — I couldn’t go near any of it because there were threats to my life, sexism and racism. It was shocking that me speaking at a convention incited all this anger. Thank God for block on Twitter! I would never block somebody for disagreeing with me. But the threats to my life … that’s not so good.
Most of the people who don’t like her political beliefs likely wouldn’t care for her anyway, if you catch my drift.
On Social Media:
Yeah. I mean, you read the good stuff. … But I don’t tweet about my personal life. I don’t tweet things that are about me. I work with a woman who is a digital social media consultant because I was terrified to go on Twitter. She helped me to figure out how to engage — as an actor — to promote the work without promoting myself. It’s scary. It’s this whole other universe.
I love that she literally took the time to talk to someone in order to figure out how not to look like an ass on Twitter. Celebrities could learn a thing from that. I’m looking at you, Chris Brown.
On Her Worst Job
It wasn’t one of my worst jobs, but I used to be a substitute teacher for New York City schools. It was great and hard, and I even did it after I started working in films. But I had to stop after I did Save the Last Dance because the students were like, “Chenille is substituting!”
On Her Worst Audition:
It’s a little bit different for me because I’ll audition for something and they’ll just decide that they’re not going “ethnic” with a character, which I hear a lot. If not “black,” then yeah. People have artistic license … that’s what casting is: fitting the right look to the right character. Whereas you could maybe lose some weight, there’s not really anything I can do, nor would I want to, about being black.
