When you have things that are very important to you in life, when there are things you want to do and be – that takes work. It takes work to show up for your own story and show up for the dream and vision you have for yourself. – Kerry Washington
Before ‘Scandal,’ I was actually cast in two other pilots. Both went to series, but I was fired and recast. For both, it was because they wanted me to sound more ‘girlfriend,’ more like ‘hood,’ more ‘urban.’ – Kerry Washington
I’ve had friends of mine say, like, they’re tired of ‘gayface,’ and I was like, ‘What’s gayface?’ They were like, ‘It’s the gay version of blackface: like, come in and be more effeminate.’ – Kerry Washington
I think most people, when they think about the Black Panther Party, they think in very abstract, caricatured terms. They think about black fists in the air, but they don’t think about the actual people, and the families, and the relationships. – Kerry Washington
I definitely feel like I’m at that point where it’s nice to not have to sit at home and wait to be invited to the party, but to be creating work for yourself. – Kerry Washington
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. – Kerry Washington
Earlier in my career, I was much more super-sharey. There were moments when I wanted to process things that were happening to me more privately, and I didn’t have the space to do it, because once you let people in, they’re in, and you don’t get to say, ‘Oh, I want this for myself.’ – Kerry Washington
I learned through experience that it doesn’t work for me to talk about my personal life. I’ve had earlier times in my career when I did talk about it. – Kerry Washington
I wouldn’t just come home from school and watch TV everyday, they had me involved in lots of local theatre. I was a very dramatic, talkative child. And that was part of my mother’s creative solution – to put me in workshops and classes and children’s theatre programmes. – Kerry Washington
I really try to let my friends into all of my life. They know that Red-Carpet Kerry is a version of Kerry, and they know that DNC Speaker Kerry is me. – Kerry Washington
That’s what acting is – it’s about… having the courage to allow your audience into the private moments of your characters’ lives. – Kerry Washington
I don’t think I consciously say, ‘What would Olivia Pope do?’ but there’s a new thread of belief in my own capacity that I think comes from her. She makes it happen. She figures it out. She fixes it. – Kerry Washington
I choose to feel optimistic, because I don’t think I could get out of bed if I didn’t. – Kerry Washington
I don’t want to not be African. The goal is to live in a world where my race doesn’t limit my access, where I can see myself represented in the highest level of society without any limitation. – Kerry Washington
If I were somebody who spent the majority of my time saying things that were harsh and difficult to hear, I would want my visual aesthetic to be something soft and feminine, warm and easy to be around. – Kerry Washington
I have to make sure that I don’t silence myself about the things that I believe in, because sometimes the fear creeps in of ‘What if fewer people watch the show or fewer people hire me because I express my politics?’ For me, the commitment is to never be quiet just because I’m in the public eye. – Kerry Washington
I’m doing this play right now, the new David Mamet play. It’s called ‘Race,’ and it’s very interesting how people really leave the theater filled with the desire to talk about the play and the issues and the characters, and how they’re all navigating their personal views around race. – Kerry Washington
I’m here not just as an actress but as a woman, an African-American, a granddaughter of Ellis Island immigrants, a person who could not have afforded college without the help of student loans and as one of millions of volunteers working to re-elect President Obama! – Kerry Washington
My mother is one of seven kids, so I have a lot of strong women in my family, and I have supportive, beautiful relationships with all of them. – Kerry Washington
Being the one woman in the room should not be seen as a victory. If there’s only one of us in the room, we’re still a token; we don’t actually have an empowered voice. If there’s two of us, we’re still a minority. If there’s three, then we’re allowed to have a multiplicity of opinions. – Kerry Washington