Kerry Washington
actor, activist, amazingly hot.
2008-09-12
By Sergio Mims

Kerry Washington is perhaps the hardest working actress in Hollywood today. Since her feature debut in the independent film Our Song in 2001, Washington, a Bronx native,  has gone on to appear in 40 major films and TV roles (with another four films scheduled for release next year) including The Last King of Scotland, Ray, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Boston Legal, Law & Order, and the Fantastic Four movies. This month she appears in two new films: first as the female lead in the thriller Lakeview Terrace with Samuel L. Jackson and Patrick Wilson and in a small supporting role in Spike Lee’s upcoming World War II epic Miracle at St. Anna.

Recently EbonyJet.com had an opportunity to talk to  Washington about her new films, her approach to working with actors, working with Spike Lee, working as a black actress in Hollywood,  her political convictions and whether  she’s intimidating or not. A lot of ground to cover, but she was up for the challenge.

EBONYJET.COM:  Just before I got here I was with someone who was talking about you. I got a kick out of telling her that I was on my way to meet you.
WASHINGTON: Oh wow! You mean she was talking about me in Lakeview Terrace or just in general? Did she have a question for me?

EBJ: She was talking about you just in general and how much she liked you  and no she didn’t have a question for you. I guess she was too intimidated.
KW: That’s funny. I’m not really a scary person. Am I? Am I an intimidating person? (smiles)

EBJ: So I understand that you attended the GOP presidential convention in Minneapolis.
KW: I was at both the Democratic and the Republican convention as part of the Creative Coalition.

EBJ: So you would definitely say that you’re politically active?
KW: I’m very politically active and it’s a little weird for me because the closest I’ve ever been to a political convention before this was protesting outside the Republican convention in New York four years ago. So now to be going inside is a little weird. But the Creative Coalition is a bi-partisan organization, so we work on both sides of the aisle to fight for arts funding, First Amendment rights and arts education.

EBJ: So you definitely don’t believe what some people say that actors shouldn’t get involved with politics; that they should been seen and not heard.
KW: Well I am not politically active as an actor. I am politically active as an American. I live in a country where I have a First Amendment right of free speech and I live in a representative democracy where I feel it is my responsibility to participate in the process. So why not participate vocally?

It’s because I believe in people taking responsibility for where they live and how they live. So I encourage all people to be involved and volunteer and to show up and to testify and to do whatever they can to be a part of this political process.

EBJ: Now the director of Lakeview Terrace, Neil LaBute, has this infamous reputation from his various films (In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors) and stage works (Fat Pig, Wrecks, Filthy Talk for troubled Times) as being something of a misogynist and an all around misanthrope.  Just someone who sees the worst in people...
KW: Yeah right (laughs) I think he’s fun! (laughs) I really enjoyed working with him. I had great time and I think he’s really smart, funny and insightful. I mean I can see why people say that looking at his body of work, but that was not my experience at all working with him.

EBJ: Still one would think that LaBute was the most unlikeliest choice for a director of a suspense thriller like Lakeview Terrace.
KW: I disagree with you but I can see why anybody would think that, absolutely.
But I was really happy when he came on board because I knew the film needed work but I liked the idea of it and I thought Neil l would be someone who really understands character. He really understands the dark, quirky inner lives of people and all these people in the film are hiding something. So I thought he was really a great person to come in and bring some depth to the inner lives of these three main characters.

EBJ: But the film is much more than a thriller, with an underlying theme about racism, wouldn’t you say?
KW: Yeah, I think that the film is about a lot of things and one of the things that I like to do is to ask people what do you think this film is about. I think you learn a lot about a person by having them answer that question because the film is about a ton of things.

Race is definitely an important issue in this film. It’s about interracial dating. I think that the film is about the generational differences between how we identify and think about race. I think it’s about what happens when a neighborhood goes through the process of gentrification. I think the film is about how much of the truth do we tell our romantic partners. But I think the film is mostly about the abuse of power and authority in society. That was one of the first things that stood out for me when I first read the script.

Like one of my best girl friends grew up in Vermont, and we would laugh in college when we met because for her when she was a little girl and saw cops she thought: “Oh good we’re all safe, secure and taken care of.” And for me, as a young girl growing up in the Bronx…it could go either way quite honestly. I have had family members who have spent the night in jail for no good reason. Sometimes the police are helpful, but sometimes the opposite is true in my experience, in my community.

So I really liked the premise of the film having this person who we entrust to protect us and serve us be the very person who causes the most anxiety and pain. I even think it’s relevant on a national level because here we have this Commander in Chief, who we not specifically voted for, but who we as a nation asked to be our president who put us into a war with no good reason where innocent people are dying every day and I think that is an incredible abuse of power in the executive office. I think these are really relevant issues in society today.
 
EBJ: Perhaps we should call this month Kerry Washington Month because you not only have Lakeview Terrace, but you’re in Spike Lee’s anxiously anticipated World War II 160 minute epic, The Miracle at St. Anna, which is also coming out this month.
KW: You know I am, like, in half of a scene in that movie. Basically it’s like when my phone rings and  the I.D. screen says it’s Spike, I answer: “How high?”

First of all I loved doing She Hate Me with him. I love that man. I adore Spike. And I’m very very aware that I would not have the career that I have today if it wasn’t for all that he has accomplished and created in this business. And I think his new film is such a huge achievement and such an important film. When I read the script, I wept.

So I was just so pleased just to come in and throw two lines around. I literally just did half a day of work for Spike out of gratitude because I was so honored to be even mildly associated with this epic film.

EBJ: You’ve worked with actors with completely different approaches to acting. Forest Whitaker is definitely from the “method” approach like Brando, DeNiro, Paul Newman or Denzel. Samuel L. Jackson is definitely in the mold of the old fashioned Hollywood type of acting like Spencer Tracy, William Holden or Humphrey Bogart -- memorize your lines, hit your mark on the set, say the lines and move on to the next scene. How do you deal with working with actors with such radically different styles?
KW: My job as an actress is to get my job done in the environment that I’m in. And what I try to do is to enjoy the process with whomever I’m working with. I try to figure out, sure, that I’m taking care of my technique and doing the things that I need to do to feel good about my performance and then enjoy whatever it is they’re bringing to the table.

I’ve been friends with Sam for a long time, so in between takes Sam and I were giggling, like this one scene in Lakeview were he drops his pants we were hysterically laughing. It’s so much fun to come to work every day and play enemies with someone I adore.

But with Forest it was much more like…(pause) I kept my space. I really respected his space. I didn’t talk to him unless I felt it was really appropriate for the characters. Basically enjoying the process of the people you’re around and once again making sure that I do what I need to do to get my work done. You know film is a very collaborative process. Everybody is equally important. If the director of photography doesn’t come to work,  there’s no movie. So whatever an actor uses as his methodology, it is important for me to respect that and I hope that they would do the same for me.

EBJ: So, Hollywood: Are things getting better or getting worse?
KW: (Laughs) Fascinating. I’m very aware of how lucky I am. When I think about Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge and Dianne Carroll and all these incredible women of color and the choices that they were given were much narrower than the choices that I’ve been given. I’m really lucky to come at the time where I’ve been able to blossom as an actress.

Now I’m a kid from the Bronx who’s played the Southern wife of an R & B legend, to the wife of an African dictator, to (laughs) a lipstick lesbian pimp for Spike. I mean I’ve been able to play so many different kinds of women with so many different kinds of voices and socio-economic backgrounds, like this character I play in Lakeview. I’ve never seen a black woman like this on screen before, a Berkeley graduate, Birkenstock wearing, Prius driving, progressive, open minded chick and that was exciting for me to play this different kind of black woman. So I think I’m really lucky in how much more diversity I have in my choices and I’ve made a conscious decision to look for those choices and to never do the same thing over and over again.

However, it is not as if there is equality in Hollywood.  Let’s start with the fact that being an actor is a really hard thing to do. We’re the only members of a union in which 90% of our members are out of work at any given time. It’s complicated by being a woman, it’s complicated further by being a woman of color.

But I think it’s also unfair to say that Hollywood is this awful place. I think Hollywood is a microcosm for the United States and the United States is a microcosm for the world. So there isn’t equality anywhere right now in the world. I think that the issues that I face as an actress aren’t that much different than the issues my mother faced as a black woman becoming a tenured professor. So it’s not isolated to Hollywood. I think we live in a world that is making progress and still has room to grow.

EBJ: Finally what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the business?
KW: I say that in life you have to do what you love because it’s your life and not anybody else’s life. And that it’s really important for me to get out of my own way and show up for what I’m capable of and what I can do and not to be afraid of the ride. (laughs) And tell your friend I’m not intimidating!

Film critic, lecturer and festival consultant Sergio Mims covers all things film from the city that works, Chicago. He is a regular contributor to ebonyjet.com