Kerry Washington grew up in the Bronx, where Jennifer Lopez taught her how to dance, and went to high school with Gwyneth Paltrow. Thanks to her starring role on Scandal,
Washington’s now as famous as her childhood peers. Unlike them,
however, Washington’s maintained an unusually private life, surprising
the world with an unannounced marriage (to former NFL player Nnamdi
Asomugha) and a nonchalant pregnancy (during which she gleefully wore a
crop top on the red carpet). The few things Washington will
talk about? The importance of being yourself, filling your life with
people who lift you up, and giving back. Below, Washington sounds off on
unrealistic expectations, “red carpet Kerry,” and the grape
juice-induced sugar high she gets from chugging Olivia Pope’s red wine.
BB: I was going
to start this interview by telling you how much I love you, but then I
realized I can’t say that because I have never met you! But you are so
cool.
KW: I feel the same way about you! You
are such a trail blazer and a pioneer. Particularly as a woman of
color—you have always honored all skin tones—it is really so lovely to
talk to you.
BB: Thank you. I have been doing that job for 25 years and this is my first year at my new job.
KW: How exciting!
BB: It is really exciting. I am also the mom of three boys—I know you just had a baby. Congratulations.
KW: Oh my goodness. Thank you, thank you!
BB: How old is the baby?
KW: She is five months—five and a half months.
BB: It’s the silliest question, but how is motherhood?
KW: [Laughs.] You know, it is amazing and life changing and extraordinary.
BB: But what
was your biggest surprise? I am tired of people saying how absolutely
perfect every second is because I have had three of them myself, so I
know better.
KW: Oh gosh, I normally don’t talk about this stuff…I think I am just in awe of her.
BB: I know you are really private, and I think that is commendable.
KW: Aw, thanks.
BB: So are you in New York or California?
KW: I am in California; we are shooting the show.
BB: Do you drink red wine in real life?
KW: I don’t!
Maybe once or twice a year, especially if I am traveling somewhere, but I
am not a big wine drinker. On the show it’s just grape juice because I
would never be able to memorize all my lines—and I would never remember
them if I was really drinking wine.
BB: I always wonder how this little tiny actress drinks an entire bottle of red wine and keeps it together.
KW: No, it is grape juice and I am on this crazy sugar high afterward.
BB: I don’t
know if it is true or not, but I have read that you and I are of a
similar—petite—height. Who is your favorite designer?
KW: I really
gravitate toward having all different styles in my closet because I feel
like I always want to dress to fit my mood or where I am going. I do
love Jason Wu, he is also a really good friend of mine and I love what
he is doing for Hugo Boss these days. I think Calvin is so beautiful,
Oscar De La Renta is so classic, I really like the Rodarte girl; they
are super inventive and they think outside the box, I am all over the
place! [Laughs.]
BB: Do you tailor everything?
KW: I think
every girl should have a tailor in her phone. It’s part of why we beat
ourselves up, or why shopping is so frustrating and hard, we have this
assumption that when you take something off the rack, it will fit you. I
don’t care if you are like a supermodel size zero or a plus size girl,
clothes are not meant for every single person—it is just not possible.
There is no magic garment, so I think it is important (even if it’s the
tailor in the back of your local cleaners) to be able to give clothes
the little nips and tucks that make them feel perfect for you.
BB: Do you wear as much white as Olivia Pope?
KW: No, I take a
lot more fashion risks than Olivia. She dresses like a professional,
while I wear a lot more patterns, a lot more color, I can have a little
bit more fun. I mean she has a lot of fun in fashion, but it’s all t; I
tend to have a little bit more quirky fun.
BB: Are you a heels girl or a sneaker girl?
KW: It depends.
If I am going out to a lunch or a date night or an event I am
definitely a heels girl. But I am from the Bronx, so I am also a bit of a
sneaker addict. I love really fun sneakers.
BB: You always seem really comfortable and confident. Do you feel that way? And have you always been like that?
KW: No! [Laughs.]
No, that is not true at all! I think the people who are closest to me
would laugh actually. 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. Or even to have the courage to
have those visions and dreams. I have always been sure to credit my
therapist through the years…
BB: I might need the name!
KW: [Laughs.]
Good friends and family—and even the people I work with, the hair and
makeup people—the people that I like to be around are people who are
willing to do the work and be self-reflective and be courageous and be
honest and be generous and those qualities are really important to me in
my personal life and in my and my work life. I like to be around people
like that because it inspires me and…
BB: Supports you…
KW: Right, and
when somebody I am close to is going, “Oh wow, there is something I am
really struggling with my life and here is what I am doing around it,
here’s how I am doing the work,” I feel inspired to dig deeper. You
know?
BB: There must
be days when you are overworked, or new-mom-tired, when you have to be
in the public eye on the red carpet or at an event even if you aren’t
feeling your best, how do you handle that?
KW: I tend to
think about those moments on the red carpet as being a character called
the “red carpet Kerry.” I try to step into that. I don’t mean deny the
fear—I don’t deny my feelings on a bad day—but I kind of try to invite
myself to shift into something else to pull it together. You don’t have
to handle things alone, you can reach out and get help from close
friends and family. Sometimes I try to imagine, “Well what would I do if
Mother Theresa showed up at my door right now?” I would pull it
together! What if Michelle Obama called me right now? I would pull it
together. And not to deny who I am, but to sort of go, “OK, how can I
dig deep and get in my stronger self in this moment.”
BB: The media’s obsession with
actresses being perfect must be so difficult. I don’t understand this
post-baby body that everyone celebrates.
KW: I know.
BB: First of
all, who cares? And it sets an unrealistic expectation for the rest of
us—I am still trying to lose five pounds of baby weight and my son is
25.
KW: It is
really interesting for me being an actress, because I feel like I have a
responsibility to myself and to my family to have gone through this
miraculous journey of pregnancy and birth and all of that and be healthy
and sane and present and loving to myself and to my family. And then at
the same time I have this responsibility to Olivia Pope, to be that
character and maintain that essence of that character even if my belly
is ever expanding. How do I maintain my identity and the posture and the
elegance and that of the character while we are shooting her from
the neck up?
BB: It was crazy when your pregnancy came out—who knew?
KW: [Laughs.] That was thanks to really good makeup artists who had contouring down to a science.
BB: I know you’re from the Bronx—is it true that you went to the same Boys and Girls Club as Jennifer Lopez?
BB: Did you know her then?
KW: Yes. We had
this amazing dance teacher, Larry, and Jennifer actually used to
substitute teach when Larry wasn’t around. You wouldn’t know it from my
build, but Jennifer taught me how to dance. And I remember when she left
the Boys club because she was leaving New York to go to LA to try and
make it big and we were all like, “Oh my gosh.”
BB: That is so cool! I also heard you launched a fashion collection?
KW: Yes,
inspired by the show! It’s the show’s costume designer, Lyn Paolo, and
myself. We teamed up with Elliot Staples (the head designer at The
Limited). I had women emailing me and calling me saying, “I got the last
white Olivia Pope Prada bag in the Boston store.” But there’s a whole
segment of people inspired by the fashion of the show who didn’t have
access to dressing that way, so we wanted to create a line for people at
a different economic level so that they too could have access to a
power suit like Olivia.
BB: And tell me about the purple purse.
KW: I designed this purple bag for Purple Purse, AllState’s Foundation.
It’s a really wonderful initiative to raise awareness around financial
abuse. One in four women is going to be the victim of domestic violence
in her lifetime, and finance is almost always a weapon of choice. That
means a woman’s credit is ruined, or her job is jeopardized because her
abuser is showing up and yelling at her, or making her late for work, or
debt is run up, or money is hidden—all of those things are sort of a
tool to keep a woman trapped in an abusive relationship.
It is so hard to talk about
abuse, but it is really easy to talk about fashion, so I designed the
bag to represent the issue. It’s a clutch, something that you hold on to
the way you should your financial stability, and it can fit all the
things that fit your financial well-being like your keys to the stuff
you own: your wallet, your phone, your tablet, etc. Purple is the
signature color for domestic violence awareness and I wanted it to be a
purse that appeals to a lot of different kinds of women.
BB: I will have
to check it out. Finally, since this is a beauty site, I can’t get off
the phone without asking about your gorgeous skin and your favorite
products.
KW: It’s
actually so fun to talk with you because one of the things I am working
on with Neutrogena is expanding and re-envisioning the makeup for the
company—it’s really so wonderful and so fun. But I live with the
moisture stick; there is a rich raisin color that’s my favorite. Like
everything from Neutrogena (and this is why I love working with them),
it’s not just beautiful but also really good for you. There’s shea
butter and mango in there; it’s really moisturizing and the color lasts
for a long time and it’s just good for your lips. The thing I always
have in my purse is the makeup remover wipes; I am kind of religious
about taking makeup off. I never go to sleep with makeup on. It makes me
really uncomfortable, I feel like your skin needs to breathe. I wear
makeup at work every day and then cook underneath lights, so I always
have those remover wipes in my bag because they get everything—even
waterproof mascara. On my days off, I am really a no makeup (or very
little makeup) girl. I think a little concealer is great and I love
mascara. A little lip, a little eye—I feel like you are good to go!
BB: My last question is: what advice do you have for the women who admire you as a person and actress?
KW: I have been
really blessed in my life with people who have really helped me be
myself and not try to be anybody else. So whenever somebody says to me
on Twitter or at the grocery store, “Oh my gosh, I just want to be Kerry
Washington.” I always say, “No, you have to be you.” There is no other
you in the world and the world needs what is unique about you. If you
have the courage to do that, it will be much better for you than being
Kerry Washington. That is the biggest thing. It’s great to be inspired
by other people, but you have to have the courage to know what is unique
about you and then run with it.
BB: Right, so
be yourself. Well thank you, it was so great speaking with you. You are
such a modern woman and I just hope you continue to deliver such great
messages to young girls.
KW: Thank you!
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