Kerry Washington may be a successful, award-winning actor, but she says she’s “always quitting” the business. Speaking with W Magazine (via IndieWire), Washington says that she’s spent a long time trying not to be an actor, but that every time she decides she’s going to quit acting, a project she just can’t say no to crosses her path, keeping her in the game just a bit longer.
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“I have spent a lifetime trying to not be an actor,” Washington said. “I am always quitting this business, and then right when I decide that I’m done is when something extraordinary comes across my desk.”
She went on to reveal some of the projects that kept bringing her back, including ABC’s Scandal, which made her a household name.
“I was really, really done with this business right before I read the script for Ray. I was really, really done with this business right before I read the script for The Last King of Scotland. I was entirely done with this business before reading the script for Scandal. This is what happens again and again,” she said.
Washington Has Previously Said She’s Very Selective of What Roles She Takes
In a previous interview, Washington said she has always been selective about her roles and at the beginning of her career would rather work more at her restaurant job than take a bad role.
“Even in the beginning of my career, I would say I’d rather work another shift at the restaurant than do a movie that is going to be bad for women or Black people,” she said. “Part of being an artist, being a creative person, is constantly being willing to be a beginner and do things you’ve never done, be in situations you’ve never been, stretch, grow. I’m so attracted to that kind of work, but it is also so f-cking scary.”
Kerry Washington Will Star Along With Oprah in Netflix’s Six Triple Eight
Earlier this year, it was announced that Washington and Oprah Winfrey had both been cast to star in Tyler Perry’s World War II drama, Six Triple Eight for Netflix. The film is about the untold story of the 6888th Postal Directory Battalion which was made up of 855 Black women who had the task of sorting and delivering a three-year backlog of undelivered mail. The film is to be directed and produced by Perry who also wrote the screenplay, which is based on an article by Kevin M. Hymel that was published in WWII History Magazine by Sovereign Media.
“Facing discrimination, unfamiliar land, and a war-torn country, they persevered and sorted over 17 million pieces of mail, reconnecting American soldiers with their families and loved ones back home,” the film’s official synopsis reads. “The motto that kept them going each day was one they created themselves: ‘No Mail, Low Morale.’ The women of the 6888 weren’t just delivering mail, they were delivering hope.”
In addition to Washington and Winfrey, the film is set to start Ebony Obsidian, Milauna Jackson, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Jay Reeves, Jeanté Godlock, Moriah Brown, Baadja-Lyne Odums and Gregg Sulkin, along with Dean Norris, Sam Waterston, and Susan Sarandon.
