Kerry Washington shows us another side of her persona as she flirts with the camera in this behind-the-scenes video shoot of her UPTOWN Magazine cover. The actress opens up to the mag about her overachieving childhood, recent physical and emotional turmoil on set, and reveals why she’s not a saint.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
On what drew her to Django and the controversy around the movie:
“I’ve never seen slavery dealt with this way before in film. So often it’s a white character who’s the savior of black people.”
“We should have a plethora of visions and interpretations of who we are as a nation.” But she admits, “This is not necessarily the film I would make about slavery.”
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On growing up in the Washington household and her multi-culti family:
She still remembers the lively, sometimes heated, discussions on race and society around the dinner table. “My family’s very multiethnic,” she says. “When we get together for the holidays, it is the U.N., across the board.”
On the culture shock when she was enrolled in an upper east side private school:
Prior to Spence, Washington thought her working-middle-class family was balling. “We had a microwave and two cars. We had a dishwasher before anyone in the building,” she says. “And then you go to this other world, and it’s, ‘Oh, we’re taking a helicopter to your house in the Hamptons?’ For a lot of classmates, I knew the only other black women they’d known were their domestic help.”
On leaving the entertainment business:
“Sometimes I feel like I can’t do this anymore.” Almost once a year, her hair and makeup folks hear it: “I am done! I’m so done.”
On why she’s no saint:
“If you look at my body of work, I’ve always taken huge risks. I’ve played prostitutes, drug addicts, pimping lesbians. I do work I’m drawn to.”
