Emmy Nominees: Kerry Washington of ?Scandal?

Kerry Washington works in Washington both in fact and fiction.

As a member of President Obama?s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, she helps to make recommendations about arts education in America and to promote cultural diplomacy programs like Film Forward. As Olivia Pope, the protagonist of the soapy ABC thriller ?Scandal,? she fixes the problems of the powerful and has the occasional affair with the president.

On Thursday she became the first African-American actress to be nominated for best actress in a drama since 1995, when Cicely Tyson was nominated (and lost) for ?Sweet Justice.? Ms. Washington called from Los Angeles to discuss ?Scandal? and the nomination. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q.

How would you define ?Scandal?? Is it a political thriller? A soap? All of the above?

A.

All of the above. There?s something very heightened about it. The work of my fellow actors is so real and honest ? I don?t know if I?d say a soap opera but I would say there is something operatic about it.

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Q.

Between your show and things like ?House of Cards? and ?Veep,? we seem to be having a D.C. moment on television.

A.

What?s great about it is the shows are so different, tonally. Some of us were at the White House Correspondents dinner and it was so much fun, because some of the folks from ?Veep? and ?House of Cards? were there. It was fun to be able to talk to people inside the Beltway about how excited they are about these shows.

Q.

You work in Washington as part of the President?s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. What did you know about political fixers before you took this role?

A.

Not much, which I think is a good sign because it means I haven?t been involved in any scandals. [Laughs.] There were ideas I had about the wardrobe. I knew that I wanted her to stand apart from the D.C. aesthetic. The ideas about power and stuff ? there?s enough of that in Hollywood.

Q.

What surprised you about that world?

A.

One of the things I learned when I was researching Judy Smith, who the character is based on, is crisis management is such a high-stakes world. People walk into her office every single day on the worst day of their lives, and say, ?Fix it.? You and I may have one of those worst days. But she is constantly managing people?s worst days of their lives. So there is a kind of heightened energy to this kind of work. At the end of last season I actually said to my doctor, ?I have no adrenaline left in my system because I?ve been operating with these everything-is-life-or-death stakes for nine months. I need a nap and some adrenal gland support.?

Q.

You are the first black leading actress nominee since 1995, did you know that?

A.

I have heard that this morning. [Laughs].

Q.

Is it a source of particular pride for you?

A.

Well I?m honored to share this history with some of the actresses I admire most, people like Debbie Allen, Alfre Woodard, Cicely Tyson and Regina Taylor. To be in that community of actresses is tremendous to me, personally. I?m really excited that a show that is as inclusive and diverse as our show, with regard to not just race, but ethnicity and sexual orientation and age and gender, is able to succeed in the United States and now abroad as well. I?m proud to be part of a show like that.

Source: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/emmy-nominees-kerry-washington-of-scandal/

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