March 2025 Behind the Scenes with Kerry Washington

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00:00Hi, I'm Kerry Washington, and we are behind the scenes for my Ebony March 2025 cover shoot.

00:09I know that I'm really drawn toward opportunities and projects where I feel like we get to

00:16really swim in truth, because I think a lot of times when we tap into truth,

00:24it allows us to feel less alone, that there's so much power in storytelling to help us feel less

00:31alone, that when we step into a story and we see ourselves in somebody else's experience,

00:38both because somebody looks like us and reminds us of ourselves in some way, or because somebody

00:43totally is nothing like us, but our heart feels aligned with theirs in some way.

00:49I don't know, I just think all of that helps us to feel more connected as a species, as people.

00:58So I think storytelling is really powerful because it inspires us to kind of move toward who we are,

01:04and also sometimes inspires toward who we want to be, and sometimes warn us about who we don't want

01:10to be. I am by nature a pretty curious person, and I really love to learn, and I love to challenge

01:17myself, and I love to contribute. I think Simpson Street Productions and Simpson Street Ventures

01:22were born out of that curiosity and that desire to make good shit in the world, and to be part of

01:32the creation of projects and endeavors and communities and products that I think have a positive impact

01:40in the world, or that help us to live more freely, more fully, just have a better quality of life.

01:49We talk about Simpson Street being a place where we stand at the intersection of what makes us all unique

01:54and different and special, and also what makes us all the same. What makes me the same to every single

02:00person watching this video is we all want to be loved, we all want to be, we all want to belong.

02:05We really see the value in having everybody sit at the table, and if that's not something you can get

02:11down with, then we're going to disagree, and we're going to continue to fight for the space to be able

02:16to tell stories about everybody all the time, because nobody, nobody needs to feel alone.

02:23The biggest experience that I had that invited me toward leadership in my life was actually being cast

02:29as Olivia Pope. It was my first time being number one on the call sheet on a long-standing series.

02:37I'd done it in films, but just the nature of being the lead on that show, on that historic show, and then

02:46the role that Olivia Pope was herself, such a really strong leader and boss, I think those things really

02:55propelled me toward asking myself what leadership looks like for me, and in what ways I was,

03:01Carrie, ready to lead in my personal life, in my professional life. There's really, there is powerful

03:08community in the black Hollywood family, and whether it's, you know, just among black women, which is

03:18extraordinary and powerful, but also across black men and women, like the support that we have for

03:24each other, it's really born of this deep faith that there isn't a limited pie, that when I win,

03:31you win, and when you win, I win, and if we can create opportunities, we get to create opportunities

03:36for each other. You know, I had this moment standing on the red carpet at the NAACP Awards,

03:41where I was standing with Ebony Obsidian, who's the star of 6888, and Emma Yatsi, and who's the star of

03:47reasonable doubt, and it was like such magic to be able to be like, wow, I'm so grateful to be in

03:55a place in my career where I'm actually able to create opportunity for extraordinarily beautiful,

04:02talented black women to shine, where I'm getting to help build the platforms that allow for multiple

04:10other people to chase excellence in their own way, and where we can kind of all win together,

04:16and I think so many of us are stepping into that agency and that power to create opportunity for

04:23each other, and that builds our faith to begin to celebrate each other more and more, which is just,

04:30it's a gift. Coming out of releasing my memoir, there is more, I have, I'm tapped into a deeper

04:39strength and a deeper kind of courage, like I survived something, something that my family,

04:45we weren't sure we were going to survive in the beginning, so I think on the other side of Thicker

04:50Than Water, I have been really drawn to kind of more genre pieces, more action, more thriller,

04:58more intensity in the work, and that's been really fun and exciting. Like, Shadow Force is a film that I'm

05:04so excited for people to see, um, playing against Omar C, and that I trained for months, and I get to

05:12do all this crazy action, and it's really exciting to kind of do work that I've never done before,

05:19that I haven't done in a really, really, really long time, to challenge myself in that way, and to

05:24kind of take on the spirit of a fighter, particularly in this time, and somebody who is not just a fighter,

05:31but she's a fighter for her family, she's a fighter for love, and, um, that feels like the right zone to

05:38be in right now. I think there's two things that I've had to kind of wrap my head around in order to

05:44continue to expand and grow and, um, take advantage of new opportunities in my life. I think one thing,

05:53um, and this is something that Michelle Obama talks about often, is that you can't be everything all

06:01the time. The second thing is I've had to learn to, um, to not expect to be perfect, to not have that be

06:10how I define excellence, because perfection is an illusion. It's just not, it's just like a weapon

06:19that I can pick up to make things harder for myself, but it's actually not a realistic goal.

06:25Um, and then I think the big one is I've just had to be willing to ask for more help and to receive

06:32that help. And actually, the real evolution is, like, I really, like, love and appreciate and am deeply

06:41grateful for the help. Coming out of isolation in my ambition, I think, has been one of the greatest

06:47gifts because it's helped me build more community and kind of deeper relationships, both personally

06:51and professionally. We need to make sure that we are building in a way that's really intentional

06:59and that we bring ourselves with us, um, because that's what we're fighting for. We're fighting

07:06for the ability to be who we are fully unapologetically in the world.

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