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Kerry Washington Presents Jennifer Lopez Equity in Entertainment Award | Women in Entertainment 2025
The Hollywood Reporter
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8 minutes ago
Kerry Washington presents the Equity in Entertainment Award for her friend Jennifer Lopez at THR's Women in Entertainment 2025 breakfast gala.
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00:00
I couldn't sleep last night, you guys, and I just realized why, Sarah.
00:07
So thank you.
00:08
It's because I'm going to get to say some things this morning
00:12
that I have been waiting decades to say,
00:15
and I'm so grateful that I get to say them to you directly.
00:20
Jennifer Lopez is a singer, a songwriter, an actress, a producer,
00:26
an entrepreneur, a groundbreaker, a record setter, a trailblazer,
00:30
a mother, a friend, a once-in-a-lifetime generational talent,
00:34
a fucking superstar icon, right?
00:42
She is, without question, one of the most important cultural influencers of our time.
00:48
She has broken barriers for women, for the Latin community,
00:52
she's transformed American culture through storytelling, music, fashion,
00:57
marketing, through just being.
01:01
By just being herself,
01:04
Jennifer has evolved our collective understanding of excellence
01:09
and of beauty and of belonging.
01:12
But let me back up a little bit.
01:15
So Jennifer and I are both from the Bronx.
01:19
And the thing about being from...
01:20
Okay, okay, great.
01:21
Yes.
01:23
The thing about being from the Bronx is that it makes you scrappy.
01:27
And that attitude is not always defined by what we don't have,
01:30
although most of us did not have much.
01:33
But it's more about the perception of what you can and cannot do,
01:36
or sometimes what other people think you should or shouldn't do.
01:41
When you're from the Bronx, you tend to be scrappy
01:43
because there are a lot of people who don't believe in the possibilities
01:47
of what you can become.
01:49
At the risk of sounding obvious,
01:52
I want to give you a little cultural context.
01:54
So in New York City, the Bronx is the underdog borough, right?
01:58
We're the forgotten ones.
01:59
Queens has its gardens and its airports,
02:01
and Brooklyn has Spike Lee.
02:04
And the Bronx is like the last frontier of gentrification.
02:09
The stuff of mythical nightmares.
02:11
From novels like Bonfires of the Vanities to films like Fort Apache, the Bronx,
02:17
the Bronx has not generally been painted as a place where dreams come true.
02:20
It's a place where, if I may be completely honest,
02:25
nice white families fled.
02:29
They moved to Long Island and New Jersey or north to the suburbs
02:32
out of fear of the black and brown people that were moving in
02:36
and lowering property values and changing the culture.
02:42
I don't know if you've ever seen the Paul Newman film,
02:44
Fort Apache, the Bronx.
02:45
It's a police drama about crime and corruption.
02:48
It got its name because the police precinct in the South Bronx
02:52
was called Fort Apache
02:53
because they said that the Bronx felt like a war zone,
02:58
a battle-torn war zone,
03:00
like the U.S. Calvary fighting indigenous people in the 1800s.
03:03
Okay, why am I telling you this?
03:05
In real life, in the Bronx,
03:08
the Fort Apache police precinct was at 1086 Simpson Street.
03:14
Now, some of you may know that my production company,
03:16
Simpson Street,
03:17
is named after the street in the Bronx that my mother grew up on.
03:21
I named the company Simpson Street
03:23
because my grandparents came to this country from Jamaica
03:25
through Ellis Island.
03:27
They made a home on Simpson Street,
03:29
just down the block from Fort Apache precinct.
03:32
And contrary to the story that Hollywood was telling,
03:34
it was not a cesspool of danger and crime and corruption.
03:38
It was a home with love and laughter.
03:42
It was the beginning of our family's American dream.
03:45
Despite its reputation,
03:47
being from the Bronx has always been a source of pride for me.
03:50
Today, I'm deeply honored to be here
03:52
to celebrate my brilliant and beautiful Bronx sister
03:56
because while my mother's dreams were born on Simpson Street,
03:59
by the time I was forming dreams of my own,
04:03
it was Jenny from the block
04:04
who gave me something to believe in.
04:07
Now, I know, I know.
04:08
When you hear me say Jenny from the block,
04:11
your mind immediately references the song, right?
04:13
Maybe you hear this thumping hip-hop track.
04:15
You see her in the rocks that she's got,
04:18
cruising around L.A. in a convertible, you know,
04:21
pop icon movie star.
04:23
But when I talk about Jenny from the block,
04:26
here's who I remember.
04:28
Jennifer and I both grew up
04:30
in the Castle Hill Soundview section of the East Bronx.
04:33
We went to the very same Boys and Girls Club.
04:36
Some of you may have heard this before,
04:37
but when our beloved dance teacher,
04:39
Larry Maldonado, got sick and was hospitalized,
04:41
we were all crushed, but Jennifer, ever the leader,
04:46
she stepped in to substitute teach
04:49
some of the younger girls' classes
04:50
and help us prepare for our annual dance recital,
04:53
appropriately called Broadway Babies.
04:57
So, basically, J-Lo taught me how to dance.
05:00
I wish I had better moves to prove it,
05:03
but I can hold my own.
05:05
But dance is not the only thing that she taught me.
05:08
When Jennifer left the Bronx to move out to Los Angeles
05:11
to pursue a career in entertainment,
05:14
she taught me what creative courage looks like.
05:18
When she started to appear every Sunday night
05:20
on our TVs as a fly girl during In Living Color,
05:24
she taught me the value of chasing my own unique dreams.
05:29
When she blew audiences away in Selena
05:31
and then in movie after movie after movie,
05:34
she taught me to make room in my heart
05:37
and in my imagination for what to anyone else
05:41
might seem impossible.
05:44
Now, to be clear, back then, honestly,
05:47
I didn't think I had what it took.
05:50
I mean, Jennifer was different.
05:51
She was always gorgeous, always a phenom.
05:55
When her star started to rise,
05:56
nobody in the neighborhood was surprised.
05:58
She was always a supernova.
06:00
As little girls, we used to hide in the wings
06:02
to watch her on stage,
06:04
knowing that we were in the presence
06:05
of someone very, very special.
06:08
Me, I was a little bit more of like
06:10
an awkward, nerdy theater kid.
06:13
I could not imagine myself on the cover of magazines
06:16
or doing beauty campaigns
06:18
or at fancy awards breakfasts.
06:19
So, when my star started to rise,
06:25
I struggled a lot with anxiety and fear
06:30
and imposter syndrome.
06:32
Inevitably, I would do some photo shoot
06:34
or an interview,
06:36
and when it came out,
06:38
the visibility would send me into a panic.
06:41
I would sometimes literally hide under my covers,
06:44
feeling vulnerable and ill-equipped for a life
06:47
or even, quite honestly, a moment in the spotlight.
06:50
But sometimes, on a lucky day,
06:52
or maybe just on a day when my therapy was working,
06:56
I would remember to think of Jennifer,
06:59
and I would say,
06:59
Jen does this.
07:01
She was doing it,
07:02
and I knew her.
07:04
She was one of us.
07:06
She was out there taking risks
07:07
and being bold and breaking records
07:09
and making history,
07:11
and if she could do all that,
07:12
maybe I could get out of bed
07:14
and go to another audition,
07:15
despite my feelings that I wasn't enough.
07:19
As I started to get more acting work
07:21
and do more photo shoots
07:22
and go to more award shows,
07:24
whenever I walked into rooms
07:26
that I worried I didn't belong in,
07:28
I brought Jennifer with me,
07:30
and then I felt less alone,
07:32
and I felt more capable,
07:34
and eventually, I felt ready
07:35
to make some showbiz history of my own,
07:38
and I did.
07:39
I have a lot of people to thank
07:46
for the career that I enjoy today.
07:48
I mean, the great Sherry Lansing
07:50
put me in my first ever studio film,
07:53
Save the Last Sands,
07:54
and like Jennifer,
07:58
I rode that famous six train.
07:59
I commuted every day on the six
08:01
from the Bronx to Manhattan
08:03
to attend the same school as Gwyneth Paltrow,
08:05
and she has always supported
08:08
and embraced me
08:09
as her fellow spent sister.
08:11
Thank you, GP.
08:12
Congrats.
08:14
But before all of that,
08:16
there was Jen,
08:18
and she was paving the pathway,
08:21
treading a trail,
08:22
despite the odds,
08:23
of undeniable excellence
08:25
and unapologetic ambition.
08:29
I knew I had to have
08:30
some of what she had,
08:31
some of that drive to succeed,
08:32
despite often being
08:34
the only black woman in the room
08:36
or the first black woman
08:37
to headline a network drama
08:38
in 40 years.
08:39
I knew I could do it
08:40
because Jennifer did it,
08:41
because the Bronx made us scrappy.
08:44
It might sound like hyperbole,
08:46
but I am telling you,
08:48
without Jennifer Lopez,
08:50
there is no Kerry Washington.
08:53
But here's the crazier reality,
08:55
is I am one of millions of people
08:58
who feel that way.
09:00
This award is so fitting for Jennifer.
09:02
The Equity in Entertainment Award
09:04
because it's for someone
09:05
who promotes and amplifies
09:07
the voices of underrepresented communities
09:09
in this industry.
09:11
Jennifer has always used her platform
09:14
to represent the beauty
09:15
and humanity of her community
09:17
and to create endless opportunities
09:20
for other people to do the same.
09:22
Jennifer and I,
09:23
we've only worked together once.
09:25
It was in a musical,
09:26
Annie,
09:27
at the Boys and Girls Club.
09:28
I was that annoying orphan,
09:33
I think her name is Tess,
09:34
who goes,
09:34
oh my goodness,
09:35
oh my goodness.
09:38
And Jennifer was,
09:39
of course,
09:40
Ms. Grace.
09:42
The elegant love interest
09:43
to Daddy Warbucks,
09:44
the surrogate mother
09:45
to Annie.
09:46
I'm sure she doesn't remember this,
09:47
but one day at rehearsal,
09:49
Jen encouraged me
09:50
to sing out.
09:52
Mira,
09:52
we need to hear you,
09:54
she said.
09:55
It was an invitation
09:56
to step into the fullness
09:58
of my voice,
10:00
and I will never forget it.
10:02
Which brings me to
10:04
Kiss of the Spider Woman.
10:06
Oh my God.
10:08
If you have not seen
10:10
this film adaptation
10:11
of the Broadway musical,
10:13
but you're in the mood
10:14
to watch a superstar
10:15
deliver a captivating
10:17
triple threat
10:18
tour de force performance,
10:19
watch it.
10:20
In the film,
10:22
Jennifer plays
10:23
the dual roles
10:24
of both the Spider Woman
10:26
and Aurora,
10:27
also known as La Luna.
10:29
All these celestial names
10:31
for the superstar
10:32
that she is.
10:33
The reactions
10:34
to Jennifer's performance
10:35
are like her,
10:36
spectacular.
10:37
She is deservedly
10:38
blowing people's minds,
10:40
but not me.
10:41
Because while so many
10:43
of you know her
10:44
as the rom-com queen
10:45
in the plunging
10:46
Versace gown
10:48
and the 3,000
10:49
entrepreneurial successes,
10:52
the Jenny I know
10:53
from the block
10:54
is really
10:55
and always has been
10:57
a Broadway baby.
10:59
She sang show tunes
11:01
before she had pop hits.
11:03
She studied classical dance
11:04
before she was popping
11:05
and locking on MTV.
11:07
My heart swells
11:09
when I watch
11:10
Kiss of the Spider Woman
11:11
because what I see
11:12
is Jennifer pouring
11:13
all of her talent
11:15
and her work ethic
11:16
and her heart
11:17
and her creative power
11:19
and prowess
11:20
into this important story
11:21
about love
11:23
and belonging
11:24
and revolution
11:25
and imagination.
11:26
With this one project,
11:28
Jennifer utilizes
11:29
her star power
11:30
to uplift
11:30
political history,
11:32
Latin voices,
11:33
revolutionary voices,
11:35
activists,
11:36
the LGBTQIA community,
11:38
the artist community,
11:39
the need for reform
11:41
in the criminal justice system.
11:43
Time and time again,
11:45
she uses the power
11:46
of her presence
11:47
to inspire
11:47
and I am forever grateful.
11:51
I'll never forget
11:52
when in this administration's
11:54
first term,
11:54
they were separating families,
11:56
putting children in cages
11:57
and Jennifer courageously
11:59
brought that imagery
12:00
to her groundbreaking
12:02
Super Bowl performance
12:03
and broke all
12:04
of our hearts open.
12:06
There's a line
12:07
in Kiss of the Spider Woman
12:08
when the character
12:09
Molina says,
12:10
The thing I love
12:12
about La Luna
12:13
is that no matter
12:14
how hard Hollywood
12:15
tried to make her
12:16
seem all American,
12:18
she never stopped
12:20
being Latin.
12:22
Jennifer,
12:22
the same can be said
12:23
for you.
12:25
Your scrappy pursuit
12:27
of your dreams
12:28
has made it possible
12:29
for so many of us
12:31
to expand our notion
12:32
of what's possible.
12:33
So I want to thank you
12:36
for believing in yourself,
12:38
for shifting the culture.
12:41
Thank you for your courage
12:42
and for your hustle
12:44
and for your example.
12:46
Thank you for never forgetting
12:47
where you come from
12:48
and for your support
12:50
through these years.
12:52
Thank you for being you.
12:54
Muchisimas gracias
12:54
y felicidades.
12:55
Aplausos.
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