How Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street Thrives Through Disruption

I talked about this recently at the Essence Luncheon because I got an award this year from Essence Magazine.

And the last time that I had gotten an award from the magazine was the first year of Scandal.

And I remember being terrified to stand on that stage and receive that award because the room was filled with women who had auditioned to be Olivia Pope.

Mm-hmm.

And I thought, who the hell am I that I'm the one who got it? And does everybody in this room hate me? Carrie! Because there were so few opportunities for us.

And so was I being perceived in a zero-sum game as somebody who was taking away someone else's opportunity? Yeah.

And I also know a lot of those women and know how extraordinarily talented they are.

And I know when those women got the call that it wasn't theirs, they thought, I could do what she could do.

And they're right.

They're right.

Like, I was chosen for a particular version of Olivia Pope, but there are so many women who would have killed that role.

There's so much talent in this town.

And so many of those women are women that I have been fans of for so long.

So I was nervous to get up on that stage.

But when I got up there, when I walked in that room, all I felt was love and support.

All I felt was sisterhood and camaraderie.

And I remember thinking, like, if this show works...

I want to somehow be part of a solution so that there isn't one role every four years, every 40 years, excuse me.

You know, there had been all this talk in the press about how it had been 40 years since a Black woman had been the lead of a network drama.

And I was like, this can't be.

Like, we can't be out in this desert of opportunity.

And so I didn't know what that was going to look like or what it meant, but...

when the opportunity arose for me to do confirmation as a producer and actor, one of the most exciting things I got to do was casting.

As a producer, that was a value that, even though I had so much to learn about producing, I could immediately bring value in terms of casting, not just in calling in favors, but evaluating auditions.

And so calling Jennifer Hudson to come and be in confirmation with me I was like, this is it.

I talked about this recently at the Essence Luncheon because I got an award this year from Essence Magazine.

And the last time that I had gotten an award from the magazine was the first year of Scandal.

And I remember being terrified to stand on that stage and receive that award because the room was filled with women who had auditioned to be Olivia Pope.

Mm-hmm.

And I thought, who the hell am I that I'm the one who got it? And does everybody in this room hate me? Carrie! Because there were so few opportunities for us.

And so was I being perceived in a zero-sum game as somebody who was taking away someone else's opportunity? Yeah.

And I also know a lot of those women and know how extraordinarily talented they are.

And I know when those women got the call that it wasn't theirs, they thought, I could do what she could do.

And they're right.

They're right.

Like, I was chosen for a particular version of Olivia Pope, but there are so many women who would have killed that role.

There's so much talent in this town.

And so many of those women are women that I have been fans of for so long.

So I was nervous to get up on that stage.

But when I got up there, when I walked in that room, all I felt was love and support.

All I felt was sisterhood and camaraderie.

And I remember thinking, like, if this show works...

I want to somehow be part of a solution so that there isn't one role every four years, every 40 years, excuse me.

You know, there had been all this talk in the press about how it had been 40 years since a Black woman had been the lead of a network drama.

And I was like, this can't be.

Like, we can't be out in this desert of opportunity.

And so I didn't know what that was going to look like or what it meant, but...

when the opportunity arose for me to do confirmation as a producer and actor, one of the most exciting things I got to do was casting.

As a producer, that was a value that, even though I had so much to learn about producing, I could immediately bring value in terms of casting, not just in calling in favors, but evaluating auditions.

And so calling Jennifer Hudson to come and be in confirmation with me I was like, this is it.