Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
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.