In her memoirs which have just been published in the United States, African-American actress Kerry Washington criticizes racism in Hollywood and its stereotypes, for which she has paid the price.
Beginning her acting career at the start of the 2000s, Kerry Washington has largely established herself in the Hollywood landscape. Definitely put into orbit with the success of the solid series Scandal, of which she has been the headliner since 2012. She plays Olivia Pope, a public relations expert particularly renowned for her crisis management.
Publishing his memoirs in the United States, under the title Thicker Than Water, the actress speaks without filter about the racism in Hollywood that she has faced, reviewing the clichéd roles she has played in the past. She cites as an example the film In the Ropes, where she played opposite Meg Ryan.
“In this film, I played Meg Ryan’s colleague and confidante – this became a new niche for me, the white girl’s best friend!” As she writes, On the Ropes was the third film in a row where she played the best friend of a white woman in the lead role.
“When Harry Met Sally is one of my three favorite films of all time, so after playing Meg Ryan’s best friend, playing the same role against anyone else would have been counterproductive.”
His career continued with supporting roles that were much more fleshed out than that of leading man, as in Ray, or even more so in The Last King of Scotland, where Forest Whitaker played the terrifying and bloodthirsty dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin. Dada.
And the actress continued: “It’s not that I wanted to be the star of the film, no, I just wanted my characters to have a story of their own. I didn’t want to be an accessory in the trajectory of a white woman!”