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In real life, I'm just an actor. I play pretend. I tell stories.
Kerry Washington
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I've had friends of mine say, like, they're tired of 'gayface,' and I was like, 'What's gayface?' They were like, 'It's the gay version of blackface: like, come in and be more effeminate.'
Kerry Washington
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I always prided myself on the fact that I could live out of milk crates forever. It was kind of my way of detaching from materialism.
Kerry Washington
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For the red carpet, I'm totally a stiletto girl. But in the rest of my life, I'd say I'm 50/50. I love a good heel, but I also have a really great sneaker collection. That's the Bronx girl in me.
Kerry Washington
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I've been wanting to produce for some time because I want to have more creative control over the things that I do and not be victim to the whims of other people's desires.
Kerry Washington
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So many struggled so that all of us could have a voice in this great democracy and live up to the first three words of our constitution: We the people. I love that phrase so much. Throughout our country's history, we've expanded the meaning of that phrase to include more and more of us. That's what it means to move forward.
Kerry Washington
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When you buy into the cultural idea of what's acceptable and unacceptable, you reinforce negative stereotypes and prejudices. That wouldn't work for me. I don't love to give advice to anyone, because we all have to make our own choices, but I'd want to live my life in truth.
Kerry Washington
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I come from the theater and I plan to always do theater. So I don't really see myself not being able to act even if people don't think I am sexy enough for film at 40, I'll still be acting.
Kerry Washington
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You see the transformation that the arts have on young people. It changes their lives for the better. That's where my engagement is.
Kerry Washington
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I have to take care of myself in order to live life the way I want to. It's important to have rest days. But in the long run, if I don't work out for, like, three days, I feel worse, not better.
Kerry Washington
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I really gravitate toward having all different styles in my closet because I feel like I always want to dress to fit my mood or where I am going. I do love Jason Wu; he is also a really good friend of mine, and I love what he is doing for Hugo Boss these days.
Kerry Washington
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Earlier in my career, I was much more super-sharey. There were moments when I wanted to process things that were happening to me more privately, and I didn't have the space to do it, because once you let people in, they're in, and you don't get to say, 'Oh, I want this for myself.'
Kerry Washington
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Before 'Scandal,' I was actually cast in two other pilots. Both went to series, but I was fired and recast. For both, it was because they wanted me to sound more 'girlfriend,' more like 'hood,' more 'urban.'
Kerry Washington
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I wouldn't just come home from school and watch TV everyday, they had me involved in lots of local theatre. I was a very dramatic, talkative child. And that was part of my mother's creative solution - to put me in workshops and classes and children's theatre programmes.
Kerry Washington
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There are a lot of forms of exercise where you have to leave yourself out of the room while you force yourself to do this thing. With Pilates, I get to bring my true self. I cry, I laugh. I get to go, 'Where is my body today? What do I need today? How can I take care of myself and push myself past my comfort zone?'
Kerry Washington
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I think sometimes in life we want to ignore the problems of society and just think about the good. I believe in positive thinking and affirmative living, I also think it's really important to remember all of our disenfranchised members of society.
Kerry Washington
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It's interesting how much people long to fill in the gaps when someone in the public eye doesn't share their personal life. I understand their frustration.
Kerry Washington
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I didn't grow up thinking I was pretty; there was always a prettier girl than me. So I learned to be smart and tried to be funny and develop the inside of me, because I felt like that's what I had.
Kerry Washington
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Shoes define how you walk in the world and how you stand: like, what is your posture in life?
Kerry Washington
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For me, what is political is very personal. Politics are not this abstract idea. Laws are the rules that dictate how we live our lives. What we eat is political. How we dress is political. Where we live is political. All of these things are influenced by political decision-making, and it's important to be part of the process.
Kerry Washington
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When you have things that are very important to you in life, when there are things you want to do and be - that takes work. It takes work to show up for your own story and show up for the dream and vision you have for yourself.
Kerry Washington
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You may not be thinking about politics, but politics is thinking about you.
Kerry Washington
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When I think about any of the missteps in my life that I've made, all of which I'm grateful for, it's because I just so wanted to be truly seen and heard for who I am and was afraid I wasn't or wouldn't be.
Kerry Washington
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I learned through experience that it doesn't work for me to talk about my personal life. I've had earlier times in my career when I did talk about it.
Kerry Washington
