Kerry Washington: Opportunities for black women have shifted

Scandal actress Kerry Washington is thrilled black actresses are getting more opportunities than ever before.

The 38-year-old plays Olivia Pope in the hit ABC drama and garnered an Emmy nomination earlier this month (Sep15) for her work. She lost out to Viola Davis, who made history when she became the first black woman to win the best actress category. The star gave an impassioned speech about how the only thing separating women of colour from anyone else was opportunities and is a sentiment that Kerry completely agrees with.

“There have been a multitude of talented black actresses for a really long time,” she told Vanity Fair. “The opportunities for black actresses have shifted. That’s what’s changed.”

Kerry has received much acclaim from critics and viewers for her role as Olivia. She is a complex character that allows the actress to showcase a wide array of emotions, sometimes in the same scene.

“It’s so important to be a woman and to be a person of colour and embody characters that are fully human because it validates our experience,” she continued. “It means that our medium portrays women and people of colour as not just being an accessory but being worthy of their own three-dimensional, multi-faceted story, that we don’t have to be perfect, we have to be human and we should have that right.”

Kerry recently joined forces with singer Mary J. Blige and Empire actress Taraji P. Henson to film a commercial for Apple Music. The footage was shot by Selma director Ava DuVernay and Kerry was thrilled they got to represent the different aspects of their community.

“We, as black women, come in all kinds of shapes and characters, so why not have all the different kinds of us represented in the media'” she added.