Kerry Washington is having the best week ever.
After it was announced yesterday that Kerry will portray Anita Hill in HBO’s Confirmation, the Scandal star now graces the cover of Marie Claire‘s April issue.
Inside the issue, Kerry touches on fashion, family and what it’s like to work with TV titan Shonda Rhimes. Equally exciting, Girls creator Lena Dunham pens her cover story, aptly titled Why we all want to be Kerry Washington.
The two women met up to discuss a myriad of subjects, and below are just a few tidbits from their conversation.
Kerry Washington on privacy: “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.'”
On collaborating with Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes: “I’m very respectful of Shonda’s vision of who Olivia [Pope] is, but she has said that she is informed by the choices I make. If we were waltzing, she’s definitely leading. And she picked the song, and she probably dressed us, but it is a waltz.”
On fashion: “I just put myself in a boot camp of figuring it out—and realized that I really loved it. I guess because I came to it later in life, I realized, ‘Oh, going to a fashion show is like going to the opening of Degas at the Met or going to see Swan Lake.'”
On family: “I just want [daughter Isabelle] to know that she’s heard. Really heard, because I feel like that is what we all really want. 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. I see you, I hear you, I’m with you as you are.”
On Olivia Pope: “I don’t think I consciously say, ‘What would Olivia Pope do?’ but there’s a new thread of belief in my own capacity that I think comes from her. She makes it happen. She figures it out. She fixes it.”
On growing up: “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.”
Lena Dunham is set to guest star on next Thursday’s episode of Scandal, and you can check out the promotional video for that episode below.
Afterwards, peep a behind-the-scenes video of Kerry’s Marie Claire cover shoot.
[via Marie Claire]
