Kerry Washington keeps trying to quit acting: 'This is what happens again and again'
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
From the outside, it may look like Kerry Washington is consistently busy taking on new projects. Her latest series, UnPrisoned, on which she stars and produces, came out last spring, and her memoir, Thicker than Water, will be released later this year. Yet, Washington says she is constantly trying to exit Hollywood.
"I have spent a lifetime trying to not be an actor," she told W Magazine. "I am always quitting this business, and then right when I decide that I'm done is when something extraordinary comes across my desk."
There seems to always be a role that entices the Emmy-winning actress to step back in front of the camera.
"I was really, really done with this business right before I read the script for Ray," she said. "I was really, really done with this business right before I read the script for The Last King of Scotland. I was entirely done with this business before reading the script for Scandal. This is what happens again and again."
Kelsey McNeal/Hulu/Courtesy Everett Kerry Washington on 'UnPrisoned'
Washington was lured back into a starring role for Hulu's UnPrisoned as well, in which she portrays a therapist whose father (Delroy Lindo), recently released from prison, moves in with her as the family deals with the difficult situation surrounding his transition. The show is inspired by the life of TV writer Tracy McMillan, whose credits include Mad Men and Marvel's Runaways.
"I think the circumstances of her life are so fascinating," Washington told the publication. "When I read it, I fell in love with the material immediately."
McMillan illuminated some of what makes the narrative so powerful in an interview with The Wrap earlier this year.
"I'm not writing this show as a favor to the audience," she said. "I'm writing the show to work it out for myself and audience receives catharsis through that. That is what art is all about. It's an opportunity to examine something as a society and as an individual, that you wouldn't have that talking point without that show, that book, that play, that song. So, to me, that's the highest form of popular culture. It's the highest form of media, and what got me into it in the first place."
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content
