(ThyBlackMan.com) Kerry Washington made her acting debut in 1994 in an ABC telefilm Magical Make Over. Since then she has starred in various films and shows, I Think I Love My Wife, Boston Legal, Save the Last and The Last King of Scotland to name a few.
She has really become a household recently in her role as Olivia Pope on ABC’s highly rated show Scandal. Now days Kerry Washington is displaying her acting skills to Hollywood yet at another level, starring beside Jamie Foxx in the hit movie Django Unchained.
As we all know by now, Django Unchained centers on a newly freed slave Django played by Jamie Foxx who is risking everything to rescue his wife Broomhilda von Shaft played by Kerry Washington from the hands of her evil
and brutal slave master.
As can be expected with slave movies and especially anything touched by Quentin Tarantino there is some controversy. Well not just some, but a lot.
Being one that has acted in high school and college I can understand taking on a role that is totally outside of our character and even our experience and possessing the ability to put that aside and to engross ourselves into the role.
Kerry Washington has done just that. Washington stated that while filming Django Unchained, she received real lashings from the actor playing the overseer. She also spent time in a “hot box” in order to become accustomed to scenes in which her character, Broomhilda was imprisoned in an underground metal container. But in the end, Kerry Washington felt it was all worth it because of the opportunity the film gave her to “honor the truth” of what happened during slavery.
Kerry Washington has also given her take on the movie and a very interesting one I might add. Even though Washington describes herself as a feminist, she also describes herself as a womanist, a coined termed by Alice Walker. She uses the term womanist to define black feminism.
According to Kerry Washington the role of Broomhilda, written by Quentin Tarantino, but derived from a Germany fairy tale, as a womanist role in that it allows the black woman to embrace a fantasy that historically wasn’t available to her.
“I know it’s not the most feminist idea to be a woman in a tower wanting to be rescued, but for a woman of color in this country, we’ve never been afforded that fairy tale because of how the black family was ripped apart during slavery,” Kerry Washington said. “I really saw the value of having a story that empowers the African American man to do something chivalrous for the African American woman, because that hasn’t been an idea that has held women back in the culture — it’s something we’ve never been allowed to dream about.”
The Dejango Unchained actress says that she’s grateful for the connection the film gave her to her ancestral past.
Regardless of how you feel about the movie or even about Kerry Washington’s performance, one thing is for sure Dejango Unchained is one movie that will be on the minds of many for days to come.
Staff Writer; LadyK
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