ABC/Randy Holmes(NEW YORK) — Kerry Washington may be one of TV’s biggest stars today, but she says that before Scandal she was dropped from two TV series for not fitting into racial stereotypes.
“Before Scandal, I was actually cast in two other pilots. Both went to series, but I was fired and recast,” ” Washington says in an upcoming episode of Variety Studio: Actors on Actors. “For both it was because they wanted me to sound more ‘girlfriend, more like ‘hood,’ more ‘urban.'”
Washington made the comment in conversation with comedian and actor Aziz Ansari in the two-part fourth season premiere of the series which will air June 12 and 19 on PBS SoCal. Episodes of the series are also available for streaming on Variety.com.
Washington notes that Hollywood stereotypes aren’t confined to racial ones. “I’ve had friends of mine say, like, they’re tire 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,” she says.
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