Kerry Washington: Power, Perfection & Olivia Pope

TL;DR

Kerry Washington opens up about Scandal's historic impact, her abortion, eating disorder, and discovering her father was not her biological parent.

Key Points

• 1.Scandal broke a 40-year drought. When it premiered, it had been nearly 40 years since a Black woman led a network drama — Washington was 35 and had never seen it in her lifetime.
• 2.Washington almost quit acting before Scandal. The business side — executives dictating her body, constant rejection, and competitive politics — pushed her to the brink of leaving the industry entirely.
• 3.Shondaanda Rhimes literally jumped for joy. When Washington nervously told Rhimes she was pregnant mid-production, Rhimes jumped up and down in her trailer and committed to making it work healthily.
• 4.Scandal's success immediately unlocked competitor shows. ABC launched How to Get Away with Murder, Quantico, and Fox debuted Empire shortly after — networks rapidly shifted from calling a Black female lead 'a risk' to actively seeking one.
• 5.The Vermont scenes were actually filmed in Calabasas. Washington revealed the iconic romantic Vermont escape with Fitz — widely cited as the hottest Olivia-Fitz moment — was entirely shot in Calabasas, California.
• 6.Tony Goldwyn picked up live on air from Washington DC. Washington called co-star Goldwyn mid-interview; he named sex in the electrical closet as the hottest scene — a scene that required Olivia to wear a dress specifically because of the closet logistics.
• 7.Washington had an abortion in her late 20s and kept it private for years. She initially wrote about it in a 'never publishing' file, but her editor found a passing reference in the memoir and pushed her to include the full story.
• 8.Filming Olivia's on-screen abortion was cathartic, not triggering. Washington had not publicly disclosed her own abortion at the time of filming; she used acting to channel her private truth through Olivia, describing it as healing and feeling 'less to hide' afterward.
• 9.Washington traces disembodiment to childhood sexual abuse. She explains she got pregnant partly due to lifelong dissociation rooted in abuse — she blames herself for 'not staying in her body,' not for the abortion decision itself, which she describes as clear and right.
• 10.Her father's non-biological status was revealed via Finding Your Roots. After Scandal ended, Henry Louis Gates' show triggered panic attacks from her dad; Gates privately learned the sperm-donor secret before Washington did and urged her parents to tell her while everyone was alive.
• 11.Washington's daughters have fewer reproductive rights than she did at their age. She frames current abortion restrictions as being about controlling women rather than protecting children, arguing that if it were truly about care, there would be equal investment in education and family resources.