After an impressive run in Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal as the first black protagonist in approximately 50 years, the actor and producer has a different goal with Little Fires Everywhere. In a cover interview with Variety, she explains what it is.
“What would Olivia Pope do” is no longer a line we hear on the small screen unless watching a rerun. These days, Kerry Washington has turned in, what looks like the performance of a lifetime, going by the teasers of the upcoming Little Fires Everywhere. The anthology series also features Reese Witherspoon - television queen of our times – and both actors are also executive producers.
If Scandal gave her the visibility an actor of Washington’s calibre deserved after playing small roles in prominent films like The Last King of Scotland, Mr and Mrs. Smith, Fantastic Four and the Rise of the Silver Surfer and Django Unchained, Scandal put her on the Hollywood A-lister map.
With the network series now after six seasons, Washington starred in a Broadway play that was converted into a one-off TV event and is coming back with Little Fires Everywhere, premiering March 18, with eight episodes. As she tells Variety, “Everyone is, and deserves to be, the center of their own story. There aren’t certain kinds of people who get to be the leaders or protagonists, or others who must be supporting characters.” This distinction doesn’t sit down well with Washington. As Variety notes, “she signed on to Little Fires Everywhere, an ambitious and complex examination of American values that pushed her as an actor and a producer like none of her other projects quite could.”
Set in the nineties, the Hulu series follows Washington (Mia) and Witherspoon (Elena) in what looks to be progressive Ohio suburb but isn’t. “The show grapples with issues of class, race, immigration and sexuality in a way that resonates with piercing and downright alarming clarity today,” reports Variety.
Based on a best-selling novel of the same name by Celeste Ng, the character is one that Washington calls “coming of age” and is driven by personal experiences. “My lived experience has allowed me to, in this role, feel like I could fill space without a whole song and dance,” says Kerry Washington. “I spent seven years on a show filling space by doing, all the time — and to allow for more economy and nuance and trust, it felt exciting [here].”
Washington was aware that had Scandal tanked, it would be decades before a black person is able to lead a network series. Now that she is visible, she is using it to tell stories that go beyond the predictable. “I feel like, to a certain extent, storytelling has the ability to do that, to make us more aware of each other, and care for each other more.”
– With information from Variety
