‘It felt strange to look at a picture of myself that is so different from what I look like when I look in the mirror’
Kerry Washington says she was thrilled when Adweek invited her to do a cover— until she saw the final product.
The actress, who is on the April 4, 2016, cover, says she wasn’t pleased with the level of Photoshopping.
She explained her dissatisfaction with the photo in an Instagram post sharing the cover.
The article dives into the actress’s role in the upcoming HBO movie Confirmation, which is about the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas. Washington plays Anita Hill, who testified during the hearings that Thomas sexually harassed her.
“I was probably about 13 when it happened, but I had real memories about how it affected my parents, their feelings about the hearings,” she says. “And it was one of the first moments that I was made consciously aware of my own identity intersectionality: The idea that there may be times that I feel passionate about something as a person of color, and there may be times that I feel passionate about something as a woman, and there may be times when those two things are at odds with each other. So it was a poignant moment in my own developmental understanding of who I was.”
Ultimately, Washington still encourages her followers to get the latest issue of Adweek.
“I’m very proud of the article,” she says in her Instagram post. “Thank you for being patient with me while I figured out how to post this in a way that felt both celebratory and honest.”