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As double entendres go, to say Kerry Washington acts with teeth isn’t a bad one. There’s the literal meaning: Washington’s dramatic facial expressions have become internet canon, immortalised as various reaction gifs and as a favourite of online impressionists. But there’s also the roles themselves. The characters Washington plays have bite – they’re complex women that defy neat categorisation. Her role as Olivia Pope, the sleek political fixer in ABC’s Scandal, became a global sensation – and was the first time a Black woman led a network show in nearly 40 years.
Now Washington is back with a new project offering not just one complicated leading lady but three. Imperfect Women, Apple TV’s adaptation of Araminta Hall’s novel, brings Washington together with Elisabeth Moss and Kate Mara in a glossy murder mystery that puts female friendship – its love, loyalty, secrets and rivalry – at the heart.
“In the world we live in, there is so much pressure for women to look a certain way, behave a certain way, to please, to conform, so when we break the rules, when we get messy, it’s riveting,” says Washington when we meet in London.
Indeed, Imperfect Women has already drawn comparisons to two prestige shows with precisely this recipe – Big Little Lies and The White Lotus. Like the former, the drama unfolds in a moneyed milieu in California, though instead of women linked by their children’s school, this time it’s three old college friends – there’s Eleanor (played by Washington), an award-winning philanthropist from a wealthy family; Nancy (Mara) whose marriage into high society belies her humble beginnings; and Mary (Moss), a stay-at-home writer/mum with a professor husband. It’s a “choose your fighter” of idealised womanhood; that is until, much like in Mike White’s luxury resort drama, family secrets, trauma and the age-old faultlines of class and race appear.
Fans of Washington’s many faces will undoubtedly enjoy her performance, as Eleanor staggers from one high-octane emotional moment to another – from betrayal by a loved one to being disbelieved by the authorities, all with that background unease of being observed and in turn judged (a pressure that feels distinctly female). These are, after all, classic themes of the psychological thriller, though I do wonder about the power of surveillance as a fear factor. Isn’t such a loss of privacy par for the course now thanks to social media? Aren’t we all living in this nightmare? Isn’t Washington especially, as an actual celebrity?
“When something goes viral, it’s so overwhelming,” she replies. For Washington, living in an age without privacy – “with the inability to control something once it’s out there” – is highly scary. She recalls filming the scene in which her character has details of her romantic life leaked online. “When we were shooting that scene, a bunch of people that work in my production company were like: ‘We have never seen that side of you, like the level of anger and terror coexisting in your body.’”
How did a show like Imperfect Women, which set out to create truly three-dimensional female characters, cope with the way audiences react to “messy” women? It has long been said that while TV’s male antiheroes get to be morally void (think The Sopranos’ Tony or Breaking Bad’s Walter White), antiheroines still have to ultimately be “good” – redeemable, and their bad actions psychologically explained – to have audiences engage with them. Didn’t this show struggle with the same burden, to make their “imperfect” women sympathetic?
She pushes back on this. In Imperfect Women, she says, there is not one fixed truth; here the viewers are invited to see events from each of the women’s perspectives. That, says Washington, is “one of the really important elements” – to consider a point of view other than your own. “At a time when we are so tribal and so unwilling in culture to see things from somebody else’s perspective, I think allowing an audience to actually walk through a set of facts from multiple points of views is a real exercise in empathy and sympathy – and a service.”
With all this talk of meaty characters, one might think that there is a glut of complex female roles these days. “It’s better [than it was]. And I think it’s mostly better because so many of us have become producers.” Washington is an executive producer on Imperfect Women through her company Simpson Street (which was also behind her work on the multiple Emmy-nominated Little Fires Everywhere – another book to TV adaptation that focuses on messy female relationships). Same for Elisabeth Moss and her company, Love & Squalor Pictures. “We’re not sitting at home waiting to be invited to the party. We’re throwing our own parties and our parties centre us. That’s part of why there are more of these stories. It’s not by any means equitable. But it’s a lot better.”
I’m curious whether she feels the same thing about roles for women of colour. It’s said that the only reason the much loved character of Olivia Pope in Scandal was allowed to remain as a Black woman was because she was based on a real-life Black woman, Judy Smith, George W Bush’s deputy press secretary. Otherwise, chances are the network would have found it too risky. Has that changed since she herself rewrote the formula of who can be a leading lady?
“A little, but there’s also tremendous backlash. There’s a denial of DEI and reversal of policy, so though I think it had gotten better, there’s a lot of pulling in and retreating from inclusivity.”
In the original novel, the three main women are white. They’re also British in the book (they meet at the University of Oxford), but in the TV show they’re all from the US (though I suspect that bit of creative licence is unlikely to attract the same ire from those furious about colourblind casting). What would she say to people who might take umbrage at these tweaks?
“I mean … do I have to say anything to them or do I just let them be on their merry way,” she replies wryly. It is a pleasure to see her bat this – and perhaps in turn, them – away so elegantly.
But she gives a little more. “It is what it is. It adds something. It adds more complexity and more depth, and I don’t think there’s a right or wrong. I just think we’ve cast a Black woman in this role and it allowed us to play with some different themes and ideas. I also had to ask myself: who is this Black woman who only has white friends? Why?”
I tell Washington that in my research for this article I came across an interview with her for Bloomberg where she pressed quite strongly that her work with Simpson Street is not political. (“It’s just human,” she says in the interview.) Yet much of what we’ve discussed is quite clearly political. Why did she feel the need to say that?
“People need to be challenged on what it means to create political work. Because when they see work that centres somebody that exists on the margins, they insist that’s political. But I think it’s just inclusive. So when I centre myself, I’m not carving out a space to say something political. I’m just honouring that I’m a human and I deserve to have my story told.”
“To say to artists of colour that centring ourselves is an inherent political act as opposed to a creative one feels unfair.”
It’s important to mention that putting aside lofty debates on the relationship between politics and art, Washington is political, as in party political. She’s campaigned for the Democrats, and has done her bit to encourage voter registration. Surely she has no problem with the label?
“I don’t mind it. I said this when I spoke at the [Democratic National Convention] a million years ago, I said: ‘You may not be thinking about politics, but politics is always thinking about you.’”
“Really, everything is political. When we centre white characters, that’s also political from my point of view. Encouraging empathy and compassion – which I think the show does – is political. I just don’t think the burden should be put only on women or artists of colour who do that. Everyone who’s telling a good story is doing that political act.”
“So I don’t mind the association, but I also want to be able to be an artist and not be accused of having an agenda.”
Time is running out, but before I go I do have to ask her about the memes. “It’s an accolade!” I beam.
She doesn’t seem quite as enthusiastic: “Is it?! Why?” she asks.
It seems obvious to me: it’s evidence of being a singular acting talent. After all, not many have that additional visual storytelling ability – but also I have a theory that in the age of Botox, women having expressions is just really important.
Washington agrees. “There’s a study about young men having a hard time embracing emotion from their female partners because they grew up with moms that didn’t express feelings.
“Actors are such strange people. We wait at home for a phone call that someone wants us to cry.
But feelings are good. I like having feelings. I mean, I am not afraid of a dermatologist, I love a laser and I think being proactive about ageing gracefully is a beautiful thing. But I also know my job is to have feelings.”
Imperfect Women is on Apple TV from 18 March.
