Kerry Washington Snags Role As Anita Hill In HBO’s ‘Confirmation’
Looks like Kerry Washington is branching out from playing Olivia Pope. Washington, who currently stars in the widely popular ABC series Scandal, has nabbed a huge role in an HBO film.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Washington will play Anita Hill in the HBO movie Confirmation. Washington will also act as an executive producer on the film, as well.
Confirmation will document the “1991 Clarence Thomas-Hill Supreme Court nomination hearings, which brought the country to a standstill and forever changed the way people think about sexual harassment, victims’ rights and modern-day race relations.”
“@NYDNgossip: Kerry Washington to play Anita Hill in the HBO movie “Confirmation” http://t.co/fVNIKhZ5oY pic.twitter.com/sEr595sgfD”
— Being A Black Lawyer (@OBABL) March 12, 2015
In 2014, Slate spoke with the real Anita Hill about the documentary Anita, which covered Hill’s testify that Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court nominee, had sexually harassed her when he was her boss back in 1991. What followed Hill’s career years later is unthinkable — death threats, sexual violence, and even bomb threats.
At the time, Hill told Slate that the trial and public perception changed her life forever. “I thought I would just go back and do what I do: commercial law and contracts. But within months I was getting so many requests that it just felt that there was a sincere effort for people to understand sexual harassment. It took a lot of letters from people who were asking really sincere questions, and so I gave it two years. And 23 years later … I say to people I do know how to count. There just seem to be so many layers to the problem that we’re still trying to address them.”
She continued, “Of course I get angry… Maybe all those different phases of grief. And I do tend to process it privately. That is the nature of who I am. Even if I am seen as a public figure, I can’t put everything out there because people want to see it.”
Intriguing RT @vulture: It’s handled: @KerryWashington is playing Anita Hill for @HBO http://t.co/ToUt1M5VFx pic.twitter.com/OYekRKUYoj
— ZombieCat (@Kimberly124) March 12, 2015
As for HBO Films, this is another promising project in a series of successful undertakings. The production company has been producing stellar content for a few years now, but it has only recently received the recognition it deserves both critically and commercially. Gia, Behind the Candelabra, Game Change, and The Normal Heart have all been nominated for several awards throughout the years.
[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
