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]
