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May 2010

MOTHER AND CHILD | An Interview with Kerry Washington

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MOTHER AND CHILD | An Interview with Kerry Washington
An Interview with Kerry Washington
By Damien D. Smith

May 3rd, 2010

Staring: Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Kerry Washington, Jimmy Smits, and Samuel L Jackson

The film is centered on three women's lives who share a common core: they have all been profoundly affected by adoption. Karen (Annette Bening) had a baby at 14, gave her up at birth, and has been haunted ever since by the daughter she never knew. Elizabeth (Naomi Watts) grew up as an adopted child; she's a bright and ambitious lawyer, but a flinty loner in her personal life. Lucy (Kerry Washington) is just embarking with her husband on the adoption odyssey, looking for a baby to become their own.

Blackfilm.com sat down with the lovely Kerry Washington (‘Ray’, ‘She Hate Me,’ ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’) to discuss her impact on the film.

There were some very emotional scenes in this film. How did you prepare for them?

Kerry Washington: That’s a really good question. You don’t prepare for a moment; in a film you prepare to be that person for the whole journey. I think the thing about Lucy is that we meet her in a difficult moment in the film. When I was doing research about her, I realize this is a woman who spent years trying to get pregnant and now she is making a new decision and that is how it starts. I like that challenge because to me everything in her life has gone according to plan, from husband, house, bake shop, and now she is face to face with a problem she could not solve. That is when her life starts to unravel and she has to come to terms with that she does not control the universe. It goes back and forth with her every time she feels like she’s got it figured out things. She has to learn that you have to take life on life’s terms. I believe this film is about love, and how love changed these three women fundamentally.

How was it working with Shareeka (Epps)?

Kerry Washington: I love Shareeka. I was really excited when we got her because I feel we are really lucky that Shareeka Epps decided to be an actor, and it was fun to work with her. It’s hard work, but it’s really like playing and it’s fun to play with her. I was grateful that we got such a strong actor to play that role because those scenes are when I feel my character’s shift begins to happen.

Do you want to have them you decided not to?

Kerry Washington: It’s interesting. Motherhood has been a part of almost every character I ever played from my very first film where I played a sixteen year old girl who had to have an abortion. Also in ‘Save the last Dance,’ my first big studio film, I played a teen mother. Motherhood has always been a part of the characters I played and so I definitely have to think about it.

You play a character who’s unable to bare children. Did that have a significant impact in your character development?

Kerry Washington: Yes absolutely. It brings up a lot of issues with the women I talked to in getting ready for this role. It really challenges the concepts of how you think about yourself and how you define yourself as women. Obviously it brought up a number of issues within the relationship. When we first meet my character she is struggling with her thoughts of her value of a women and she feels guilty in a way.

How do you feel about your husband in the film and how he handled the situation?

Kerry Washington: I think it’s tricky. I think it’s really well written because what he does is actually honorable in a way, because how much worse would it be for this child if they would have adopted this child together, and now the child has to deal with being adopted and the abandonment of a father. So to take responsibility and so I need to bow out know is very admirable.

We know about your love for the arts, what are you doing know?

Kerry Washington: Right know I’m in New York making my Broadway debut in the new David Mamet play ‘Race’ with James Spader, and I have a few films coming out one is called ‘Night Catches Us.’

Can you tell me a little bit about that one?

Kerry Washington: Sure, it’s a film starring Anthony Mackie, and we play two people who where Panthers in the sixties, and we are reunited in the seventies. It’s about two people trying to make something with their lives.

MOTHER AND CHILD OPENS ON MAY 7, 2010

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