Kerry Washington faces backlash over risky ‘Scandal’ role

Kerry Washington, the stunning American actress who has won numerous awards, was told she was a ‘risk’ to lead ‘Scandal.’

The 48-year-old actress became a household name for her role as crisis management expert Olivia Pope in the Scandal, which aired from 2012 to 2018.

Looking back to that time, Kerry feels ‘proud’ that audiences loved the show, especially since she made history as the first Black woman to lead network drama series in her lifetime. 

During her recent podcast with Reign with Josh Smith, the star shared: “When ‘Scandal’ first aired, everybody talked about it, literally talked about it as, ‘a risk,’ to have a black woman as the lead of a network drama because it hadn’t happened in almost 40 years.”

Kerry felt proud that the show was a huge success, but she didn’t take all the credit for herself, instead of thinking, ‘I’m amazing,’ she thought, that the audiences is amazing.

“And so that’s why the show worked,” she added.

Kerry went on saying, “So I was really proud that we went from being a risk to being like a mandate at every television network.”