‘Scandal’ star opens up in memoir ‘Thicker Than Water’
of a Black girl from the Bronx making her way in white Hollywood while feeling as For years, Kerry Washing- if she didn’t belong in her ton has guarded her personal own family. life with the same tenacity Shonda Rhimes advised she’s breathed into char- her friend to write a book acters like Olivia Pope on years ago. “You grow as a “Scandal” and Mia Warren person just from the act of in “Little Fires Everywhere.” writing,” said the renowned
Her June 2013 wedding producer and “Scandal” creto Nnamdi Asomugha was a ator, whose memoir came secret. She never posts pic- out in 2015. “It’s a powertures of their three children. ful method of reclaiming Now, with a memoir out, yourself.” the Emmy-winning actor But Washington felt then is opening the door to her she was too young to take inner sanctum. “Thicker stock of her life. She said: Than Water” tells the story “I always had this nagging sense that there was some- thing fraudulent about it. I didn’t quite know myself well enough.”
In early 2018, after seven seasons on “Scandal,” Washington planned to write a book of lessons learned from Olivia Pope, the fictional Beltway fixer inspired by the real-life crisis manager Judy Smith, who made Washington the first Black woman As she processed the news to lead a network drama shington tried to “plow since 1974. through” life, “as high-func
“There was a sense of com- tioning people do.” But pletion,” Washington said. Washington’s autopilot had There was also a sense of its limits. The book she’d readiness — for new proj- signed up to write suddenly ects, adventure, the unex- seemed as if it belonged in pected. a different library.
It seemed like the perGiven the origin story of fect time to learn about “Thicker Than Water,” the her ancestry, and on April actor’s origin story is a fairly 3, 2018, Valerie and Earl small part of the book. It’s Washington finally shared exciting watching Washthe secret they’d kept from ington figure out for hertheir only child for more self that the sperm donor than four decades: They doesn’t even rank in the top had used a sperm donor to 10 most interesting things conceive her. about her life.