Stars of HBO’s ‘Confirmation’ talk harrasment, politics and history
NEW YORK — “Who do you believe?”
In October 1991, as law professor Anita Hill came forward to accuse her former boss and Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, it was the question almost everyone in America was asking. The dramatic confirmation hearings, broadcast live on television, sparked contentious debates about race, gender and politics — not to mention the correct pronunciation of the word “harassment” — that continue to rage 25 years later.
HBO is revisiting the media spectacle that captivated (and eventually disgusted) the nation with “Confirmation,” starring Kerry Washington, who also executive produced, and Wendell Pierce as the adversaries in one of the most notorious cases of he-said, she-said in American history.
The two actors recently sat down for a joint interview to discuss the making of “Confirmation” and the legacy of the hearings. Below is an edited version of the conversation.
Q: Tell me about how you approached telling such a divisive story.
Washington: It was important to us that this not be an oversimplified version of winners and losers. This was a very complicated part of American history about really complicated people in an unbelievably complicated set of circumstances, and so we didn’t want to tell an Anita Hill story.
Q: (To Pierce) By your own admission, you hold different political views from Justice Thomas. How were you able to empathize with him?
Pierce: I tried to put the politics aside and realize here’s a man at the pinnacle of his career, about to lose everything. An event in his life happened that was perceived, whether it’s true or not, in a way that would cause someone to come and make these accusations. He’s in shock, he has to defend himself.
Q: What were your impressions at the time of the hearing?
Washington: I was about 14, so a lot of my memories are actually through the eyes of my parents. It was a very pivotal moment for me in my understanding of identity politics. My parents were always on the same page politically. This was one of the first moments that they were not on the same page. My father was really having a set of emotions about watching this African American man have his reputation and his career ripped from him in a public setting by a panel of white men. And my mother was feeling pulled by this professional, African American woman who clearly, in her eyes, had been the victim of inappropriate behavior in the workplace. I think it was my first moment of understanding intersectionality, that there were going to be times that I was going to feel certain ways as a woman, as a feminist, and there were going to be times I was going to feel certain ways as a person of color, and they may be at odds with each other.
Pierce: I watched it every day. It was painful and I remember thinking at the time that I felt for both of them. Then came the realization of well, obviously, we can’t accept this sort of behavior. Whether it’s true or not, we’ll figure that out or maybe we’ll never figure that out, but we cannot accept this sort of behavior . ... It’s not something that we can take for granted. Ignorance that your behavior is offensive does not absolve you of its impact, which for a man, is real news.
Q: (To Pierce) Has playing Thomas complicated your view of his political and legal opinions?
Pierce: It actually brings a little bit more clarity. For instance, I’m an avid gun control advocate. He made it clear for me why he’s an avid supporter of the 2nd Amendment. He said the first gun control laws were to keep guns out of the hands of newly freed African Americans and I don’t want my community to ever, ever lose that 2nd Amendment right. That opened my eyes. I had never thought about it like that. The epiphany for me was learning how much we had in common, not how little we have in common — putting a premium on education in a Southern, black family that goes back for generations. But then having a different reaction to what he would perceive as a slight or racism . . How did you go down that road and I go down this road? That is just a burning curiosity now, but I know he would never share it with me. I hope he sees that I tried to show his humanity.
Q: So you reached out to Thomas?
Washington: We all did. Even in the early research process, we reached out to try to involve him. Wendell has done a lot of due diligence.
Q: You have talked to some of his friends and colleagues. Have any of them been helpful?
Pierce: They’ve all tried to be helpful, and it comes back to the political figure. They want to be clear and very supportive of his understanding of conservatism. They are conservatives too. We’ve had great conversations about that. They’ve given me enough to know that he’s a very faithful man and loves football, things like that which really informs you also as you develop a character.
Q: (To Washington) Tell me about your interactions with Hill. Was there anything that helped guide your performance?
Washington: I think understanding where she comes from helped me a lot, her relationship with family, what it meant to not just have to say these things on a national stage but say them in front of her parents. We started talking about issues of privacy and I said, “You know, one of the things I really identify with in your experience is the loss of anonymity against your will. I love being an actor but I never wanted to be famous.” And so that idea of the circumstances of your life leading to the loss of your privacy was something that we were really able to connect on. We were talking a little about the performance and she said, “Well, I hope you can let go of her.” I said, “You know, it doesn’t really work that way. There’s a little part of you now that’s always going to be woven into me.” And she said, “Well, there’s no one I’d rather be woven into,” at which point, I lost it.
Q: For young people who weren’t around during the hearing, what do you hope they take from the movie?
Pierce: I hope that generation realizes that the protections that they have, having sexual harassment seminars and a strong HR department, is not something to trifle with. It came out of really hard, difficult times. With another confirmation hearing on the horizon, I realize how profoundly important it is that you are involved, because this appointment is a lifetime tenure.
Washington: One of my favorite parts of the movie is when the phones start to ring in the offices (during the hearings) because to me, that is the unwritten character of the American people saying, “We have a voice that needs to be heard.” Sometimes we have to remind them, #doyourjob.