Kerry Washington MAKING A DIFFERENCE

EQUAL PARTS ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST, THE STAR OPENS UP ABOUT HOW SHE’S FIGHTING FOR CHANGE –AND WHAT SHE’S TEACHING HER KIDS

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Kerry Washington’s mother had a very different plan for her daughter’s life. “She really, really wanted me to go to law school,” Washington says with a laugh of mum Valerie, a former college professor. “She used to say to me, ‘Closing arguments are just like monologues.’ She was terrified to have a starving artist of a child.”

But the Bronx-born theatre kid was destined to be a star. After graduating from George Washington University, she headed to Hollywood, where her turn as political fixer Olivia Pope on ABC’s Scandal made her famous.

Still, the 43-year-old actress never lost her drive to fight for others. It’s a principle she and her husband, football player-turned-actor Nnamdi Asomugha, 39, are working to instil in their three young children.

And her acting choices – including recent roles as a mother seeking answers from police about her missing son in Netflix’s American Son and an artist fighting to protect her daughter in Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere – have been guided by that deeper purpose.

Says Washington, “I’m drawn to work that illuminates our shared humanity.” For the actress’ latest project, she stepped behind the camera, serving as producer of The Fight, a Magnolia Pictures and Topic Studios documentary about the lawyers of the American Civil Liberties Union. “They’re Avengers in real life – out there fighting for all of our rights,” she says.

She talked with People about her life with her family and her hopes to create positive change.