‘They’ll vote against their own best interests.’
Kerry Washington has a theory about why so many Black people are riding the Trump-train all the way to the voting polls on Nov. 3.
The actress believes there’s a reason why some Black voters “are seduced into voting conservative,” even if it means voting “against their own best interests.”
“I know from being on the campaign trail in ’08, and ’12, and now, how many Black folks are seduced into voting conservative, because of their feelings about gay marriage. They’ll vote against their own best interests on all these other areas, because of these ideas,” Washington explains in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
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Washington shares details with the publication about her upcoming Netflix movie The Prom, in which she plays a homophobic, conservative PTA president.
Washington hopes the character pushes “audiences to expand their idea of who they think conservatives are,” and also “hold up a mirror to folks of color in this country to say, ‘How are you treating your own children? Do you have the courage to truly love your children unconditionally?’ Because it’s a huge issue in communities of color,” she says.
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The Ryan Murphy film is an adaptation of the Tony-nominated musical, starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden and Keegan Michael-Key. According to the synopsis, the story centers on self-obsessed theater stars who “swarm into a small conservative Indiana town in support of a high school girl who wants to take her girlfriend to the prom,” per IMDB.com.
Washington’s character objects to gay students at prom. In her THR interview, the actress compares homosexuality in the Black community to her own mother’s concens about her pursuing an acting career.
“[My mom] was like, ‘Your life is already going to be so hard as a Black woman, do you really want to be a starving artist? Do you want to layer that on top of your struggles?’ I think that’s how a lot of parents of color of LGBTQ kids feel, like, ‘Honestly, you’re Black and a woman and now you want to love other women too, like really?’”
At the 2020 Golden Globes, Washington gushed to ET about The Prom and finally getting a chance to work with Murphy.
“I play a complex character,” she said. “There’s a little bit of a dark side to her, so I’m into it.”
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