Kerry Washington had to warn the White House about what became her breakout TV role.
The actress, 47, revealed on “The View” Wednesday that she called Barack Obama’s administration during his presidency to let them know about her role in “Scandal.”
“I had to call Valerie Jarrett, who worked for the Obamas, and say, ‘I just want you to know that I’ve been cast in this show. Lil awkward, because on the show I’m sleeping with the president,’” Washington said.
“But like, you know, it’s gonna be fine, right?” she added.
When “Scandal” came out in 2012, Washington was a member of President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
On the hit ABC series, she played crisis management expert Olivia Pope, who has an affair with President Fitzgerald Grant III (Tony Goldwyn).
Washington explained on “The View” that she wanted to give the Obama White House “a chance to distance themselves if they needed to.”
“But they were like, ‘It’s fine. It’s TV,’” she recalled. “Again, for art, everything’s okay!”
Washington’s character on “Scandal” was inspired by crisis manager Judy Smith, who served as deputy press secretary in President George H.W. Bush’s administration in the 1990s.
Smith, now 66, worked with “Scandal” creator Shonda Rhimes as a producer on the show.
In 2022, she spoke to People about what the late president’s reaction was when she told him about the show.
“I called him up. I said, ‘See, this is why I’m calling you now. Let’s stop joking about this stuff.’ And so I told him what the storyline was going to be, and he said, ‘Oh, yeah. No, yeah. I remember that,’” Smith explained.
“I said, ‘No, there’s nothing! There’s no relationship. Don’t even be joking that any of that stuff is true!’” she added.
“I had to tell him. I said, ‘It’s not good. It’s not going to be good. People are not going to take your joking,’” Smith continued. “Because he was known as a jokester, he had a reputation of that. I was like, ‘This is nothing to play with now.’”
Washington starred on the beloved show for seven seasons from 2012 to 2018. Her performance earned her nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.
In November, Washington told Variety what she learned from playing Olivia Pope and how the role changed her life.
“She reminded our culture that everybody deserves to be the lead character in the story of their lives, regardless of what they look like, or who they love, or what Zip code they were born into, or what religion they are,” she said.
“On a personal level, it took me being No. 1 on the call sheet to be willing to see myself as No. 1 in my own life,” Washington added.
