In her career Kerry Washington has played a wide range of characters but in her latest film, “Life is Hot in Cracktown,” she may be taking on her riskest role. She sat down with Fred Topel to talk about her bold acting choice.
The indie drama “Life is Hot in Cracktown” gives Washington a chance to play a really risky performance. Marybeth may sound like the name of a generic hottie for her to play, but she is actually a trans gender woman. She’s also pre-op so in her first scene, we see how she tucks her junk between her legs. Of course, to the interview she wore a glamorous dress and sleek high heels, which is more like we’re used to seeing her.
How many people have asked about your fake package today?
Kerry Washington: [Laughs] I’ll say you’re not the first.
What have been the best questions?
KW: What was it? Everybody wants to know what was it? It’s movie magic. I can’t tell you everything. I can just tell you it wasn’t really mine. That’s what I’ll tell you.
Did you have to de-Femme your features?
KW: That’s such an interesting way to put it. I don’t know if I would put it that way. There is this complicated issue of portraying somebody who is born a woman but whose anatomy has in some ways betrayed them. So there is the complicated issue of how you articulate that physically so there were lots of meetings and discussions and explorations about how to do that.
What was your experience in the trans gender community?
KW: I love research. I really thrive on doing research to prepare for a character. It’s one of my favorite parts of acting so I do a lot of reading and watching documentaries and interviewing experts in whatever field it is I’m studying in preparation. I also was very lucky that I found this amazing woman named Valerie Spencer who’s a trans woman who became my consultant on the film.
What was the one thing she wanted to make sure you got right?
KW: I don’t think I could say that there was one thing. It’s really a community and so any anthropologist will tell you there are so many specific details that make up membership to that community. So it was really about trying to absorb as much of that as possible, but she was very generous with her life. We spent a lot of time together and we hung out and went to dinner and I went to church with her. She brought me into the community so I was able to meet a lot of trans women.
What’s your favorite thing about Marybeth?
KW: I guess I think it was really brave and courageous for Buddy [Giovinazzo] to take this person that is a disenfranchised member of society. They call her a freak in the movie and he took this person and made her the emotional center of the film. That was the thing that really drew me to her, that she’s this person that we normally think of in sort of stereotypical frameworks, but she became this really complicated, layered, accessible human being. I think that’s what drew me to playing her.
What do you think draws us as an audience that draws us to films about people in horrible situations, that we want to experience them?
KW: I think in some ways, we come from a long tradition. As human beings, we’ve always had traditions of storytelling, whether it was sitting around a fire in prehistoric times, but we’ve always told stories. In some ways, filmmakers carry the new tradition of storytelling. We have a lot to learn as human beings from watching stories that reflect our happiest times but also watching stories that reflect our darkest moments. Both of those conditions allow us to move closer to the full spectrum of who we are as people.
You do get in moods where you want to see “Cracktown” instead of “Star Trek.”
KW: That’s right. You know, I love “When Harry Met Sally” as much as I love “Schindler’s List.” They speak to different parts of my truth as a human being.
Click here to read the rest of Washington’s interview.
