As the 2010 Sundance Film Festival beings today, Kerry Washington's accomplished the the indie cred-burnishing feat of having two buzzy films here. The first is Tanya Hamilton's Night Catches Us, where Washington reunites with her She Hate Me costar Anthony Mackie in the story of two ex-Black Panthers, and the second is Rodrigo Garcia's female triptych Mother and Child, which made its well-received debut in Toronto last fall and costars Annette Bening and Naomi Watts.
Before either of us left for Sundance, I spoke to Washington about her festival entries, the limits of control, and the challenges of her current Broadway stint in David Mamet's Race.
Back in 2001, you had Lift at Sundance, and it helped jump-start your career. What do you remember about that experience?
What do I remember about that? [Laughs] I can't believe it was that long ago. It was really exciting for me. The first film I ever did went to Sundance, Our Song, but I wasn't able to go because I was shooting Save the Last Dance. Sundance is cool, though. Everybody talks about how much the festival has evolved and changed over the years, so I'm kind of excited to go back and see what it's become.
Night Catches Us is a period piece that takes place just around the time you were born. Was it fun to go back and revisit some of those hair and wardrobe details?
Yeah, but it's not exactly revisiting -- I was barely ambulatory then! [Laughs] No, it was really kind of cool. I mean, I feel really lucky because between this and Last King of Scotland and Ray, I've been able to cover a lot of this past century, which is pretty fun.
So tell me about who you and Anthony play in Night Catches Us.
We play two people who were heavily involved in the Black Panther movement ten years ago, and then for different reasons, we've moved on. He goes underground and I become slightly more mainstream in my approach to civil rights and justice. We don't talk to each other for ten years, and then when his father passes, he comes back into town and we're sort of forced to deal with a lot of the mysteries of our past and forced to face some of the complications involved in a movement like that.
How has she changed in those ten years?
She becomes a civil rights lawyer and tries to become more of an advocate within the system. Instead of operating outside the system like the Panthers, the Weathermen -- a lot of those groups at the time -- she gets her law degree and works as an advocate for people in the community who may not have access to legal representation otherwise.
How did you come to the film?
Well, there was actually another actress cast in the film first. I had known about it for years through its development and I was really looking for another film to do before I gave my life over to the Broadway stage, which is what I'm doing now. For some reason, this actress had to go back out of the project, so it was one of those lucky things where I got to do this literally right before going into rehearsal for what I'm doing now. It's great that it worked out because I had heard about it and read about it so much. Well, maybe not so great for the other actress. [Laughs] But happy for me!
Mother and Child found distribution after Toronto, and we'll see what happens with Night Catches Us. Does it scare you when your films' releases are kind of up in the air?
I don't know if "scared" is the right word. I think sometimes it's unfortunate that a film might not have a larger audience. Like with Lift, we didn't have theatrical release, we were sold to Showtime, and for that reason I think we were seen by a much wider audience. Sometimes you have those stories where films find a home, and other times you don't. I don't think I'm scared of it, but I think in the indie world, you go into it thinking that those are the possibilities. For that matter, I've done big studio movies that are sitting on a shelf somewhere. Anybody who's looking for security and stability should not gravitate toward this business.
Let's talk about Mother and Child a bit. Rodrigo and Garcia clearly loves actresses. Do you love him back?
He's just lovely. I just love him. I don't know a single person that works with him or for him that doesn't feel that way -- he's just awesome. He's a great, great, great man...patient and thoughtful and generous.
I think you can tell how much he enjoys female characters because he's not afraid to show their flaws, too.
I think what it is is that he's very invested in the truth of humanity. You don't tell the truth about a person unless you're invested in their humanity -- nobody is all good or all bad. I think Rodrigo has the courage to tell stories about women, not just women who are in the supporting role to push along the man's story. I think he just allows room for that.
Your character is consumed with having a child. What's motivating that strong urge for her?
Oh, God. If we knew that....[Laughs] I think she's the sort of woman where that's part of what she wants for herself. I don't really know if there's a way to articulate that as a woman -- I think for a lot of women, you just get to a time and place in your life where you think, "That's what I want." What's difficult about her is that she's having difficulty getting [pregnant], and she's always someone who's either been in control or had the illusion of being in control in most areas of her life. She's a perfectionist and very accomplished and then this thing comes along, which is nature, and she can't control it. We have our Blackberries and our schedules and our calendars, and we think we get to decide on everything, then things come along and remind us that we don't have complete control.
Was that a sobering thing to learn as an actress with ambitions?
The trick is to live a life as proactively as possible. For me, to maintain my passion and my drive, and to allow for my desire and ambition and goals, it's important to also detach from the results. It's a real balance to be both proactive and ambitious and courageous, and also to be detached and accepting and flexible. I think that's the big balance in life.
How much was making your Broadway debut in a play like Race part of those goals?
I grew up in New York, so I fell in love with acting on a stage, not in front of a camera. Theater has always been very important to me and I had been looking for the right project to do as as Broadway debut. I'd been looking for a while, and when this came along, it was a no-brainer. I really, really wanted it, and it seemed like a good way to come back home, so to speak, to New York and the stage.
A lot of actors love theater because they get so bored with the leisurely, "hurry up and wait" mentality of shooting a studio film. Still, you've done your fair share of quickly shot indie movies, like Night Catches Us.
I think the biggest difference is acting in and out of sequence. You're right -- on a film like this, you're working a lot, and in a way, it's longer hours, although doing a play is so athletic. What's different is that you spend a whole day focusing on what could be a minute and a half in the movie, so you have to be very clear about the emotions and the shots of that moment, and you have to be able to place it within the context and the arc of the other 100 pages of the script. When you're doing a play, it's like every day is a piece of the puzzle, whereas in theater, you're going through the entire story every night. Each moment builds on the moment before it in a different way.
Did anything about it surprise you?
It's been a long time. One of the things I love about theater is the enormous humility it requires. Again, there's the illusion of control; in film, you get to go, "OK, that was great, print that and let's move on," and then you move the camera and go to a different scene. You have this idea that you're in control and you've got that. In the theater, you can say, "That was really great, that was perfect," but it's like, "Oh well -- good luck tomorrow!" The play is not done with you, and you don't get to be the one to call the shots. I love that about theater.
[Photo Credit: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images]