Does Kerry Washington Know When Scandal Will End?

Updated on 4/6/2016 at 3:30 PM

Kerry Washington graces the cover of this week's Adweek, and in the issue, she got real about the impact that her hit ABC show Scandal has had in pop culture. Washington has starred as DC fixer Olivia Pope on the series for five seasons now and admits that she "didn't have a lot of expectations" about the show's success, adding, "I feel like expectations are resentments in waiting. But in a million years, I couldn't have expected the success of the show and the impact that it would have culturally in terms of fashion, changing language, images of gender, and the landscape of casting in television."

Washington, who is portraying Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas's former assistant Anita Hill in the upcoming HBO film Confirmation (which she also executive produced) also opened up about how the 1991 hearings — during which Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment — affected her as a young woman. "It was one of the first moments that I was made consciously aware of my own identity intersectionality: the idea that there may be times that I feel passionate about something as a person of color, and there may be times that I feel passionate about something as a woman, and there may be times when those two things are at odds with each other."

Read on for Kerry Washington's candid quotes about her new HBO project in Adweek, and get some potential insight into when Scandal may come to an end, straight from the actress and her costar Tony Goldwyn.

On having no control over Olivia Pope's path: "I'm not a producer on the show, and I've never sought to be a producer on the show. It's not something that I felt was necessary. Shonda [Rhimes, the show's creator] and the writers are in control of that, and I show up and try to bring it to life."
On not knowing about the show's plot twists ahead of time: "I had no idea that the abortion scene was coming until I turned the page at the table read and read it out loud with everybody else. There are occasional moments when she'll give me a hint about something that's coming, but it's very, very rare."
On when Scandal may come to an end: "I trust [Shonda]. We are where we are because of her decision making." Tony Goldwyn, who plays President Fitzgerald Grant: "I’m assuming at the end of next season, my presidency will be finished. So what happens to Scandal once there’s a new president? Either that’s the end or Shonda has something in mind that may or may not include me, a whole other direction."
On Hillary Clinton's recent visit to the Scandal set: "Hillary was in town for a fundraiser, and Tony and I thought we might get off work in time to go, but we didn't. So I emailed Huma [Abedin, Clinton's longtime aide] and said, 'Why don't you guys come here?' And they were able to. It was very surreal, because at some point you couldn't tell the difference between our pretend Secret Service on the show, and the real Secret Service walking on the set. We had this wonderful evening with her, hanging out."
On the next phase of her career, post-Scandal: "I don't know specifically what's next. I found the experience of producing on Confirmation to be extremely rewarding. I learned a great deal, but I also feel like I was able to bring a lot to the table, and that was a really rewarding experience. So producing will definitely be part of it. I am really loving design and I want to continue in that area. But I'm not sure. I'm going to continue to follow the opportunities that really speak to me authentically and genuinely, and see where they lead."