Kerry Washington learned some important life lessons through playing Olivia Pope in Scandal.
The 49-year-old actress played Olivia, a crisis management expert, in Scandal, the hit political thriller series, between 2012 and 2018, and Kerry admits that the role taught her some important lessons.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, she shared: "With some distance, I’m really grateful for what Olivia Pope taught me about power, because I think she came into my life at a time when I kind of knew what power looked like and sounded like so I could get the part.
"But I didn’t really know what it was like to embody power in my life. I didn’t have an office. Today, I’m sitting in an office with my name on the door — not really, it’s the name of my production company, but I used to say, 'It’s my name on that door,' all the time as Olivia.
"She really taught me what it meant to be number one on the call sheet and number one in my life, to have the buck stop with me, and to be a leader. She allowed me to discover what those things could mean in my life as I was embodying what those things meant in her life."
Kerry starred in Scandal alongside the likes of Henry Ian Cusick, Columbus Short, Darby Stanchfield, Katie Lowes, Guillermo Diaz, Jeff Perry and Tony Goldwyn, and she's remained close to many of her former co-stars.
Asked if she's spoken to Shonda Rhimes, the show's creator, about the possibility of a reboot, Kerry replied: "It’s such a Shonda question. I haven’t talked to her about it specifically, which is interesting because I’ve talked about it with other cast members, so I don’t know how she feels about it.
"My heart would explode to see Darby Stanchfield, Katie Lowes and Bellamy Young sitting in the hair and makeup trailer again. We’re all so much in each other’s lives, and we have these very, very deep bonds."