As much as actress Kerry Washington has been a ubiquitous presence on social media at least since the advent of her hit show “Scandal,” she has remained an enigma when it comes to her personal life.
Many fans aren’t aware that Washington has been married for 10 years and is the mother of three children. Because of this, it is particularly intriguing to dive into—pun intended—her recently released memoir, “Thicker Than Water” (Little, Brown Spark).
From the very first beautifully crafted paragraph, Washington pulls the reader into two worlds: her acting career, and her family.
“Thicker Than Water” is reminiscent of memoirs such as TV producer Susan Fales-Hills’ “Always Wear Joy.” It is not just a reclamation of the author’s self, but a love letter from a daughter to her parents who, though flawed human beings, clearly did all they could to shield her from hardship and provide the best life possible for her.
In its opening pages, the reader sits alongside the Bronx-born and raised actress in her car as she zips away from the television studio where she had been busy developing a pilot, down the palm tree-lined streets of Los Angeles, toward the West Hollywood condo she owns.
Her parents, Earl and Valerie, are staying there while visiting. Washington has been summoned by her mother via text, but the purpose of the request is left in a shroud of secrecy until Washington arrives.
Thematically, secrets loom large in “Thicker Than Water.” But more importantly, what plays out is the idea that alienation from self creates those secrets, and the walls they build within us, and between us and those we need the most. We don’t make it back to the condo until after voyaging through Washington’s exceptional life.
One of the most iconic scenes in “Scandal” is of a troubled Olivia decked out in a white (what else?) one-piece over her tiny frame, slicing through the water of an Olympic-sized pool.
It seems effortless and most would assume she used a double to film the scene. “Thicker Than Water” reveals it was Washington herself. This third sacred world, Washington’s love of being in the water, is revealed a bit later.
The reader learns she has been an expert swimmer since birth, doing so by pure instinct. Her inordinate love of water is one thing she shares with her parents, through a quirk of nature.
Washington recounts joyful childhood summers filled with days of endless swimming in her apartment complex’s pool with friends and family; swimming in the lake surrounding her family’s second home in upstate New York; being part of the swim team at her tony Upper East Side prep school Spence; and nights swimming with her husband and children as an adult.
Being in water for Washington, it seems, is close to seeing the face of God.
“Thicker Than Water” divulges the secret behind Washington’s powerfully affecting performances in projects like “Scandal,” “Django Unchained,” “Little Fires Everywhere,” and “Ray.”
Washington dove deep to burnish her skills as an actress, beginning as a child in school productions, honing her craft being a part of a progressive theater troupe as a teen, majoring in acting at George Washington University, and even going as far as traveling to India for a year for her art.
She chose India because she “wanted to study performance in a place where theater was sacred.” She describes a frightening encounter in India that highlighted for her, in the starkest of terms, the importance of positive representation in the media. A lesson she carried with her into her career.
Washington also lets readers know that she is not the “perfect” human being her image might suggest. Though it may be argued that she doesn’t go into enough detail about her imperfections, she is vulnerable, upfront, and honest about her seemingly irrational feelings of hostility toward her parents, shoplifting, engaging in sex, drinking, and drugs as a teen and developing a penchant for deceiving her parents about numerous things, including a same-sex relationship about which her mother confronted her.
She carries that same frankness and vulnerability into discussing the trauma of sexual molestation, and her battles with body image and eating disorders.
Eventually, the reader arrives with Washington at the apartment’s entrance. Her parents nervously greet her and deliver news that simultaneously shatters and finally makes Washington and her parents whole, in a more profound way than she could have imagined.
She ultimately realizes that blood is not the only thing thicker than water.
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