Hollywood star Kerry Washington said she has spent years turning down the black-best-friend roles thrown her way, saying she doesn’t want to be an “accessory to a white woman’s journey.”
In an excerpt from her new memoir Thicker Than Water, published in Entertainment Weekly, Kerry Washington wrote that she actively rejects playing the “white girl’s best friend” after starring in the 2004 boxing movie Against the Ropes, in which she played Meg Ryan’s close pal, a receptionist named Renee.
“In it, I played [Meg Ryan’s] coworker and confidante – this was becoming a new niche for me, the white girl’s best friend,” she wrote.
Washington recalled it was her third role in row playing the best friend of a white female protagonist, following Save the Last Dance, starring Julia Stiles,, and a Fox pilot titled Wonderfalls.
“‘When Harry Met Sally’ is, to this day, one of my top three movies of all time, so once I’d played Meg Ryan’s best friend, playing the role against anyone else would have been a lateral move,” Washington wrote.
“It’s not that I wanted to be the star of the film; I wanted my characters to be in a story of their own. I didn’t want to be an accessory to a white woman’s journey.”
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