Kerry Washington’s recently unveiled memoir, “Thicker Than Water,” offers an intimate look into the actress’s career, shedding light on why she made a pivotal decision after her role alongside Meg Ryan in 2004’s “Against The Ropes.”
In the film, Washington portrayed Renee, the trusted confidante and colleague of Ryan’s character, Jackie Kallen, the groundbreaking female boxing manager. Washington candidly shared, “In it, I played [Meg Ryan’s] coworker and confidante — this was becoming a new niche for me, the white girl’s best friend.” Prior to this, she had already taken on similar roles in films like “Save The Last Dance” (2001) and a Fox dramedy pilot, “Wonderfalls.”
Washington resolved that her role in “Against The Ropes” would mark the conclusion of her participation in this recurring trope. She felt that she had reached a pinnacle as the “white girl’s best friend.” Expanding on this in her book, she expressed, “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. 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.”
Washington’s journey would go on to make history as she became the first Black woman to lead a network drama in 38 years. Reflecting on this groundbreaking achievement, she emphasized the weight of the responsibility, stating, “I didn’t feel the pressure from my ego, like ‘I have to make the show work.’ It was more, ‘If we f**k this up, it’s going to be another 40 years before they let a Black woman be the lead of a network drama. We have to get this right.’”