Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the 330 second episode of Awards Chatter, the Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter, the Hollywood Reporters Awards podcast.

I'm the host Scott Feinberg, and my guest today is a Hollywood A Lister whose work on the stage and screens big and small

has won her widespread acclaim, a loyal fan base, and acknowledgement

ranging from a 2013 spot on people's list of the 100 most beautiful people in the world

to a 2014 spot on Times list of the 100 most influential people

in the world. She started out as a character actress in films such as 2001's

Save the Last Dance, 2004's Ray, and 2006 is the Last King of Scotland.

But she exploded to stardom in 2012 as the lead of ABC's Shanda Rhymes created in show-run drama series scandal playing Olivia Pope,

a fixer modeled after real-life crisis manager Judy Smith, who works very closely, shall

we say, with the President of the United States.

With that role, she became the first Black Female Lead of a Primetime Network series in 37 years,

since Get Christie Love, which starred Teresa Graves, went off the air in 1975.

And her work on the show brought her 2013 and 2014 Emmy nominations and a 2014 Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series, as well as a whole new profile in the business.

Indeed, in 2016, she established her own production company, Simpson Street, which, among other things, produced three major projects in which she has also starred.

The 2016 HBO TV movie Confirmation, which brought her acting and producing Emmy Noms and an acting Golden Globem,

the 2019 Netflix TV movie adaptation of a Broadway show in which she had also starred

American Son, and the 2020 Hulu Limited Series literary adaptation Little Fires

Everywhere. I'm talking of course about Carrie Washington. Over the course of

our conversation the 43-year-old and I discussed the evolution of her attitude about pursuing acting,

how a potentially career changing offer from Rhymes also came with a sense of burden,

what, following the success of scandal, she made of what NBC News

has described as the Kerry Washington effect. What has been the great personal significance

...