Kerry Washington has never been busier. The young actress is best known for her work in such diverse films as Ray, Lift and The Last King of Scotland. Reviews were terrific for her work in Mother and Child earlier this year, and she recently wrapped on the Broadway production of David Mamet’s Race while already shooting Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls, opening on November 5. Also coming out in the next month is the Black Panther drama, Night Catches Us.

Washington sat down with us to discuss her work in For Colored Girls and her gratitude to Perry for casting her in what she regards as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She also spoke with great emotion about being able to work alongside the film’s amazing ensemble of talented African-American actresses, all of whom seemed to recognize they were working on a very special project.

Tribeca: You’ve been busy doing some weighty films recently, some very dramatic stuff.

Kerry Washington: It’s interesting, I’m in rehearsals right now for my next film, a comedy, and I’m just so grateful. I did Mother and Child, then I did Night Catches Us, then I did the Mamet play—which is not light at all; it was very intense—and then I did For Colored Girls. I am way overdue for a comedy!

Tribeca: When did you first become familiar with Ntozake Shange’s seminal 1975 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf?

Kerry Washington: Towards the end of high school I came across the play. I was preparing monologues to audition for colleges. That’s when I first came across the material.

Tribeca: When you read the play back then, did it speak to you in an immediate way, or was it perhaps a way of connecting back to past generations of women in the community?

Kerry Washington: It’s the kind of text that at different points in one’s life, different parts of the play resonate. So it’s material I’ve called upon for years. I’ve had classes where other actresses have worked on it, I’ve seen a few productions of it over time, it’s just one of those plays. If you’re a well-rounded actor, at some point you’re going to work on some Stoppard, you’re going to work on some Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare. And if you’re a woman of color, you’re going to work on this play. It’s part of the canon.

Tribeca: The play was so specific in dealing with women’s sense of empowerment after a prolonged period of oppression. How do you think Tyler Perry kept the film adaptation relevant?

Kerry Washington: If people remember anything from the play, it’s the Crystal and Beau Willie moment, because it’s just so tragic, so profound. It’s a statement about the human condition, but also frankly about society, that you can take this soldier just home from war not getting the help he needs in the 70s—that war being Viet Nam. And just replace the word Viet Nam with Iraq, and the same issues are alive and kicking.

The film deals with love, motherhood, rejection, self-acceptance, self-love. There are those larger experiences of the human condition that, of course, are going to be universal and will stand the test of time. But even some of the more delicate, intricate details of the specific aspects of these characters’ lives are still relevant and alive and well.

Tribeca: Does it surprise you that For Colored Girls wasn’t made years ago?

Kerry Washington: I was born into a world where this play was at The Public Theater. That’s tremendous. That’s a tremendous statement compared to the world my grandmother was born into. But it took me to get to my thirties before anybody could make a movie out of it. And that the person was a self-made man of color who identified with the story because of his relationship with his mother and the women in his life… It took someone in the community powerful enough to green light this project in order for it to get made. That took decades.

Tribeca: Tyler Perry has spoken about being offered the opportunity to do For Colored Girls a number of time before and declining. But more recently there seemed to be indications that he was ready, perhaps through his having been executive producer on Precious and through other recent appearances. Did you feel he had any trepidation?

Kerry Washington: Everyone on the set felt that it was all just meant to be.

Tribeca: When did you first hear about the project? How did the process of your getting the role of Kelly, the social worker, unfold?

Kerry Washington: I had actually heard a rumor that he was working on it, and I kind of cornered him at an event in New York [laughs]. I said, “I heard you’re working on For Colored Girls, and if that’s true, I would love to be part of it, in any capacity.” It’s such a tremendous piece. I knew it would just be this tremendous moment in history. I knew I had to be a part of that.

Tribeca: And how did that feel? Did you feel a responsibility in being part of it once you were cast? Any anxiety? As you said, it’s this iconic work.

Kerry Washington: Absolutely. I think we all felt that pressure but in a good way. We felt like we are all a part of something bigger than us. We wanted to make sure we respected the legacy of Ntozake Shange’s play.

Tribeca: Before, you said that you would’ve been grateful to participate in any capacity. Come on now, didn’t you at any point have your heart set on a particular role? Maybe one of the other roles, having known the work for so many years?

Kerry Washington: No!

Tribeca: You can’t talk about that, can you?

Kerry Washington: [Laughs] No, really, I was so blown away that I was going to be able to even do it. My timeline was so tight. The fact that the movie studio and the producers of the play [Mamet’s Race on Broadway] agreed with each other, to let me have my last two weeks on the play. After my last Monday night on the play, I flew to Atlanta to shoot for a day and flew back for my Tuesday night performance of the play. So it was crazy that they would come together and allow me to do that… I was so blown away that I was able to participate in any way. I was just focused on how to do that well. It didn’t help that the two characters were so completely different.

Tribeca: Mother and Child was a really wonderful movie. There’s a real common thread between your role of Lucy in that film and that of Kelly in For Colored Girls. Both characters have to grapple with being unable to conceive. A bit of a coincidence, wouldn’t you agree?

Kerry Washington: That was sort of surreal. When Tyler asked me to do that, I thought, “Oh my gosh, okay.”

Tribeca: Was there anything that sort of snuck up on you during the course of making For Colored Girls? Anything you didn’t expect you would take from the experience?

Kerry Washington: I didn’t know what it was going to be like to make a film with all these actresses. We all had different ways of working, of approaching the work. We all have different personalities, different relationships to the industry and very different histories. We’re all so different. It was this massive ensemble. And it’s not that I went into it expecting something bad or good, I just really wondered what this was going to be like. It turned out to be incredible. It was like we were running a marathon together.

You would come to work and some woman would pass you the baton. You would come in at lunch and Anika Noni Rose had been shooting all morning in the hospital. There’d be this hushed whisper on the set about the incredible work she had done. And you’d say, all right, I’ll take that baton and I’ll do all that I can to bring the same level of game after lunch. And then I’d talk to Anika three days later and she’d say, “When I got in that morning, all I heard about was this incredible work that Whoopi [Goldberg] and Thandie [Newton] had done the night before. And you realized that we were supporting each other, carrying each other, inspiring each other constantly.

Tribeca: So many people will assume that there would be clashes of ego or competitiveness on the set.

Kerry Washington: It wasn’t a competitive environment. We all just knew that we were part of something bigger than us. And every time you heard about someone doing some incredible work, you’d want to honor them by doing your best work. It was really great.

Even in the moments when we were together on the set, we were just so supportive and respectful of each other. To have a moment on the set to be able say to Whoopi Goldberg or to Phylicia Rashad, “Your existence is part of the reason why I’m able to do what I do.” Logistically, psychologically, spiritually—these women have inspired me. They’re like lighthouses to me.

I remember being a teenager and seeing Kimberly Elise, Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah and Vivica Fox, in Set It Off and thinking, “Look at this movie with four black women.”

And now we’re in this movie with ten of us. Who would’ve thought it was possible? But I know there was something about being a teenager and seeing Kimberly do that and thinking there’s room for me. And thanks to Tyler, there’s actually room for all of us.

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ComingSoon.net spoke on the phone with Ms. Washington earlier this week.

ComingSoon.net: I had a lovely conversation with Thandie last week and I found out how Tyler contacted her. It was a long 18-month process with a lot of scripts. How about yourself? Was it a bit simpler than that?
Kerry Washington: I had sort of heard a rumor that he had the material, that he was going to be doing the film, and I cornered him at an event in New York (laughs) and said, “What’s going on? What are you doing? Is it true? What’s happening?” At the time, he was really deep into a rewrite and didn’t really want to talk about it, and I said, “Okay, fine, but I would really like to be a part of it,” and then I got the call a few months later. He really wanted me to play the role of Kelly.

CS: I assume you were familiar with the play and Ntozake’s work beforehand.
Washington: Yeah, I was. I have never done a full production of the play, but I was familiar with it just from different acting classes and preparing for auditions and I’d seen other people working on the material.

CS: Was Kelly not in the original play or she’s a new character Tyler created for the movie?
Washington: None of us are characters in the original play except maybe Crystal. I guess some of the women are more closely based on poems than others, but none of the women in the play really have fully fleshed-out lives outside of the poems and most of them don’t have names.

CS: Right, most of them are named after colors, but while Kelly wasn’t in the play, the poem you perform was, right?
Washington: That’s right.

CS: Kelly’s an interesting character because she sees all the stuff going on and becomes the eyes of the viewer, what did you think of playing that role which ties all the other stories together?
Washington: Yeah, I loved that she was the through-line of these different women who all live in the same community, some of them in the same building or work in the same office, but haven’t really taken the time to get to know each other, and suddenly, because of the nature of her work, she becomes a witness of a lot of the journeys, which quite honestly was very fortunate for me at work every day, because I got to witness this incredible acting work unfolding in front of me constantly.

CS: Thandie was very gracious about being in this movie with you because she admitted that often you two might be competing for the same roles in movies over the years, and she loved the fact that Tyler brought all of these actresses together and you all could bond over this work.
Washington: Yes, we’ve joked about it a lot, that I can’t tell you the number of times I got the phone call from my agent saying, “It’s down to you and Thandie” or “It’s down to you and Anika” (laughs) so to be in a position because of Tyler where there’s room for all of us at the table, it was a profound experience for many of us, because we got to work alongside each other and support each other and learn about each other’s processes and it was really kind of magical. There were other women where the experience was so rich, because they were honestly women who without their work, I don’t think I would have the career that I have today, because they’ve been such an inspiration and such role models. I mean, my parents had a VHS recording of Whoopi Goldberg’s one-woman play on Broadway. HBO bought the rights back when they were doing that sort of thing and showed it, and I wasn’t old enough when it was actually on Broadway, but we had the VHS and we also had a cassette tape, and I pretty much memorized that entire Broadway play. It transformed for me what acting could do, how it could really put you inside the mind and heart of another person and allow you to have compassion for somebody that you might not otherwise ever have access to. To be able to actually say that to Whoopi while sitting next to her in the hair and make-up trailer is an experience I’ll never forget.

CS: Her one-woman plays were amazing because it was as if she played all the characters in “For Colored Girls.”
Washington: Yeah, and heartbreakingly. I mean, hilarious and heartbreaking.

CS: Over the years, you’ve played women with drug problems or that have been abused, similar to some of those in the movie. Kelly hasn’t been abused and is in a better situation than some of these other women. Were you able to help these other actresses get into the right place they needed to do their scenes?
Washington: No, no, we all had such separate journeys. The support was very non-evasive. (laughs) We kind of created an environment in which they could have their process and work the way they work, but none of these women are women who needed any advice from me. I mean, this is not a cast full of women who don’t regularly throw down, you know?

CS: Not so much advice but as an actress who has played tough roles and known what you needed from other actresses, to be able to give that to them when they’re doing their scenes.
Washington: I guess so, but I just wouldn’t take any responsibility for anybody’s performance in that way. We are all just constantly working off each other and when you really listen, you do everything you need to do to create the space for an actor to live in their own reality.

CS: I really loved “Mother and Child” and Rodrigo is one of those directors who can get amazing performance out of women and Tyler is as well, so what does he do to help that process?
Washington: You mean in terms of how do you create a space where we can do that kind of work?

CS: I guess so, but does he just give you space or does he do something to help you get into that space for those scenes?
Washington: I think he’s done a tremendous job, because each of the women works so differently. If you can imagine, Kimberly Elise, she had to be fully immersed in the life of Crystal, and we all gave her an enormous amount of space and tried to engage her as Kimberly as much as possible, because she had such a difficult reality that she was trying to build around her at all times. Whereas Whoopi was walking around literally saying to everybody, “Please don’t call me by my character name, please call me Whoopi the moment he says, ‘Cut’” because she felt like she needed to maintain a sense of sanity while diving deep into this woman. So Tyler was somehow able to find a way to take each of these women at their own place, with their own process, with their own technique, and still inspire these magnificent performances out of each of us, even though we work so differently and we are so different and the characters are so different. I think that’s because he’s an actor, and he’s an actor’s director, so we were really lucky in that regard.

CS: You talked about Whoopi trying not to stay in character but this must have been emotionally draining for pretty much everyone. As an actor, you must have methods of getting in and out but is it hard for a movie like this which is so emotional and not let it affect you afterwards?
Washington: Kimberly Elise has a great story about how she actually got grey hairs in the process of shooting this movie, because the body just doesn’t know the difference. The body doesn’t know you’re pretending. I think that one of the greatest gifts that we got was that final scene of the movie, because the final scene of the movie was actually at the end of shooting, and so we did get to come together and have that communal hug in more ways than one at the end of this journey together. It was a little bit like a pilgrimage. We had started in New York but then we went down to Atlanta, and we were shooting in Tyler Perry’s studio, and there was talk about us shooting on a fake roof with a CGI skyline of New York in the background and we all kept going, “No, no, no! We worked so hard to be in so much truth this whole movie that we have to end in New York.” And so we did. After we finished shooting in Atlanta, we all took this pilgrimage back to this rooftop in New York to shoot that final scene, and I think it was a wonderful moment of closure for everybody.

CS: How much time did you spend getting that last scene? Was that a couple of days?
Washington: No, the very last scene, everything on the rooftop, was one night. One very intense night, because we were avoiding rain, trying to get it before the sun came up, all of that.

CS: Do you think you’ll try to keep in touch with this cast since it was such a bonding experience?
Washington: I think we will. I mean, different members of the cast to varying degrees, but yeah.

CS: You’ve worked with a lot of first-time directors, like I saw “Night Catches Us,” but you continue to be very trusting of first-time directors and doing independent films, and you bounce back and forth. Has that been something you’ve looked for in projects?
Washington: It’s not that I look for first-time directors to work with, but I do like to work in independent film, so often, I’d say about half the time, you wind up. I get to work with the Jim McKays and the Rodrigo Garcias but also the Tanya Hamiltons. I think it is important that from the very beginning of my career, I was lucky enough to have my first two films be wildly different productions. My first song was “Our Song,” which was this tiny, tiny little independent film that went to Sundance and was nominated for one of those low-budget Independent Spirit awards, but my second film was “Save the Last Dance,” which was a huge studio film out of Paramount. I saw the merits of each right away, and knew that I wanted to throughout my career go back and forth, because they’re very rich in different ways.

CS: What are you working on next?
Washington: Well, “Night Catches Us” comes out next month, in December, and then I have an ensemble piece called “The Details” with Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks and Ray Liotta, and then I start work on a comedy… thank God! (laughs) This next week, I start a comedy with myself and David Alan Grier and S. Epetha Merkerson, yeah.

CS: I wanted to quickly ask you about “A Thousand Words,” a movie you did with Eddie Murphy and Brian Robbins, because it’s a project that has mysteriously disappeared.
Washington: I know, well if you ever get any information about it, let me know. (laughs)

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Another Tyler Perry movie is hitting theaters this weekend. “For Colored Girls” is a screen version of a twenty-year-old play created by Ntozake Shange that portrays various female characters dealing with their life’s hardships and ordeals.

Kerry Washington co-stars as a part of an all-star cast including some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Whoopi Goldberg, Thandi Newton and Loretta Devine. Kerry plays Kelly, a social worker pained by her inability to make a difference.

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When Kerry Washington was 17, she was not playing around when it came to sex. The budding starlet was hard at work on her craft as a teenager with an acting gig that educated as well as entertained audiences.

“I had this great job with a theater company called Star Theater,” Washington recalls on the latest episode of “When I Was 17,” premiering Saturday at 11 a.m. “We would go into schools and community centers, and we’d do this show about issues like sex and drugs.”

The job required Washington to instruct others on a very important skill — although it may have been an unorthodox extracurricular activity for a teen girl.

“So when I was 17, I was teaching other people how to put condoms on … bananas,” Washington remembers. The budding actress picked up a reputation as a teacher always armed for a lesson.

“Anytime anyone needed to know how to put a condom on, she would just pull out a banana and a condom and do a demonstration for us,” Washington’s pal Allison adds. “She was a sex-pert.”

The “For Colored Girls” star doesn’t deny her status as the go-to gal for learning how to get it on safely.

“I was kind of known, amongst my friends, as ‘the condom lady,’ ” Washington says in the episode, which also features Akon and Donald Glover. “Because of my job, I always had condoms and dental dams and pamphlets.”

Washington remains proud of the role she played both in and out of the theater company as a sex-ed resource.

“I did my job saving lives when I was 17,” she says.

Kerry Washington came through to chop it up in the studio. She was fantabulously gorgeous and slim. We discussed all sorts of stuff like the history of the movie, what it was like working with such an all -star cast, plus the importance of voting!!! It is voting day! Get out and vote! VOTE OR DIE! It’s that serious!!!

Kerry is serious. “Why are they so long?” she asks. “To protect their eyes from…?” “Branches,” the guide says, explaining that giraffes feed off the thorny acacia tree. “So,” Kerry, a L’Oréal spokesperson, continues, “you’re saying if I beat myself with a twig, my lashes will get stronger?”

This might be the perfect Kerry Washington moment: her childhood haunt, her love for environmentalism, her almost unexpected humor and her intense curiosity all in one animal kingdom moment. The 33-year-old actress recently moved back to New York City from Los Angeles after completing a six-month Broadway run in “Race.” She is also appearing in two new movies: the Black Panther opus “Night Catches Us” and the stellar ensemble “For Colored Girls,” in theaters November 5.

Regardless of race, Kerry has managed to stay relevant, and even sexy, in Hollywood. Her roles enviably range from indie to blockbuster, from a 15-year-old Latina in her first film, “Our Song,” to a drug-addicted male-to-female transsexual in “Life Is Hot in Cracktown” to a sleek assassin in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” In 2007 she co-directed and appeared in rapper and actor Common’s edgy video for “I Want You.” (“He called and said, ‘Hey, do you want to be the new girl in the video?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, if I can direct it.’ Sometimes I open my mouth and get myself in trouble like that.”) The truth is, you never know where Kerry is going to turn up next.

Case in point: After graduating from George Washington University, she went to live in India to study kathakali, a stylized form of drama that interprets classical Hindu literature through dance and mime. Says Kerry, “I wanted to go someplace where theater was a part of a spiritual and cultural tradition before I was just trying to book a Burger King commercial, you know?”

But, zoos aside, Kerry really took a walk on the wild side this year by appearing in David Mamet’s Broadway play “Race,” in which she portrayed a legal assistant at a firm asked to defend a man accused of sexually assaulting a Black woman. “That play was like church — there was so much talking back. People really bring their baggage,” says the actress.

“Race” costar David Alan Grier has one word for Kerry’s performance: fearless. “She didn’t have to do this play. She’s a movie star. I’m glad she did because every day somebody glamorous and cool came through, like Julian Bond. She classed up the joint. I kept trying to get her to tell President Obama to call me!”

In “Night Catches Us,” which arrives on-demand October 29 and in theaters on December 3, Kerry plays a former Black Panther turned civil rights lawyer. Set in 1976 post-Black Power movement Philadelphia, the film reunites her with Anthony Mackie, her costar in 2004′s “She Hate Me.” “As a kid, growing up, I had friends who were children of radicals. Many people think of the Black Panthers in caricature terms, the limited images in the media, the Black fists and Afro, and big machine gun. But here was a story about human beings. The people underneath the movement.”

For all this talk about race, Kerry doesn’t like to belabor the obvious: “I don’t want to ignore my Blackness. I just want to get to the point where my racial identity is simply a part of what makes me unique in the way being from the Bronx makes me unique, or being an Aquarius, or being born in 1977 and having hip-hop be a part of my heartbeat.”

Yes, Kerry Washington is a colored girl; one who perhaps hasn’t considered suicide, but has gone through her share of trials (overcoming an eating disorder, moving on from a failed engagement). Though she doesn’t follow any spiritual practice in any didactic way, Kerry relies on morning prayer, journaling and meditation to keep grounded. “My head is just so filled with… stuff,” she freely admits. Is it? You’d never know it looking into that luminous heart-shaped poker face. Kerry Washington, understanding that she is only human, laughs and then says, “Because I’m a good actor.”

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There was some talk about Tyler Perry taking on “For Colored Girls.” Did you have any hesitations joining the film?
No. To be honest with you, something that we’ve all talked about, all of the girls, is who else could have done it. He has built up all of this capital in the industry that he is one of the very few people who could get this project done. So I really more than anything felt grateful that he was interested in bringing this material to a larger audience.

Do you have any words to share with the naysayers?
No, I think people will see it. One of the things that is so special about Tyler is that he is fearless. He is very courageous and he does not let other people’s doubts get in the way of him taking risks and scaling new heights — I think that’s huge. It is really important and I have enormous respect for his willingness to continue to expand his own repertoire.

What is your personal connection with your character Kelly?
I actually really did a lot of research. I spent time with a family member who works in child services. I spent time with her and did a lot of research about both training to be a therapist or social worker and also about what it is like in the field. When I first started the film I was on Broadway eight times a week playing this very intense, strong, fierce, aggressive and smart woman on stage. One of the things that attracted me to the role was that I felt like Kelly in “For Colored Girls” was almost the opposite. She is not in your face and aggressive. She is kind of a silent witness, just this walking emotional person. I feel as if she is there feeling for people. So I liked that she was kind of the opposite of what I had been doing on stage for six months.

Kelly desperately wanted to be a mother. Do you have babies on the brain?
No, not really. I mean, it is something that I think about, but I don’t identify with her real need with an urgency of it.

I call that the “Halle Berry Plan.”
Oh, what does that mean?

That’s when you wait until you are about 40-something and find a “sweet, young thing” and have a pretty little baby!
Right! [Laughs]

As a self-proclaimed urban hip-hop child, if you could play any hip-hop artist who would that be?
Gosh, I’ve never really thought about that. What a great question! I don’t really know, maybe Spinderella, she is so cool. I don’t know how much drama there is in her life, but she was always so cool to me!

Girl, I thought you were going to say Nicki Minaj!
Nicki Minaj is amazing! If I were going to get dressed up for Halloween this year, I would want to be Nicki Minaj!

Your “Night Catches Us” co-star Anthony Mackie had this to say about rappers-turned-actors: “I don’t go to the hospital and let the janitors perform surgery on me.” What is your take on that?
[Laughs] Oh, dear! [Pauses] I don’t like it when people put me in a box and limit my potential or decide what I am capable or not capable of. So, I try not to do that to other people as well. To me, the main thing is if you are going to move into a new territory and do something — you respect it. So I don’t have a problem with whatever people have done before they decided to be actors, as long as they come to the table ready to be committed to the craft and to learning and growing as an artist. I think what bothers a lot of people is the arrogance that people have that they think they can just show up and be actors, that there’s not a lot of work involved. As long as people are committed to the work, I don’t have a problem with it.

What is the craziest internet rumor you’ve ever heard about yourself — do you go to the blogs?
I don’t personally go to the blogs but every once in a while a girlfriend will tell me something hilarious that she’s read. But there is this crazy rumor, I think it might be on my IMDB or Wikipedia or something that I speak like seven languages and that is not true. [Laughs] It’s totally not true!

You’ve worked with Spike Lee, Robert Benton and Keenen Ivory Wayans. Seeing that you’ve worked with that very eclectic group, what makes Tyler different as a director?
Well one thing is the amount of power that he has cultivated in this business because it’s his studio. He owns the process in a different way, which is really wonderful because you know that his vision is going to be the final product. You don’t worry about another studio coming in and editing or paraphrasing his vision. Every director is completely different. I would also say that he is also very sensitive and intuitive, he really understands people.

You are doing remarkable work with the V-Counsel to end violence against women and girls. “For Colored Girls” helps brings this issue to the forefront. What is your advice for women and girls who are finding themselves in violent relationships?
That is such a nightmare. [Pauses] There is help out there. There are resources for help. You can go online to www.vday.org. There is lots of information about what you can do to join in the efforts to end violence against women. I think you need to ask for help and to remember that even though you feel alone, that you are not alone.

What are your words of encouragement when you find yourself having one of those days and the rainbow isn’t enuf?
I pray a lot, to be honest with you. I pray a lot! Often I will pray for the wisdom of what to say to myself. “Universe, God, Great Creator, give me the right language or the right feeling to feel toward myself.”

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