The multi-talented actress is reverent about the amazing ensemble gathered by Tyler Perry for his cinematic adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls…

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.

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Kerry Washington and Anika Noni Rose talk about how their roles in For Colored Girls affected them, getting all the stars in sync, working with Tyler Perry, what young audiences get from the film.

As long-time fans of Kerry Washington, we were fairly excited to learn she would be starring in Tyler Perry’s adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls, in which she plays Kelly, a case worker who comes in and out of many lives of the other women in the film, played by the likes of Janet Jackson, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg, Anika Noni Rose and Loretta Devine. It’s a far cry from Ms. Washington’s own experiences playing troubled women, but she helps to act almost as the lynchpin who helps pull all of the separate stories together. Granted, it’s not nearly as flashy a role as some of the others, but as we’ve seen many times, just her presence in scenes can help other actors do their best work.

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.

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Philly 360° catches up with Kerry Washington to discuss her current projects and what she loves about Philadelphia.

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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