Features

September 14, 2008

Change is good for star of ‘Lakeview’

AMY LONGSDORF For The Times Leader

Kerry Washington sees herself as a changeling, and no wonder. By dabbling in a handful of genres from romantic comedies and action flicks to biopics and thrillers, she’s managed to portray women from all walks of life.

She’s played a lesbian longing for a baby in “She Hate Me,” the gospel-crooning wife of Ray Charles in “Ray” and the sightless sweetie of a superhero in “Fantastic Four.”

Now, with “Lakeview Terrace,” Washington adds another novel character to her repertoire.

“One of the things that drew me to the script was that I’d never seen an African-American woman like this one portrayed on screen before,” the actress says. “I really liked the idea of playing a progressive, Birkenstock-wearing Berkeley graduate. … To me, (she) represented the changing face of America.”

In the film, the latest from provocateur Neil LaBute (“In the Company of Men”), Washington embodies Lisa Mattison, a graphic artist who moves with her Caucasian husband Chris (Patrick Wilson) to a pricey California development. Next door lives Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), a conservative police officer who makes no secret about his disapproval of mixed marriages.

Even before Lisa and Chris unpack, Abel manages to make their life a living hell. He floods their bedroom with security lights, tampers with their air conditioning and slashes their tires. And it gets a lot nastier from there.

“What I thought was important about the script was that it explored the misuse of power,” Washington, 31, says. “That’s what the film is really about, to me.

“I have to laugh because one of my best friends grew up in Vermont, and we always joke about the fact that when she was a kid, she always felt relieved and safe when the cops showed up.

“And for me, growing up in the Bronx, when the cops came around, that was not the case. It was always like, ‘Uh-oh, what’s going to happen now?’ ”

Washington believes “Lakeview Terrace” does a good job driving home the adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

“Our president is someone who we elected to be our commander in chief, with the idea that we were entrusting him to lead our nation, and we wound up in a war for no good reason, with innocent people dying every day,” she says.

“I think we live in a world where there’s a real misuse of authority. And what exactly do you do when the person who’s supposed to protect and serve you is actually the person who’s causing you harm.

“That’s what is so cool about the film. It’s (about that), but it’s also about class, race, identity, relationships. It’s about so many things, and I think it says that all of these issues are complicated.”

The never-married Washington was engaged for three years to white actor David Moscow (who played the young Tom Hanks in “Big”) but she says she didn’t identify with the discrimination faced by the film’s interracial couple.

“I’ve been in relationships with (men) from different kinds of backgrounds, and, to be honest with you, people have issues with (those men) too,” she says. “You’re never going to make everybody happy in your choices.”

Growing up in the Bronx the daughter of a real-estate broker father and an education consultant mother, Washington was continually told she could accomplish anything she put her mind to. She was sent to Manhattan’s posh Spence School and went on to earn a theater degree from George Washington University.

Washington has always been a proponent of colorblind casting and counts as one of her proudest achievements nabbing the role of Michael Chiklis’ love interest Alicia in “Fantastic Four.”

“Now in the ‘Fantastic Four’ cartoon on television, Alicia is black, which I think is awesome,” the actress says.

Still, Washington says there’s a lot of work to be done breaking down racial stereotypes both in Hollywood and in the world at large.

“I have a hard time in life when people say that race doesn’t have a place in our national dialogue,” she notes. “You cannot look at the footage of what happened after Katrina in New Orleans and think that race was not a factor.

“So we’re getting there, but we’re not there. We have obviously had a great deal of progress, but it’s not as if we can all rest and relax just yet.”

Since playing small but pivotal roles in such films as “Save the Last Dance,” “The Human Stain” and “Against the Ropes,” Washington has watched her career advance slowly but surely. She began breaking away from the pack when she landed rave reviews for bringing a heartbreaking mix of strength and fragility to her role as Della Bea Robinson in “Ray.”

“It’s funny to me,” she says. “People constantly want to say that (I’m) an overnight success, that once ‘Ray’ happened life has been so easy for me. But that’s never the reality. It’s just not that kind of industry

“We all keep working, chipping away and trying to do better and be better. I still have a lot that I want to achieve. … I’m not at home all day filing my nails and counting my money. I definitely am still in the trenches.”

Upcoming for Washington is a small role in her pal Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” which opens Sept. 26, and the female lead opposite Eddie Murphy in “A Thousand Words” due in 2009.

But what Washington really wants to do is direct.

“I actually just directed a music video of Common, which I was in, along with Alicia Keys, and I loved the experience,” she says. “My poor manager was stressed out because she couldn’t get me on the phone. But I loved it so much, I spent every night sleeping in my editing room.”

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