Kerry Washington debuts shaved head as she poses for stunning new photo shoot

Kerry Washington has shaved her head for a bold new look.

The actress, 43, looks stunning in a new photo shoot for PORTER magazine, in which she poses in an array of sleek black and white ensembles, showing off her cropped new ‘do.

Scandal star Kerry also spoke to the publication about her new show with Reese Witherspoon, Little Fires Everywhere, and how she and the actress bonded.

‘She’s just amazing, and a great friend. The sort of girlfriend who, when she asks you how you are, you can tell really cares about the response,’ she gushed about Reese.

‘I have such great respect for her, not only as a friend but as someone who has her own production company. She was so willing to share her mistakes and what she had learned.’

Kerry launched her own company – Simpson Street (named after the street where her mother grew up in the Bronx) – and told the magazine that she makes sure representation is seen throughout her projects.

‘A lot of our mandate at Simpson Street is centering otherness and really reminding ourselves, and each other, that protagonists look like all of us – that anyone can be the hero of their own story and their own life,’ she said.

‘I always have, even as a child, been really opinionated. I’ve always wanted an environment where I could feel seen and heard.’

The Django Unchained actress went on: ‘I don’t even know that I saw myself as a leader, I just saw myself as a person with a lot to say.

‘I think the more I started to work in this industry, I started to understand that there weren’t a lot of people who understood my perspective as a woman or as a woman of color in power, and I had to create that opportunity.’

Kerry and Reese also bonded as active members of the Time’s Up movement.

She said: ‘It has created a myriad of female creative partnerships, though that was never our intention. That was always secondary. Our actions had to be working for the protection, the safety, the equity for women in all industries.

‘When we brought all of those amazing activists with us to the Golden Globes, we knew this wasn’t about just us. 

‘One thing that a lot of us have talked about is this idea that, because of the imbalance of power and the delineation of who gets to be the protagonist, so often in our careers, there was one woman on a set. We were siloed.

‘And so we were told about each other. And the story was often, “She’s difficult. She’s needy. She’s crazy. She’s unpredictable. She’s a diva”. Now we talk to each other, we work together and we know that not to be true.

‘Even with Little Fires Everywhere, it deals with the nuances of womanhood and motherhood regardless of outward identity.’ 

Growing up in the Bronx, New York, she found herself attending Upper East Side’s Spence School, of which she said: ‘I remember distinctly being 12 or 13 and going from my neighborhood in the Bronx to a very posh elite school. Seeing other people’s homes, I remember understanding that there was another world and feeling overwhelmed, angry, inspired, delighted and betrayed at the same time.

‘Thinking, Why does nobody I know live like this? Or, more so, why does nobody who looks like me live like this?’

Kerry is a mother of three, with husband Nnamdi Asomugha, though she keeps her relationship and her children out of the spotlight.

‘As I’ve gotten older and more well-known I’ve lost some of my anonymity, so I’ve become more boundaried in my relationships with people. I have the pull of an artist, where you love your private life, and you love the people you love, you love your children, and you also love your art,’ she said.

To see the full interview with Kerry Washington read Porter online now.