She also has a person follow her around fixing her makeup on set.
Turns out, Olivia Pope’s on-screen perfection isn’t exactly natural. In fact, it’s not natural at all! Scandal star Kerry Washington got very real in her new cover story for Allure about the process that goes into fixing up the notorious Washington fixer.
“There’s someone who follows me around all day long on the set,” the 40-year-old actress explained to the magazine. “Like, literally follows me to make sure there’s not a single hair out of place. This is somebody’s full-time job. Then someone follows me around to add powder so that I never look shinier than I’m supposed to.”
It’s gotten so extreme that her iconic character even has different shades of concealer for different days of the week.
“Friday night’s concealer is very different than Tuesday afternoon’s concealer,” she said. “They get thicker as the week goes on and you get more exhausted.”
Washington says that she’s so linked to Olivia in some people’s minds that people regularly come to her with their own problems.
“It happens All. The. Time,” she quipped. “I mean, part of it is because they know I can connect them to Judy Smith, [the crisis manager] who the role is based on. But people call me to say, ‘I have this problem. Can I talk to you about it?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t even want to know! Just skip over me!’ But I know secrets.”
So how does the real Washington stay grounded? By putting aside the image of Olivia’s perfection once she leaves set.
“I like to wear my natural texture, especially now because I have children and I want them to know that their hair is perfect as it is,” she explained. “They don’t have to change it or straighten it. They can, but they don’t have to.”
Washington also loosened up for a fun on-camera game of “Would You Rather?” in which she was tasked with tough questions like “Would you rather be a member of the Spice Girls or Destiny’s Child?” and “Would you rather go on a double date with Chrissy Teigen and John Legend or Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds?”
Watch the clip now to see what she picked! And watch the video below for more on the final season of Scandal!
