Get it together, Hollywood.
Kerry Washington revealed in a recent interview with Aziz Ansari that she was fired and recast from two TV shows because of Hollywood stereotyping.
SEE ALSO:The Hollywood diversity report card"Before Scandal, I was actually cast in two other pilots. Both went to series, but I was fired and recast,” Washington said. “For both, it was because they wanted me to sound more ‘girlfriend,’ more like ‘hood,’ more ‘urban.'”
The actress, of course, came out on top, landing a gig as the take-no-prisoners and whip-smart Olivia Pope on Shondaland's smash-hit show, Scandal.
Washington and Ansari shared their Hollywood trials and tribulations as part of Variety'sfourth season of "Actors on Actors."
Ansari wasn't shocked to hear her anecdotes.
“It’s interesting; like every person that’s not a straight, white guy has their version of this,” Ansari said.
Ansari has often publicly addressed Hollywood's diversity downfalls, most notably in the "Indians on TV" episode of his Netflix show, Master of None.
“A lot of other minority actors have told me, ‘Oh, this so rings a bell’ when you go into an audition room and you see a bunch of people that look like you and you just start feeling like, ‘Oh I’m not here [for me], I’m here because I fit what looks like the person they want in here,'” he said.
But Ansari and Washington aren't letting old-school Hollywood ideas get in their way. Ansari is the executive producer of his show, and Washington isn't waiting for scripts to land on her doorstep.
“I definitely feel like I’m at that point where it’s nice to not have to sit at home and wait to be invited to the party, but to be creating work for yourself,” she said.
The full episode of the Washington and Ansari interview airs on June 12 and June 19 on PBS SoCal.