Kerry Washington celebrates ‘bucket list’ moment as she receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Kerry Washington says receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame "was kind of a bucket list achievement" for her father.
Kerry Washington’s star status has now been cemented for generations to come. On Dec. 2, Washington was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honored with her own terrazzo-and-brass star for her achievements in television. As she told People magazine immediately following her induction ceremony, the coveted tribute was especially meaningful to her father, Earl Washington.
“It was kind of a bucket list achievement for my dad,” she explained. “I think it was something my dad had always dreamed of and asked me about, and so it was really special to be able to be here today to share this moment with my parents and to have them be here with me.”
“Here we are, Mom, Dad; can you believe it? An actual star,” said Washington, 47, during her acceptance speech. “You made a wish and it came true.”
Along with Washington’s parents, Earl and Valerie Washington, and husband, actor-producer Nnamdi Asomugha, Shonda Rhimes, Tyler Perry, Morris Chestnut, Yvette Lee Bowser, and several of Washington’s co-stars in Perry’s new Netflix film, “The Six Triple Eight,” were on hand to celebrate their collaborator and friend.
“[A]s I think about the life that she’s lived as an activist, as a woman, as a person, as a person of color, the character that she is exhibited for everyone to see, I’m so incredibly proud of her,” said Perry at the podium.
In her remarks, Washington shared a special anecdote about the meaning the Hollywood Walk of Fame held in her family, not only for her father but her uncle, Cliff Moss, who was among several members of the maternal side of her family to emigrate from Jamaica to New York. Decades later, he captured his own Hollywood Walk of Fame moment while on vacation in Los Angeles.
“…[H]e found a star somewhere on the Walk of Fame with his last name on it,” Washington recounted. “Maybe it was Jerry Moss or Elizabeth Moss. We don’t really know exactly who it was because he used his body and the angle of the camera to cover the first name or the real recipient … all you could see was his proud smile and ‘Moss’ with a star all around it.”
“He made it all the way from Simpson Street [in the Bronx, N.Y.] to Hollywood because just like his parents, he dared to dream. My mom and dad also taught me to dream,” she added.
As the recipient of the Walk of Fame’s 2,796th star, Washington is now eager to feed the dreams of those who might walk the same path
“Now I am swirling in a galaxy of other stars, all encouraging each other to shine brightly and to light the way for somebody else’s dreams,” she said in her speech. “It’s fun for me to imagine some kid with the last name Washington — or maybe the first name, Kerry — using their pose in a selfie to cover up half of my name to make room for their legacy.”
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