Communication Coach Reacts to Kerry Washington Access Hollywood Interview

Actress Kerry Washington promoting her memoir, doing a range of media interviews. This is a live reaction to her Access Hollywood interview from September 26, 2023. Let's take a look at how she.

Did about your life.

Thank you.

What was the hardest part for you to talk about and why?

Oh, my goodness. I think at different times, different.

Right out of the gate, she's moving her hands, she's moving her head, she's moving her face. She looks completely relaxed, comfortable, and confident. Now, she's clearly done thousands of interviews. She's been in the spotlight for many, many years, having had starring TV shows and movies. So she's certainly no newcomer. But many actors are great in front of the movie camera, but when the news camera comes at them, they freeze up. They're not comfortable without a script. So she's off to a great start in that she's not frozen. She's moving. She looks like she's having a good time, which is a good thing. So many Hollywood stars seem reluctant, almost angry to be talking to the media when it's not a completely controlled circumstance. Let's watch more.

Different parts of my life in general. You know, I've been such a private person, even though I live in the public eye. And so I honestly think she's using.

The full range of her voice. She's very expressive. She says, I've been such a private person. So notice how her voice goes up and down. She's pausing. Her shoulders are moving, her hands are moving, her arms are moving. So this is consistent with someone who's completely comfortable, confident, relaxed. It makes her more believable and likable. Let's watch more.

Just the. The action itself.

She's not afraid to pause, so she's coming across as if she's clearly in the moment. She doesn't sound canned and scripted. And that is one of the problems a lot of Hollywood stars have is they're so used to working from a script, they do an interview, and it seems like they're going through the motion. She seems as though she's genuinely in the conversation, thinking as if she's never heard these questions before. And chances are, of course, she's heard these questions many, many times doing a lot of interviews. But she's able to make it come across as fresh and like it's a.

Real conversation of sharing so many details.

About my life, was at time sharing so many details. So she is spacing the words in a varied way. She's not just saying, I've had so many interviews in my life. She's not saying in a consistent, bland, boring way. It's constant variation with speed, the volume, the tone. And that's what's making her sound completely confident, real, likable and relatable. Which, by the way, anyone can do this if they practice enough. She has the advantage of having done thousands of interviews, but you can do it if you practice on your own. What do you think of Kerry Washington's performance so far in the interview? Or if you saw the whole thing and we'll be analyzing it now so you can watch it, but what do you think of it? Post your comments below in the comments section of this video.

I thought I was crazy. I was like, what am I doing?

Who am. That was crazy. What am I doing? Notice how she changes her voice. She's bringing in inner monologue. She's telling stories and bringing in this dialogue that she's having with herself. That does not sound like someone who just memorized bullet points from their publicist. That's what's making her more interesting interview. And that's one reason, not just the star power, why she got such a long interview. This is an 8 minute and 20 second interview that Access Hollywood did with it, which is fairly long by the standards of Access Hollywood.

Am I? But it was also really healing.

Also notice her eye contact. She's looking at the reporter. That's exactly what you want to do when you're doing a TV interview and the reporter's in front of you. A lot of amateurs make the mistake of ignoring the person next to them and staring at the camera. Well, it's a two shot, meaning there are two people in this clip. So it would look odd to have her ignoring the person talking to her, staring off at the camera. So she's doing exactly what you want to do. That's a best practice right there.

And. And I'm really glad that I did it.

Yeah.

You share a revelation about your dad.

She said, I'm really glad that I didn't. That I did it. So she's infusing her words with emotion. When she says glad, she sounds like she's glad. It's coming out in her tone and her body movement. Everything was in sync. That's the sign of a master communicator, by the way. If you're getting any value out of this analysis, this video so far, please like the video. If you're joining us live, you can post your comments right in the comments section and we can have a conversation here. If you're watching this on demand, then please like the video. And subscribe bad with that starts with.

A text message on just an ordinary day. Tell me, why do you think when you got that news from your dad, it was a little harder?

Now she's not afraid to scratch herself. If she has an itch, as you should. She did it at the right time. She did it when she wasn't talking. Now, in this case, the video was captured and it's being shared on YouTube. That's where I'm gaining access to it. But typically, for an edited broadcast newscast, if the reporter's talking and you have an itch and you don't scratch your face or your forehead, they're not going to show that. Now, what I don't know is, did they show all of this on their broadcast version, or is this the longer version just for their YouTube audience? But she did exactly what you should do because you don't want to be in the middle of an interview and thinking, oh my gosh, I have this itch. I can't wait till this interview ends so I can scratch my face. You want to just scratch your face if you have an itch, but not when you're speaking because you don't want to be thinking about how irritating it is to need to have an itch.

For him than for you.

I don't even know if I would say that's true. It was about five years ago in my.

So she's truly listening. She's not afraid to show that the. To the reporter. Yeah, I'm thinking about this. So she doesn't sound canned, she doesn't sound scripted, and she seems like she's actually having a real conversation. And she's not afraid to disagree with the reporter. Now, she's not being argumentative. She's not attacking the reporter, but she just says, I don't know if I'd say that's true. And the whole tilt of her head is showing that she's being thoughtful. Her eyes are showing. She listened to it, thought about it, contemplating it, and it's making her come across very authentic. My parents also notice that smart that her publicist created a giant copy of her book so that framed in the entire interview is the COVID of her book. So she's doing a great job of product placement and promoting her book, which is why she's doing the interview, sat.

Me down and shared this really revelatory news with me. And I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't read it and haven't heard.

Now, did you note that right there? I don't want to spoil it for she. At that moment she looked at the camera. That was completely appropriate. She's having the conversation with the reporter. There's pretty much the whole time, but then as if there's a third person there. I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't read it yet. She addresses other people. Very nicely done. And just the appropriate amount to really let people know she's connecting with them too heard yet.

But I think it really challenged all of my ideas about who I am, about who my family is. And I think it was hard for my parents, in a way, because they had kept the secret for 40 years. Um, but it was hard for me because it really redefined my idea of who I was.

So notice there's no stammering. There's not a lot of us and ums and ers. You knows, she's thought about this. She doesn't sound scripted, and yet she is coming across very polished. Her hands are moving, her face is moving, her eyes are expressive. Everything is in sync. And she's hitting the highlights of her book and why she thinks it might be attractive to readers and to her fans. But she's doing, in a way that makes it sound like a real conversation.

Who my family is and kind of made me go back and question a lot.

This book, for me, the Pause kind.

Of made me go back and question. The Pause is actually very effective because it makes her seem completely unscripted, very genuine, and yet nothing about it seems remotely nervous or uncomfortable or unpolished in any way.

It felt like it was about hard truths and knowing that when you go through the hard truths, there's a lot of freedom and a lot of healing on the other side. So I want to thank you for that because I found healing in it.

Thank you.

How do you think a big thing right there when someone else is praising you and a reporter is praising you, keep your mouth shut. Let them praise you. Too many stars be like, oh, I'm the star. I have to do all the talking. And they may even cut off a reporter doing that. But she's wisely letting the reporter talk and praise her.

Think your relationship with your dad or and your mom has changed after that.

Again, great eye contact with the reporter. The reporter's asking the question. She thinks, well, there's a chance I might not be on camera. But she's not looking at her watch. She's not checking her phone for messages. She's totally present there with the reporter exactly as she should be day if it has.

It's so interesting because I think a lot of times we don't tell the hard truths because we think that if we risk honesty, then we'll lose the people that we care about. And you know that.

Notice how she's softening her voice and slowing down for emphasis. Sometimes people think, well, I want to emphasize something, I need to yell or speak louder. No, she's actually softening her voice, slowing the speed down to add dramatic, emotional moment to the interview. Very powerful. A lot of actors, actresses are good at that. On the Hollywood set where there's a director telling them, okay, do it this way. Do a little softer. Let's do 10 takes in a row. She's doing it live as the interview is going in a masterful way.

Might be true in some situations, but in my experience, the experience that I share in the book, the.

More now when she says in my experience, she's gesturing to herself. Nervous people, nervous CEOs, nervous political leaders would say, in my perspective and in my experience, but they wouldn't gesture, they wouldn't move. So again, she is sinking her words, her message with her tone. Her tone, her voice, her body, her hands, everything is in sync. And that's what's making her look so genuine, comfortable and confident.

More truth and transparency that I had with my parents. The more like intimacy and love.

We were able to notice the softening. She's talking about intimacy. Her volume goes down. Again, the pause. So she's coming across more like she's talking to her best friend than to hundreds of thousands or millions of people watching a broadcast to share.

Like, we don't have secrets from each other anymore.

And again, look at the smile. It doesn't look frozen or plastered on or fake. She just comes across as though she's genuinely excited to be sharing this story with people and happy to be there speaking. And sometimes it comes across naturally, but sometimes you're having a bad day, you have a headache, maybe you've done a thousand interviews already. The natural reaction is to be a little tired, maybe a flat expression. She's a true professional. She's putting that smile on her face. By the way, if you want to know how to come across better in your own presentations, I have a free training video at the High Stakes Presenter. I'll link to that in the description high stakespresenter.com. it's a free training video to help you come across better in all of your presentations. There's absolutely no charge, so you're going to want to check that out.

All right? And I There's this great saying that I love that you're as sick as your secrets and we get to let go and start healing together as a family.

So we get to let go, start healing as a family. So again, constant variation. The words are changing, the volume changing, the speed changes, the pitch changes, the eyebrows are changing, the hand motion. So there's tremendous variety with what she's doing with her voice, with her face, with her body language. So all in all, extraordinarily professional all the way. Not because it's so smooth. In fact, it's because it's not smooth. There's constant variation in all of those elements I listed. So great role model for anyone who wants to come across their absolute best in front of the TV camera for interviews. And a lot of this is transferable to presentations as well. If you really want to learn even more about how to present on camera and it's not an interview, it's a speech, you may have to do that from time to time. Check out the video I have. I'll link it below. And if you're watching this on demand, it will be the next video up on the screen. My analysis of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his recent speech to Parliament making some very serious allegations about another country committing some atrocities on Canadian soil. So check that out. If you got any value out of this, please like the video, share it with others, click the bell for notifications and subscribe. Thanks.