Net worth
Kerry Washington discussed her acting career and how she used to place money under her mattress. Here's what the 'Scandal' star shared.
Published on April 8, 2023
2 min readActor Kerry Washington discussed her approach to personal finance after she started earning money from her acting career. She revealed that she used to put money under her mattress. Here’s what Washington shared about that time in her life.
Kerry Washington’s movies and TV shows
One of Washington’s early acting roles was in a 1994 ABC Afterschool Specials titled “Magical Make-Over,” in which she played the role of Heather. She made her film debut in the 2000 movie Our Song, in which she played the character Lanisha Brown. The following year, she played Chenille in the movie Save the Last Dance. That year, Washington landed a recurring role in the television series 100 Centre Street. She appeared in five episodes.
Washington got her big break when she starred in the 2004 film Ray opposite Jamie Foxx. She played Della Bea Robinson, Ray Charles’ wife. In 2012, she joined the cast of Scandal as the character Olivia Pope. Washington says this was another big career break for her.
“Scandal has been the biggest life changer just because of the beast that is television,” says Washington in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel. “The opportunity to be in relationship with so many people because you come into their homes. They don’t have to leave their home and get in their car and buy popcorn. They turn on their television every single week or every night, and they’re in relationship with you. It’s a different beast.”
Kerry Washington used to put money under her mattress
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Washington discussed how she spent her first significant acting paycheck. She says when she received her paycheck from Save the Last Dance, she put the money under her mattress.
“My first movie was a crazy guerilla filmmaking, independent movie, so our transpo department was a Metrocard,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Save the Last Dance was my second movie, and we had a per diem. I couldn’t believe somebody was handing me cash and I literally used to hide it under my mattress for the whole movie. I put myself on a tight budget of what I could spend. And at the end of it, I used all the cash from the three months and bought my first laptop.”
Kerry Washington’s net worth
As of this writing, Washington has a net worth of $50 million according to Celebrity Net Worth estimates. Washington’s earnings rose during her time on the hit ABC series Scandal. She went from earning $80,000 per episode during the early years of the show to roughly $250,000 per episode during the height of the show’s popularity.
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