Kerry Washington to Portray Attorney and Law Professor Anita Hill in Upcoming HBO Film
By Russell WesterholmKerry Washington has been confirmed to portray a currently teaching law professor who was once on the forefront of combatting workplace sexual harassment.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of Washington's casting Thursday, announcing the lead actress in TV's "Scandal" will portray Anita Hill in an upcoming film for HBO. Hill is an attorney currently teaching social policy, law and women's studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
Titled "Confirmation," the film will focus on the 1991 U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas. During those confirmation hearings, according to ABC News, certain news outlets obtained an interview Hill gave to the FBI in which she accused Thomas of several different occasions of sexual harassment.
Washington did not comment for the Reporter's story, but said on her official Twitter account she was "very excited to share" the news. The magazine learned Susannah Grant will be executive producing and writing the script for "Confirmation." Grant's script for "Erin Brockovich" was nominated for an Academy Award in 2001. Washington was also listed as an executive producer.
Very exciting news to share... “@THR: @Snoodit Exclusive: KW to Prod/Star as Anita Hill in @HBO Movie 'Confirmation' https://t.co/Op8SXcbOvV”
— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) March 12, 2015
When Hill's accusations became infused with Thomas' Supreme Court nomination, she was a professor at the University of Oklahoma's (OU) College of Law. She later testified at the hearings, detailing numerous and disturbing sexual advances and instances of wildly inappropriate exchanges.
At the time, Thomas was Hill' adviser at the Education Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She said Thomas would talk about pornographic films, his own anatomy and his "sexual prowess," as she put it.
Thomas fought these accusations fiercely, even after he was voted into the Supreme Court by an extremely narrow margin. He published a book in 2007 in which he called Hill his "most traitorous adversary" and alleged that her accusations were part of a larger liberal agenda.
But Hill's testimony won her few friends and probably cost her more. As the New York Times chronicled in 1996, Hill left her post at OU's College of Law after fellow faculty members and local conservative lawmakers apparently tried to force her out.
Over the years, Hill has stuck to her testimony and she has since landed on her feet at Brandeis. After the hearings, workplace sexual harassment complaints skyrocketed and President George H.W. Bush ceased his opposition of a bill that favored victims of such situations.
