Kerry Washington: 2012 Entertainers of the year

”I met Kerry on Ray, and [director] Taylor Hackford was over the moon about her. When she first stepped into the room as Ray’s wife, it was magical. To get to see the progress she’s made, how she’s grown, how she just commands her performances now, it’s amazing. Very early on, Quentin Tarantino was gathering an all-star team together for Django Unchained and mentioned her right off the bat. I said, ‘You get her and you’ve got something fantastic.’ There are two types of people in this business: There are those who are about the craft, and there are those about the fame. I tend to like the ones like Kerry who are all about the love of the art.

When she was getting prepared to take the lashes as [her Django character] Broomhilda, she really wanted the whip to hit her back. Everybody was saying, ‘Wow, look at the courage of this lady,’ to actually put herself in there where it could have been a stunt double or shot at a different angle. Obviously we could never actually reenact that, but she wanted to get her character as close to it as she could. That’s what made us guys on the set more courageous — just watching Kerry. —Jamie Foxx

Washington on

Her favorite TV show of 2012

”Homeland is just fantastic; I’ve been watching that so intently. Claire Danes is actually too amazing — it’s not normal.”

Her must-see movie of the year

”Argo was inspiring as a human being, just to see these brave people who have such strength under such horrific conditions. And also it was inspiring as an actor who wants to direct more to see Ben in this capacity. He did such a wonderful job with this movie.”