KERRY WASHINGTON CONSULTS PROSTITUTES FOR ROLE

The Dead Girl star Kerry Washington met with prostitutes to understand her character in the film.

Kerry Washington portrays a prostitute who befriends Brittany Murphy’s hooker crack addict in The Dead Girl. Kerry sought expert advice from prostitutes she met at halfway house GEMS while performing a benefit there with woman’s activist Eve Ensler.

She describes what the organization does which was a perfect match for her research.

“There is an incredible organization in New York called Gems which is the Girls Empowerment Mentoring Services. It’s based in New York and the woman who founded it just won the Reebok Humanitarian of the year award. It’s basically a support network, half way house advocacy group for women who are trying to get out of prostitution and it helps to prevent young woman from getting into the sex trade as well.”

Kerry handed out the script hoping to get their honest feedback and suggestions to how prostitutes really behave. Their insight gave her the connection to her relationship with Brittany and new discoveries about an age old profession.

“One of the things that the girls told me that I thought was fascinating was that it’s very hard to be in the game so to speak without a pimp. It’s really hard, almost no one does it. And so when girls do it it’s called going renegade which I think is a fascinating term. It’s part of I think why Rosetta and Krista were so close. We talked about this Brittany and I because the choice to go renegade meant that they really only had each other and they relied on each other solely. It’s a very dangerous world to not have the protection and structure of a pimp. So that was one of the things that helped me understand the immense connection between the two women.”

Acting is just one way that Kerry can get the word out regarding the issues surrounding less fortunate women. She is also a member of the V council, an organization that works to end violence against women.