The first pic of Kerry Washington as Anita Hill in HBO’s Confirmation has been posted, and we are so pumped. Washington will be playing a far different political role than Olivia Pope, this time channeling young law professor Anita Hill. The film follows Hill’s testimony at Clarence Thomas’s 1991 Senate confirmation hearing, in which she stated that he had sexually harassed her when she was his assistant years before. Despite her testimony, Thomas was confirmed (with “the narrowest margin of the century”) as a Supreme Court Justice, and he still upholds his conservative ideals in the court today.
Still, the bravery of Hill’s public accusation hasn’t been forgotten. People everywhere saw prominent media figures discussing sexual harassment as a crime, and reporting rates skyrocketed; as NPR reports, “In the year after the hearings, the number of sexual harassment claims filed with the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] nearly doubled, then nearly tripled by 1997 and kept growing until 2001.” Hopefully, Confirmation will inspire a whole new generation of girls and women.
The release date for the film hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ll keep you posted!
Images via HBO & Greg Gibson/AP Photo
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