If last night’s cage match (err, debate) showed us anything, it’s that the 2024 presidential race is bound to get pretty ugly. But if you’re not excited about any of the current slate of candidates, Will Ferrell thinks he has a much better idea of who should be sitting in the Oval Office.
Speaking to an audience at The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Women in Entertainment gala held December 6 at The Beverly Hills Hotel, the actor and comedian made a damn good case for why a woman – more specifically, Kerry Washington – should lead our country. The Scandal star was honored with the Equity in Entertainment Award at the event for her commitment to amplifying underserved voices in the entertainment industry.
Ferrell got the crowd hype suggesting women take over the entire planet since men can’t seem to get it right.
“Forget about the entertainment world. Isn’t it just time? Isn’t it just time for women to run the planet?” he asked. “I’m not just trying to placate you, I swear, but I don’t know what else to do because we — men — we’ve been running the show since, what, 10,000 B.C., and we’re not doing so good. So, please, can you guys just take over?”
Then, the Elf star made a direct plea to Washington to throw her hat into the political ring.
“Kerry, you’ve always been amazing in everything you’ve ever done and an incredible advocate for so many different things. Can you just run for president? Please? We’ll pay you. We’ll do a GoFundMe right in this room, and we’ll launch you,” he said.
Ferrell may have been joking, but the idea isn’t totally farfetched. Washington is known for using her platform to engage voters on important issues. She campaigned for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 and worked with Stacey Abrams to get out the vote during the 2021 Georgia runoffs won by Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. She’s an advocate for the arts, and her Simpson Street production company is all about telling diverse stories that often go unheard.
“Justice is about leveling the ground and ripping down the fence, dismantling the systems that prevent us from getting to the other side of our greatness,” the actress said in her award acceptance speech. “And that, we will have to do together.”
Sounds pretty presidential to me.