A Man from Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life (25 page)

The organization provides scholarships, produces an annual soccer tournament, and works with local NGOs. Adisa has traveled
to Sierra Leone several times providing services for the Sierra Leone children and completed a documentary about his Finaza
Football Tournament. He is truly a miracle.

I
poked my head into Sonya’s office. “Did you call the duchess back?” she asked.

“What? I thought that was a prank call from you,” I replied.

“No, hon,” she said, “it’s the Duchess of York, all right; just spoke with her assistant last week. You haven’t been checking
your e-mails again?”

“Wow, should I call her back? What does she want?”

“She says her daughters are huge fans and they want an autographed photo of you,” she explained.

“Wow, okay. Um, I’ll call her when I get back to the set.”

On November 2, 2006, the Duchess of York, Sarah Margaret Ferguson, would come to visit me on the set of my TV show. She wanted
me to give her a personal tour.

One day, while I was getting clearance from my boss, Shonda Rhimes, for the duchess to tour the set, she asked, “What are
you doing? Running for president?” She was becoming increas
ingly intrigued by my relationships with Sierra Leone, Capitol Hill, and now the Duchess of York.

“No.” I answered, “that’s not in my DNA.” I walked out of her office and headed back to my trailer to wait for the duchess
to arrive. My cell phone rang. It was E.H., a lobbyist from DC. He asked if I knew Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, or Ed
Zwick. “No,” I said, “not personally, why?”

“Well, this movie
Blood Diamond
could kill the diamond industry,” he explained. “And that would kill a lot of jobs in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and all of the
diamond-mining countries.”

Yes,” I said, “I received a letter from the president of Botswana expressing his concern, but what does that have to do with
me?”

“Isaiah,” he said, “you are in a very powerful position right now. Your name is on the lips of every person, newspaper, and
tabloid around the world. Use it to your advantage. Can you call Ed Zwick and try to convince him to put out a disclaimer
stating that his movie isn’t historically accurate?”

“Why would I do that?” I asked. “Ed Zwick isn’t going to listen to me.”

“Isaiah, nonconflict diamond mining is the only way Sierra Leone is going to get out of its present condition.”

“I don’t agree with that, sir. I’ll make a call, but don’t expect anything.”

“Thanks, buddy,” he said. “I’ll make sure your foundation is earmarked for this.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, and hung up.

I scrolled through my contacts and dialed my agent at the Innovative Artists agency, Ben Press.

“Izayyyyyyaahhhh, how ya doing, buddy? Ya hanging in there?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m all right,” I told him. “Look, I need a number for Ed Zwick’s office.”

“Surrrrre,” he said, “wanna tell me what the call is about?”

“I’m just going to call him. I promised someone that I would
call
him,” I said.

“Okaaaaaayyyyyyyy, hold on, here it is, a ready?” I grabbed a pen and wrote down the number.

I dialed the number Ben gave me.

“Hello, this is Isaiah Washington calling,” I said when the receptionist answered. I could hear the air leave her body.

“Can I ask what this call is regarding?”

“Yes, I promised someone that I would
call
Mr. Zwick’s office. I’ve done that.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand what the message is,” she said, confused.

“There isn’t one,” I answered. “I just need you to document that I
called
.”

“Well… okay… sure.”

I hung up and began reading an article on
jcrs.com
about the Duchess of York on my laptop:

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, recently launched a collection of moissanite jewelry. On top of the trend,
Good Housekeeping
has called moissanite the new “it” jewel. Moissanite is a naturally occurring mineral. In 1893, Henri Moissan discovered
minute silicone carbide crystals in a 50,000-year-old meteor in Arizona. Later, the crystalline substance was named after
him. In fact, moissanite can be considered a huge success story for lab-grown gems. Moissanite producers say it has more luster
and brilliance than diamond, perhaps twice the fire of diamond, and it is almost as durable. (On the Mohs hardness scale,
moissanite ranks 9.5—right between diamond, the hardest known mineral, which ranks 10, and sapphire, which ranks 9.)
¹¹

I met the Duchess of York with my publicist, Cynthia Snyder. We took a few pictures and I introduced her to a few of my cast
mates. The whole thing seemed a little bizarre to me, but not as bizarre as it was going to get.

The duchess seemed to enjoy her tour by “Dr. Preston Burke.” We exchanged hugs and mobile phone numbers, and then her bodyguards
escorted her back to her car.

I could have cut the tension on the set with a high-powered chainsaw and it would not have made a scratch. There was a full-scale
war brewing outside the studio walls and it was focused on me. And then there was the other war to escalate, the one between
Hollywood and the diamond industry. I found myself standing right in the middle of both conflicts. My relationship with Sierra
Leone and the dustup I’d had with Patrick Dempsey made me a perfect target for the media. I had become a pawn on an extremely
broad and lethal media chessboard. I knew that I would soon have to pick a side.

On November 20, 2006, the Google alert I’d set up on De Beers popped up on my computer revealing an article in
Time
magazine. The article covered how Leonardo DiCaprio prepared for his role in
Blood Diamond
by spending a month in Africa and described the movie, noting:

The movie follows the fortunes of a soldier turned diamond smuggler who works with both warlords and an international diamond
corporation…. Along the way, many unromantic acts are perpetrated in the pursuit of the gemstones…. The film is historical,
but the history is recent. And since a diamond’s worth is intimately connected with its significance for romance, the gem
industry knows it can’t be too careful about the film.

The article went on to describe how the World Diamond Council (WDC) was countering with a $15 million crisis PR campaign.

“I’m not worried at all by the film as long as people get to know the facts,” says Eli Izhakoff, head of the W.D.C. “We see
this as an opportunity to make sure that people are aware of all the good stuff the industry has done.” Rosalind Kainyah,
until recently De Beers’ London-based director of public and corporate affairs, is a little more direct. “I’m sure that Warner
Bros. wouldn’t want to harm Africa,” she says. “So I believe they’ll want to put the movie in a historic context.”
¹²

“Warner Bros. wouldn’t want to harm Africa?” I said out loud. “Wow, Rosalind, how much are they paying you?” Right then and
there, I made my choice. I picked a side. I wanted no part of the diamond industry or its money. I just wanted to build a
school for the village of Njala Kendema in Sierra Leone. I changed the phone number on my mobile phone and turned my attention
to my job, my family, and getting the school built.

The clock was ticking. Five months had passed since I pledged to build my school according to my 365-Day Plan. I needed to
focus. My military training began to kick in; I had to prepare for battle because in my mind I was now at war. I sat down
at my computer and pulled up my investment portfolio. The Bausch & Lomb shares I decided to buy the day I sat waiting for
Jeffrey Sachs at Jean Georges had yielded some very nice dividends. I also owned shares of Disney and those were making money
too. I Googled the Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent company, and read that Disney had reported a fourth-quarter net profit
of $782 million, or 36 cents per share, compared to $379 million, or 19 cents per share a year before.
¹³

And then a headline in the stock news section caught my eye: “Wenner Media Acquires Disney’s 50% Stake In
Us Weekly
.
¹⁴
Disney had sold its stake in
Us Weekly
to Wenner Media.
Us Weekly
was one of the tabloids printing much of the negative press about me!

I picked up my office phone and called Steve McPherson and Mark Pedowitz, two top executives on my TV show, to discuss the
increasingly negative and inaccurate stories that the magazine was publishing about me.

Us Weekly
had recently paid Disney $300 million to regain its full ownership again.

“Yeah, Michael Eisner would have sold his grandmother when he was in office,” said Steve. “We don’t do business like that
anymore.”

“I see that Disney and our show are doing very well,” I said.

“Yes, we are making money.”

“Hey, this thing is growing legs in the wrong direction; the tabloids got it all wrong. I never attacked T.R. What’s going
on? I think I need to talk. Tell my side of what happened. This thing is hurting everything connected to me,” I explained.

“Shit happens,” Steve said nonchalantly. “You still have that bottle of Gaja I sent you?” he asked.

“Yes, I do,” I answered.

“Now would be a good time to open it. Buy a big hat and keep quiet. We are handling this.”

I hung up and called Mark Pedowitz. “Hey, Mark, this thing with the tabloids is killing me, my family can’t go out of the
house. Cameras are everywhere. My wife had to turn the radio off this morning so the kids wouldn’t hear my name.”

“I know, Isaiah,” Mark said. “Just stop talking to the press. Change your number yet?”

I said I had. “Good man,” he said.

“Mark,
Us Weekly
is
killing
me, and Disney was in business
with these guys just three months ago. Do you think I should buy some Wenner Media shares?”

“Why not, couldn’t hurt, I guess,” Mark said. “Once you become a major shareholder maybe you can ask them not to bother you
anymore.”

We both laughed and I hung up. “This is crazy,” I thought to myself. What the hell was I laughing at? Disney stock value was
going up and at the same time my personal stock value was plummeting. I stood up, opened up the cabinet in my office, and
opened that bottle of wine Steve had given me.

My agent called to remind me that I had been invited to attend the
Blood Diamond
premiere and after party at the Roosevelt Hotel later that evening. I knew everyone attending would be dressed in traditional
suits and evening gowns as usual. But I didn’t have time to go home and change into a shirt and tie. So I went dressed in
my dark blue coveralls, Wellie boots, and a baseball cap. With each sip of wine, I resigned myself to the idea of appearing
underdressed. In fact, I began to think that my present attire would actually be fitting for what was happening in my life.
Because of the derogatory way the media was portraying me and the way the baggy dark blue coveralls looked, I felt like an
abused field hand, street sweeper, or mechanic, maybe even a garbage man or prisoner of some sort. So why shouldn’t my attire
match my feelings?

I arrived to the theater late, to give the press time to exhaust themselves on the red carpet, and then I slipped into the
theater. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt some people were looking at me as if I had lost my mind. I didn’t care.
I had consumed half a bottle of a 2005 Gaja Barbaresco and had a bit of alcohol courage going. I sat in the darkness of the
theater and felt as if people around me were whispering. Were they talking about me? When I returned a few of the stares,
eyes were quickly diverted.

The movie truly hit home with me. I felt something on my face and thought someone had sprayed me with spittle. I wiped at
my face only to realize that it was my own tears running down my cheeks. No matter how many times I saw or read an illustration
of the pain and suffering the African people were subjected to, I never hardened to it. Each time, it hurt me to my core.
I ducked out of the theater before the credits started rolling.

I headed over to the after party at the Roosevelt Hotel and was immediately stopped by security. The guard asked to see my
ID. He looked at it with his flashlight and then back up at me. “My apologies, Mr. Washington,” he said. “I didn’t recognize
you, please come right in, sir.”

The first person I ran into was the composer for the film, James Newton Howard. He was polite. I waited for several minutes
to introduce myself to Ed Zwick, but he was preoccupied with well-wishers. Someone pointed out Sorius Samura, the director
of
Cry Freetown
. A young lady named Nzinga Blake introduced herself; she was a Sierra Leonean American actress from Sierra Leone.

“Hello, did you enjoy the movie?” she asked.

“Very much so,” I replied.

“I’m a little upset,” she said.

When I asked her why, she replied, “They didn’t shoot anything in Sierra Leone.”

“Wow,” I said, “that’s too bad. Sierra Leone could have used the money.”

“I’m a host for Al Gore’s
Current TV,
” she continued. “Are you familiar with the show?”

I told her that I wasn’t.

“Maybe I can interview you one day. I know what you have been doing for Sierra Leone.”

“Actually,” I explained, “all I’ve done is travel there and ask
a lot of questions. I do plan on building a school there soon. Maybe we can talk about that.”

She agreed and gave me her number. Nzinga introduced me to her cousin and then I excused myself and began to mingle. I ran
into Djimon Hounsou, who was as poised and immaculately dressed as usual. He slowly looked me up and down and then asked,
“You all right?” I guess he wasn’t feeling my outfit. “Don’t believe what you read, man. It’s all being handled,” I said.
“I want to talk, but they want me to keep my mouth shut.”

Djimon placed his right index finger up to his lips and mimed a silent but irrefutable ssssshhhhhhh. I congratulated him on
a great performance and made room for some of his well-wishers. He winked at me. I winked back and walked away.