Kerry Washington is among the few black women to lead an American network television show. Michael Lewis for The New York Times

LOS ANGELES - To portray Olivia Pope, the tough crisis manager at the center of the hit ABC series "Scandal," Kerry Washington is always in gravity-defying heels. How else to make that sexed-up power stalk down the White House corridors?

"I never completely understand a character until I know what kind of shoes they wear," Ms. Washington said. For an interview, she was in a pair of intimidating white high heels.

But Ms. Washington is often in sneakers or flip-flops, a clue for anyone trying to understand her. "It says I'm not really attracted to walking in the world in any one way," she explained.

Those ways have ranged from the role of the slave Broomhilda in Quentin Tarantino's recent "Django Unchained" to the pampered Grace Peeples in the romantic comedy "Peeples," which opened in the United States on May 10. But it has been through the intimacy and reach of television that Ms. Washington, 36, has arrived in the center of a cultural discussion in the United States.

Thanks to "Scandal," she is among the few black women to lead a network television drama, and the first one to make it a bona fide hit.

Attention to the breakout role has meant Ms. Washington must carry the racial aspirations of more than a few fans as well as the expectation that her success could open doors in the race-averse world of network television.

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