{blackbabes} Kerry Washington vamps in first fashion-mag spread

It's always interesting to learn what the stars might have been had they not become actors, and in the case of Kerry Washington it's pretty far from her current reality: clinical psychologist.

Yes, that's the career she thought she'd pursue, she tells Elle magazine, where she's on the cover of the June issue and poses for her first-ever fashion magazine spread wearing Marc Jacobs.

"I imagined I'd be a clinical psychologist, with a focus on how performance shapes identity," she says in the interview. "I'd figure out ways to use role-playing in the healing of people."

Instead, she became a role player herself, at home in blockbusters and indies alike, soon in a rare comic role in Peoples, opening soon, and the standout of Scandal, the hit series on ABC about a Washington PR fixer. And don't forget her turn in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.

"Kerry Washington is finally settling into the star she's always been," Elle says.

It wasn't what she expected. When asked if she ever considered becoming a model or actress as a kid, Washington, 36, was definite.

"I was not that girl," she says. "I was a kooky theater kid, silly and goofy and academic."

Now she's enjoying the ride, including the one on the red carpet. The result is always impressive.

"I found out I enjoy the process (of getting ready)," she says. "All these people show up at my house, they all have kits, someone has dresses. And it's like, let's have fun. It's not all about me. We're able to create stories on the red carpet."

Washington is grateful for her current success.

"I'm the luckiest broad in Hollywood now," she declares. "To be the lead actor on Scandal and to be in the highest-earning Tarantino movie — I don't get to ask for more."

The issue is on newsstands May 21.