Kerry Washington has highlighted the importance of using sun protection for Black skin.

The 44-year-old actress is raising awareness of the consequences of disregarding sun safety in her new documentary In The Sun, which she co-created with skincare brand Neutrogena.

She touched upon the misconceptions of sun protection in the Black community, and urged people to take using SPF seriously.

“I think for a lot of my life, I have tended to focus on the vanity around my relationship with the sun. People say ‘black don’t crack,’ but we know that sun is one of the things that really causes ageing in the skin. Those are things that I’ve thought about through the years,” Kerry told the People Every Day podcast.

“It was really important to me in the documentary to address a lot of those myths. Because people tend to think that skin cancer doesn’t have anything to do with them. Obviously that’s not true, when you look at the numbers of how many people are diagnosed every year,” she added.

Kerry hopes her new documentary will highlight the devastating impact of a late skin cancer diagnosis.

“Our misconception that we’re not impacted means that oftentimes, black people or people of colour are diagnosed later with later stage in cancer, because we’re not checking for it. We’re not looking for it. We’re not aware. And so that increases the danger,” she explained.

The mother-of-two said she was urged to diligently use sunscreen when filming her hit TV show Scandal, so as not to cause continuation problems.

“There would be some times where we would (leave) for Christmas break in the middle of an episode for Scandal. And they’d be like, ‘Don’t come back three shades darker, because we’re in the middle of this episode.’ You can’t be jumping skin colour from one scene to the next!” she laughed.

– Cover Media