Her characters are famous for handling messy situations, often through sheer force of will.
Can that approach succeed in real life?
Like her most famous character,Scandals Olivia Pope, Kerry Washington is dedicated to her profession.
More ambitious than Pope, a certified workaholic who dreamed of escaping Capitol Hill but always felt its pull.
Shes doing it ~all~.
Its a country weve spent some time in, so were going to do trips from there.
InUnPrisoned, your characters inner child helps narrate the show.
How is your inner child doing today?
My inner child is not as spicy as my inner child onUnPrisoned, generally.
Today my inner child is in a quiet pride.
When did you learn to allow yourself to feel proud and celebrate success?
One year it was literally, Were going to open gifts when people give them to us.
I can have a gift even something he gives me and itll sit in the corner of my room.
I feel like its become a metaphor for receiving lifes gifts.
So I dont know that Im great at celebrating.
Its something Im working on.
What made you ask?
Oh, just you saying that your inner child was sitting with some pride right now.
Shes really good at it, and about honoring successes, while also honoring what sheneedsto be successful.
She even acknowledges the wants, which were sometimes taught to ignore or feel shame about.
Im still learning that from Shonda.
And I was like, I cant even imagine asking myself those kinds of expansive questions.
I still dont have an answer.
Im lucky that my work allows me the adventures of living in other places.
Its been a real benefit for my kids, too.
Theyre well-traveled kids, and theyve experienced living internationally, which I think is important.
But again, thats always because someoneelsehas taken me somewhere.
Did you feel those circumstances righted themselves post-Scandal, or have they surfaced again?
When I was younger, there was more melodrama to the decision.
I was lacking some of the nuances of, I need a break.
So, a break became, Im done.
Im never acting again.
I need to find something else to do.
Starting my own production company helped.
I have so much more agency.
Its a real second act, which is one of the things I love aboutUnPrisoned.
In some ways, thats what the show is about, right?
This woman, Paige, thinks her life is one thing.
And then, he comes in.
I always felt like I needed to be a better daughter, yet I didnt know how to be.
I felt frustrated by a lot of the dynamics in our relationship.
That acknowledgement is such an important step.
I think all of us have pathologies in our family.
We all have trauma thats passed down, sometimes epigenetically.
[To write my book, I went] back and excavated my relationship with my parents.
Yet there are other things that have to stop with me.
The secrets have to stop with me.
Theres another aspect of the show I want to talk about, too.
The definition of felon changed for a lot of people recently, given Donald Trumps conviction.
Has it changed for you?
Everythinghas changed in terms of how I feel about the so-called justice system.
If a felon can run for president, a felon should be able to vote.
The irony is that [Gov.]
Ron DeSantis has been trying to make it impossible in Trumps home state.
Donald Trump may not be able to vote in his home state.
Its one of the most delicious ironies.
Allowing for that complexity is one of the things Ive been most proud of withUnPrisoned.
WhenScandalfirst came out, for a lot of people, Olivia Pope was the Black woman they knew best.
And she was a real human being, beyond the label of Black woman.
[She had] complexity, nuance, flaws, brilliance.
She was aspirational and also such a mess.
Now were allowing for that kind of social, psychological deepening with felons and returning citizens, too.
Its exciting to have a show that helps people understand and connect to the humanity of returning citizens.
Olivia Pope grew up educated and worked in elite white spaces.
I went to Taft and you went to Spence.
Neither are the Swiss boarding schools Olivia attended, but theyre as close as weve got in America.
Ive noticed that just mentioning where I went smoothes the waters with a lot of white men in power.
I definitely think navigating those institutions allowed me to have more confidence in traditionally white spaces.
Did you have that experience?
That was my first time experiencing culture shock.
I remember my cousins being like, You listen to the white radio station now.
I did, I loved the top 40!
Thats how I was raised, with this idea that you could be both.
I learned how to be bilingual.
Yeah, I think so.
We have an eye toward them being all of who they are and knowing where they come from.
I dont want them to have to go through that painful unpacking of, Is this who I am?
I want them to be much more fluid.
How did your time at Spence affect how youve made educational decisions for them?
And if theres an issue, Im on campus, theyll see me.
We have to be really involved and connected to other Black families and families of color.
And I imagine it affords some privacy.
Youre very good at keeping your kids and family out of the spotlight.
Did you know immediately when you were pregnant that would be the decision?
When I met my husband, he was also very private.
It was a shared value.
We started dating right beforeScandal, and he had been on the cover ofSports Illustrated.
We both wanted to protect our relationship.
By the time people started talking trash, we were happily married and pregnant.
Wed built so much trust that those attacks didnt put a dent in what wed created together.
How do you think about privacy regarding your kids?
I want them to make decisions about [that] when their brains are fully developed.
Im not making it for them.
They didnt choose to be born into the public eye.
What art do you notice inspiring your kids?
Has that started to happen yet?
They have no choice but to love everything Disney, because Im their mother.
Yes, you write about your love of Disney.
I was going to ask if youd label yourself a Disney adult.
I think Im an entry-drug Disney adult.
But what else is inspiring my kids?
This summer my younger daughter saw her first concert, Taylor Swift.
She was freaking out about the announcement of [The Tortured Poets Department].
Ive become more of a Swiftie because my daughters love her.
So we went to see Taylor Swift, and I became more of a fan in their presence.
Then I took her to see Beyonce, who my older daughter loves.
That was a cant-miss tour.
I watched my younger daughter actively fall in love with Beyonce at the concert, and nowCowboy Carterisheralbum.
Shes like, Mom, you really have to learn all the lyrics to Tyrant.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
