‘UnPrisoned’ Star Kerry Washington on Being ‘Waist-Deep’ in Motherhood (Exclusive)

On Thursday night, Kerry Washington was a vision in Elie Saab at the premiere of her new series “UnPrisoned.”

“Extra’s” Rachel Lindsay spoke with Kerry about motherhood, her upcoming memoir, and her role in “UnPrisoned.”

“UnPrisoned,” a new comedy series about a single mom whose life is turned upside down when her dad gets out of prison and moves in with her and her teenage son.

Kerry commented, “We are telling a story about a family. A family that is learning how to love each other more and better, something that most families are doing. We tell a lot of stories of people going into prison, we tell a lot of stories of what it’s like in prison, we don’t tell a lot of stories about what it is like to be a returning citizen, what it is like to love a formerly incarcerated person as they try to enter society. That’s the truth that we’re excavating and exploring and having a really good time doing.”

Kerry is leaning on her relationship with her own dad, saying,  “A little bit… all parental relationships are complicated, but there is so much love and so much laughter and I have that with my dad, too.”

In the show, Kerry plays the mother of a teenage son, so does it scare her in any way as she preps for it in real life? She answered, “I’m waist-deep in it. I have 3 kids. My oldest is a junior in high school, so I’m waist-deep in it. I’ve got all the kids at all different development stages and I love it!  My kids are awesome.”

Kerry is the cool mom who’s also on TikTok, so she convinced her co-star Delroy Lindo, who plays her dad, to do a video with her. She admitted, “It was not easy to get him on TikTok. I’m hoping he’s gonna give the people what they want and do some more TikToks with me, ‘cause he was amazing. He was so good!”

After recently celebrating her 46 birthday, Kerry is getting ready to release her memoir to the world!

As for why she decided now was the best time to release the memoir, Washington noted, “As we get closer to the memoir being out in the world, it'll be pretty clear. But in the last few years, I’ve been learning more about myself and it really felt like a good time to take stock and share some of what I’m learning.”