Kerry Washington Knows 'Animals' Raises More Questions Than It Answers
The Emmy winner talks about teaming up with Ben Affleck on Netflix's heavy crime film, returning to the world of 'Flawed Women,' and what her defining role as Olivia Pope in 'Scandal' taught her about power.
[This story contains spoilers for Netflix Animals.]
In the eight years since her stint as Olivia Pope on ABC's Scandal , which made her the first black woman to lead a hit network drama in 40 years, Kerry Washington has largely focused on producing, stepping into acting roles only when they broaden her range. But lately he has been actively looking for strong directors to work with. It was a surprise to be offered an unexpected role opposite Ben Affleck in his latest film, Animals.
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He was driving around Santa Barbara, where he and his family moved because of the 2025 wildfires, when he got a text from Affleck. "He wanted to talk to me about a project," Washington tells The Hollywood Reporter. He has long been a fan of Affleck's work behind the camera, counting Argo, The Town, and Gone Baby Gone among his favorites. "I remember hoping that I would like the script as much as I liked the idea of working with him... and I really couldn't put it down."
Affleck's new crime thriller from Netflix, based on a script he wrote with Billy Ray and Connor O. McIntyre, stars Affleck as Mark Kimball, an independent Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose campaign has secretly bankrupted his family. When his young son is allegedly kidnapped for ransom on Halloween night, Mark must confess his financial ruin to his therapist wife, Abigail (Washington), who has actually been having an affair with a colleague.
As they try to collect the overnight ransom, the broken couple are forced to confront their mutual betrayals. But in a tragic case of mistaken identity, Mark and Abigail discover that the kidnappers actually took Hector - the son of their nanny Cecilia's (Adriana Paz) illegitimate boyfriend Ramon (Luis Gerardo Mendez) - after confusing the two boys in their Halloween costumes. This revelation turns a classic kidnapping thriller into a provocative test of privilege and empathy, forcing Mark and Abigail—and, by extension, the audience—to confront how far they'll go to save another family's child.
Like his appearance in the most recent Knives Out sequel, Animals marks a rare entry in Washington's filmography in which he serves as a performer rather than a producer. Through his production banner, Simpson Street, Washington continues to oversee a busy slate that includes the fourth season of Hulu's legal drama Reasonable Doubt, the recently renewed Incomplete Women, the upcoming crime thriller What Remains in Hulu in development, and the Desperate Housewives spinoff Laia titled Wister.
Beyond traditional television, Simpson Street — named for the Bronx street where Washington's mother grew up — recently launched a weekly podcast version of his interview series, The Street You Grew Up On. (Affleck was the first guest on the new season, which Washington tells THR will have at least 20 episodes.)
In a video call from his production company's offices in Los Angeles, Washington talked about working with Affleck to create a portrait of a troubled interracial marriage, why he agreed to expand Flawed Women from a limited series to an ongoing drama series — and what his career-defining role on Scandal taught him about power.
Ben Affleck has openly discussed how to write the script with his best friend Matt Damon and ex-wife Jennifer Garner. But after Matt committed to The Odyssey, Ben decided to play Mark himself. However, Jen reportedly felt that playing opposite Ben as an estranged couple brought a lot of real-life baggage to the screen. So, when she left, Ben immediately thought of you to play Abigail. What do you remember from your first conversations with him about this project?
I remember being very excited because before I read it, he told me that for him, it was a thriller with other themes – and one of the themes that was most important to him was marriage. I remember thinking, "That's what they always say when they want a girl to say yes." When you play the "wife" role and they ask you to do it, they say, "Oh, marriage is so important," because they're asking you to do it. Think your part is important. So, in my mind, I was like, "We'll see when I read this."
When he said, "Oh, I want you to play my wife in something," I don't know why, but I didn't think this marriage would be this difficult and chaotic. So when I read it and we got on the phone, he said, "I really need someone to help me understand this more and research the material with me. We're going to have a rehearsal process." This also made me very excited because I love training so much.
One of the things that I like to say that happens in this movie is that you as an audience are allowed to see rooms that you would never be able to be in in real life and hear conversations that you would never be able to have in real life - because there's a certain way that a couple talks to each other when no one else is in the room. There's a certain way that Sam [Mark's campaign manager, played by Steven Yeun] and Abby talk to each other when Mark's not in the room. There are so many different masks that we wear in different relationships. It was really fun for us to figure out what these masks were and who we were, especially in the context of this heightened nightmare of a night in the life of this family.
Abigail wasn't originally written as black, but your presence in the role made that central marriage an interracial one. You and Weben have talked about how you work together to create a long-lasting history, as well as the underlying friction between your characters. Given that we're just one tumultuous day in the lives of the Kimball family and their closest associates, did you create a backstory for Abigail?
We spent a lot of time talking about the background - how they fell in love, why they fell in love. We made a love story. I asked him to pick out my ring so that he would pick out the ring the way he picked out Mark Abbey. "What if you don't like it?" he said. And I was like, "Abby might not like this either. It happens." At one point, I remember we were getting along so well in rehearsal, and we were drawing this beautiful early relationship that they had, that we were both like, "Oh boy, can we go into this desperate, less friendly version of marriage?" And then, we read one of the fight scenes for the first time, and we were like, "We're going to be fine." (Laughs.)
[During filming] we would do the scene and then we would riff and improve different moments of the scene. The question he asks me in the big fight scene in our bedroom around the match - it wasn't a scripted line. [Washington points to a moment in the film when Mark, upon learning of Abigail's affair with another man, asks his wife, "Is she black?" ] People want to talk about that line all the time. It's amazing how that moment really stays with people. It was an impromptu question that Ben asked while filming one of the scenes, which is why I didn't answer because I was so shocked. I also knew that her character didn't want the answer to that question, so my not answering was the answer.
But it came from the enrichment process we had around us: "How was his relationship with my family? Do they approve of him? Did I date other people of color before him? Did I always date white guys? Did he have insecurities about not being black and being with my family?" We had built that relationship so that when we were looking for new ways to interact in the heat of the argument, this line from her was really organic and beautiful. This is one of my favorite moments in the movie.
You asked yourself all these questions before and during filming, but do you really want to reveal any of this backstory to the public?
I don't because I feel like that's part of the point of the movie. We have to be very clear about that because as Abby, when I look at Mark, I want to be really clear about our history. We have achieved some of them based on our life experience. Obviously, in the movie, marriage is nobody's business. This is not my real marriage. It's not her real marriage, but you bring your lived experience to the writing process, the acting process.
As an audience member, I think Ben does a really nice job of inviting you to ask questions. I think that's even part of why we don't spend a lot of time with Kidnappers, because you can't point the finger and say, "Oh, that's the bad guy." Without further information and characterization, you have to assume the bad guy in everyone. You have to be willing to ask more questions about who is to blame, who else is complicit in this terrible dynamic.
Even for Adriana and I, we discussed: How long has [Cecilia] worked at home? We had a feeling that if he wasn't on our payroll, we'd probably be friends. Because when I say, "You're like family to me," I mean it in my very privileged Brentwood, slightly deaf, slightly ignorant way. I feel a lot of love, affection and gratitude towards him in my life. I also fear and resent the relationship he has with my son because he loves him so much. We were talking through all those dynamics so we could bring those emotional truths to the screen. Even if they aren't expressed, you feel it in the context of how these characters interact with each other.
Shortly before Mark leaves to make the delivery, Abigail apparently mutters that she should kill anyone who shows up for the money. In the end, Hector's father, Ramon, follows Mark to the exchange and shoots the final gunman to save them both. Knowing an illegal immigrant faces much harsher legal consequences than a wealthy one, Stemark, a politician, disguises Ramon's role, sends the family to Mexico with ransom money, and claims credit for the rescue - using the fictional hero story to win the mayoral race with Abigail at his side. What is your interpretation of the end?
A lot is said at the end of the film, but, again, I think the audience is asked to consider a lot more. I don't think there's a heavy message to the movie because everyone who watches the ending is like, "Wait, what?" From my perspective, I feel like Mark and Abby have become a team. From having this not-so-great marriage, they are literally partners in crime and each other's closest and most intimate partners in everything—in love, in crime, in life, in ambition. By the end of the movie, they're running for office together, they're running the city together, they're having sex in bed. They act as really close partners, which is pretty cool considering where they're coming from in the first place.
I love the surprising twists at the end of the movie that make you question what safety looks and means to different people. [I was surprised] that a Latino family would say that Los Angeles is too dangerous, they can't be here and they'd rather be in Mexico. The ending makes you question why it is easier for a privileged white man to let an undocumented immigrant plead guilty to the same crime instead of letting it happen. Why are there different consequences, ramifications, ripple effects?
The ending, for what it's worth, feels uncomfortably real. You can debate whether Mark's motives for blaming were altruistic or selfish.
It feels real because it doesn't have a happy ending and it doesn't have a sad ending. It's a really complicated ending because you're also like, "Are they in love? I know they're fucking and they said they both wanted to fuck, so does that mean they love each other?" i don't know It is extremely interesting
I'm actually talking to you the day after Flawed Women was officially renewed for a second season on Apple TV. Given that the series was originally pitched as a limited series, how long after the first season did you and your other executive producers—including Elisabeth Moss and creator Annie Wiseman—start discussing a sequel?
We did not start this conversation. It was a limited series, end of end. This conversation was started by Apple, and we're glad to have it.
What did you find most interesting about playing Eleanor in the first batch of episodes, and what are you looking forward to exploring with her in the future?
I really love people who try to do their best and don't always do it in a way that other people agree with, because that's very human. Like animals, I love things that involve questions and thinking. I love things that are somehow sustainable.
We sat around the monitors and discussed the stories. It was so funny Kate Mara, who literally plays the dead girl [her husband Robert, played by Joel Kinnaman, sleeps with Eleanor], was like, “Who cares? He is dead." "Do you really feel that way?" I said. "Yeah, he's dead!" he would say. Other people say, "It's okay!" I look forward to more. For me, exploring the inner lives of women by rejecting society's pressure to maintain false perfection—that's really exciting for me as an artist.
According to the logline, in Season 2, Eleanor will return to her hometown roots in the black affluent area of Martha's Vineyard. Does this mean we'll delve deeper into Eleanor's relationships with her brother Donovan (Leslie Odom Jr.) and mother Constance (Sheryl Lee Ralph)?
yes Leslie is truly a dear friend of mine and I love working with her. Those scenes between Donovan and Eleanor were some of my favorite scenes of the entire season to film. I love that character and how she speaks what other people think about Eleanor, so I'm really excited to dive deep into that.
And Cheryl - I get emotional even thinking about it. I was very nervous to call Cheryl to play my mother. I'm sitting with my kids having dinner, and I'm like, "You guys, I have to call one of my favorite actresses in my life, my hero, and ask her if she wants to be my mom." They were like, "Whoa. Who is it?" "Do you know Mrs. Roy Abbott?" I said. They were like, "Oh, he's amazing." Of course, they don't know her as Dreamgirls. They know her [as Barbara Howard] at Abbott. I called her from the living room and they were sitting in another room. I think they were still eating in the kitchen. When she said yes, I was like, "Oh, I'm so happy." My kids started cheering in the background as they could tell the call was well made.
It was very meaningful and very transformative to do that with him, even if it was just two scenes [at the end], so I'm really excited to work with him again and build more of that very complex relationship. There are a lot of complex relationships in that family, in that community, so we're going to go into that.
Speaking of messy women in complicated relationships, next April will mark 15 years since Scandal premiered.
Next December will also be 15 years since Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, which you kind of shot between the first and second seasons of Scandal. You've talked a lot about the pressure and responsibility of being the first black woman to direct a broadcast drama in almost 40 years, but how do you feel about that? Has Olivia Pope deepened the character with age and time and distance?
We keep talking about how blackness isn't integrated or female identity isn't integrated, and we're like, "What is that?" There is so much rich storytelling in different pockets of identity. I feel very lucky to have played both Bromhilda von Schaft and Olivia Pope right next to each other because I felt like, at the time, Olivia Pope was like Bromhilda von Schaft's wildest prayer dream come true. Going from a woman with no power or representation—she's not even legally allowed to marry another human being, as dictated by the U.S. Constitution as three-fifths of the people—to the most powerful woman in the White House. It was a wonderful privilege to be able to hold space for both of those women.
On a side note, I'm really grateful for what Olivia Pope taught me about strength, because I think she came into my life when I kind of knew what strength looked and sounded like so I could get the role. But I didn't really know what it looked like to embody power in my life. I didn't have an office. Today, I'm sitting in an office with my name on the door—no really, it's the name of my production company, but as Olivia I always said, "That's the name on that door." He really taught me what it means to be number one on my call sheet and number one in my life, to work with me and be a leader. He allowed me to understand what those things could mean in my life as I was visualizing what those things meant in his.
Have you and Shonda Rhimes ever thought about a Scandal sequel? Surely, given that the series lives on through social media, there must be room for a movie or limited series.