Kerry Washington: ‘I want fans to let go of Scandal while watching my new thriller’

Olivia Pope will always be one of the most legendary TV characters of all time.

‘It’s handled,’ is a phrase I frequently say in my head when I’ve dealt with a tough situation, forever inspired by the tenacity that the lead star of Scandal imbued into the role.

When I heard that Kerry Washington was starring in and executive producing a new TV thriller called Imperfect Women, I couldn’t wait to watch it. But when I found out that she was one of three leads alongside The Handmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss and House of Cards actress Kate Mara, my excitement went through the roof.

Metro recently had the chance to speak with Kerry, Elisabeth and Kate together, and I couldn’t help but say to them that to me – as an avid entertainment geek – their Apple TV crime drama feels like the ultimate TV crossover event.

‘That was literally my dream when we first started developing it,’ Mad Men star Elisabeth answered, who is also an executive producer on the show.

‘I wanted to bring together that dream team. The idea of if we could get Kerry and Kate and bring together these three number ones from their own individual, incredible shows and create this… That was what I wanted for the audience. I wanted that fun.’

Little Fires Everywhere star Kerry then continued: ‘And as iconic as all of these characters in these shows are, then it was like, how do we work as hard as we can so that when people enter this world, all they’re thinking about are these women and these friendships and not those other characters.

‘I feel like we’ve really done a good job in creating a world that’s complicated enough that you can let go of that other stuff.’

Trust me, when you watch Imperfect Women, you won’t be thinking about Olivia from Scandal, or June Osborne from The Handmaid’s Tale. This trio of women, Eleanor, Mary and Nancy, will indeed consume your mind.

Let me set the scene. Three women, who lead completely different lives, have been best friends since college. Eleanor is a successful charity boss, Mary is a housewife, and Nancy is a high-flying socialite.

At the start of the eight-part series, it’s revealed that one of the women has been killed under suspicious circumstances.

As the detectives investigating the case delve deep into the tight-knit group, secrets unravel and cutting betrayals come to light.

As the show progresses, viewers will gain insight into each woman’s mind, as the narrative flits between the present day and the past and between their unique perspectives.

It’s an engrossing experience that poses an important question to its audience: why are women often judged more harshly than men for their mistakes? Nobody’s perfect, but as the title of the thriller suggests, there is an imbalance.

When I pointed out this double standard, Kerry snapped her fingers in agreement.

Kate, who starred as reporter Zoe Barnes in House of Cards, acknowledged how ‘everyone on the show is making very big mistakes’.

‘They’re not doing it to be a**holes,’ Kerry chimed in. ‘Everybody’s trying to do their best and struggling.

‘I love the idea that when you see the words imperfect women, you think there’s something wrong with these women, and what you just come to realise is they’re human women. They’re just human beings.

‘We do put pressure on people to pretend to be something other than who they are, but you get to see in the show what it looks like to grapple and to try to uncover who somebody is after they pass, and how it can impact how you interact in the world as yourself as well.’

Imperfect Women is based on the book by Araminta Hall. While the essence of the story is the same, there are changes that have been made from the source material, most notably that the novel is set in England, with the three women becoming friends at Oxford University.

Elisabeth ‘fell in love’ with the structure of the narrative when she first read the book, an important aspect of the murder mystery that was brought into the TV show.

‘I’ll never forget the moment when I was reading Eleanor’s story, and it was fascinating and complicated and fun and interesting and challenging, and then you turn the page, and it says, Nancy. I still get chills talking about that,’ she recollected.

‘I’m sure it’s been done before, but I don’t remember having seen it on television, especially with three women. So that was something that was really important to preserve for the show and to carry from the book.’

I might have been fangirling internally over speaking to actresses whose work I’ve admired for years, but it seems that they were just as ecstatic to work together on this project.

‘There’s so much mutual respect here and admiration. We’re like, fanning over each other all the time,’ Kerry shared.

‘To have the opportunity to collaborate and be inspired by each other, but also push each other… Every day, I was like, I want to live up to the talent that these two women are bringing to the table.’

Elisabeth, who gave birth to her child in 2024 before filming began in 2025, added: ‘I personally took as much advantage of the time between takes as possible. As a new mum, and as a working mum, I was constantly trying to get tips from them and advice and just listen to their stories.

‘They’re both so incredibly wise, so intelligent, so good at what they do, both at work and at home. So for me, I was just trying to soak up and learn from them as much as possible.’

Imperfect Women is available to stream on Apple TV, with new episodes being released on Wednesdays.

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