When Kerry Washington signed on to play Paige Alexander, a therapist and single mother navigating her father Edwin’s release from prison and return to her life, she knew that she needed the perfect scene partner to pull off the complicated family dynamics.
So, she sent an email to Delroy Lindo, asking if he’d be interested in playing her dad.
“I have been a Delroy super fan forever. He’s one of my acting heroes,” Washington said, discussing the series with Lindo in Variety’s Streaming Room. “He also reminds me of somebody in my upbringing, one of my father figures, an uncle of mine who was really beloved.”
As an actor, Washington recognized that Lindo having “the essence of somebody that I already love” would help realize the story’s emotional stakes, and, as an executive producer, she recognized the role required top-notch acting chops.
“I knew that working with Delroy would bring out the best in me because I would want to meet him where he is which he’s up there. He is truly one of our greats,” Washington added. “What was required in this character was so complicated and so nuanced, we had to have one of our best.”
The father-daughter relationship is inspired by “UnPrisoned” creator Tracy McMillian’s experiences with her dad, Willie “Harold” McMillan, who was in and out of prison for an aggregate of 37 years.
“We had to have Delroy because I needed somebody who could be smart and charming and lovable, because when Tracy talks about her dad and the character of Edwin, she always said you wouldn’t know that he had gone to prison, you wouldn’t assume that,” Washington said. “When he walked in the room, everybody was like ‘He’s so charming and smart.’ So, we needed somebody who had all of those qualities, but who you also could believe might be a career criminal, and I felt like Delroy was capable of embodying that kind of complexity.”
“UnPrisoned” is the Onyx Collective’s most-watched Hulu premiere to date, but the real marker for the show’s success has been the response from audiences, who’ve connected to the family story at the heart of this dramedy. Since the show premiered, Washington and Lindo have been struck by the personal stories people have shared about their incarcerated family members.
“When we were in South by Southwest, we were interviewed by four sit-down journalists. … and three out of the four journalists that we talked to had a parent who was formerly incarcerated,” Washington recalled. “There’s no one in this country who hasn’t been touched by the criminal justice system, so for us to be able to engage with that segment or that part of who we are as a culture and as a society, it’s so gratifying to be able to tell a story that isn’t being told but that feels like it belongs to all of us.”
Lindo concurred, adding: “What moved me is the fact that they felt comfortable enough in a professional setting to divulge that about themselves. The fact that the work has impacted them in such a way that they felt moved to share that with us was also majorly significant. Gratifying, doesn’t begin to describe how moved one is, how rewarding that is.”
And it all stems from the vulnerability of “UnPrisoned’s” writers, Washington noted, crediting McMillan, showrunner Yvette Lee Bowser and the writing staff pouring their lives and experiences into the Alexander family’s story.
“It’s important to acknowledge at this time — especially right with what the Writers Guild is out there doing every day fighting for their ability to live and survive and be compensated fairly — that we would not be here having this conversation if it were not for the hard work and diligence and wisdom and insight and talent of our writers,” she said. “Everybody’s trauma was out there on the table in the writers room every day.”
In preparing for the show, Washington dissected McMillan’s memoir, while Lindo spent time with organizations that help formerly incarcerated individuals get back on their feet.
“There’s a theme throughout this work of generosity,” Lindo said of those who opened their lives to him and Washington to prepare. “They made themselves available. They sat and they talked to me generously, genuinely, authentically about their stuff, about their lives. And Tracy’s dad was the first — because when I signed on to do this, the first thing I said to Tracy was, ‘Can I meet your dad?’ and that was very quickly arranged.”
The series is dedicated to the memory of Harold, who died in January, a couple months before its Hulu debut. Shortly after learning the news, McMillan posted on social media.
“I created a show called ‘UnPrisoned’ to set myself free,” she wrote, going on to reveal that Pauline, the woman who raised her while her father was in prison, had also died the same day, hours and miles apart from her dad. “Now Harold and Pauline are helping me do that – all at once. I will always be grateful for everything they gave me. And forgive them everything they couldn’t.”
Being part of McMillan’s healing journey was particularly poignant for the show’s stars.
“One of the reasons why the title of the show ‘UnPrisoned’ is so powerful is because you think that it’s just related to this one character of Edwin, and that it’s just describing his physical existence,” Washington said. “What you come to realize when you watch the show is that it’s about everybody’s liberation and everybody’s freedom.”
While the idea of “freedom” is about breaking free of physical limitations and about fighting for equity in our culture, Washington explained, it’s also about divesting from “traumatic patterns of thinking and behaving that trap us in versions of ourselves that we no longer need to be.”
So, as a result of McMillan’s “walk toward freeing herself” with the show, “She’s told this story about a family freeing themselves. And we all get to get a little taste of what it might look like for ourselves or even just ask ourselves the question, ‘What would freedom look like for me?’”
Watch the video above for the full conversation.
