Kerry Washington Talks Doing Her Own Stunts In 'Shadow Force'

It’s a Sunday evening, and Kerry Washington is doing press for her latest film Shadow Force. The action flick is about two estranged parents, Kyrah and Issac (played by Kerry Washington and Omar Sy), who find themselves on the run with their young son to avoid being killed by shadow ops.

According to the film synopsis, Kyrah and Issac “were once the leaders of a multinational special forces group called Shadow Force. They broke the rules by falling in love, and in order to protect their son, they go underground. With a large bounty on their heads, and the vengeful Shadow Force hot on their trail, one family’s fight becomes all-out war.”

Within the first few minutes of the Joe Carnahan-directed flick, we watch Washington show off her sniper skills. “It was really important to me that I do as much of the stunt work as I could,” she said during our quick chat. It was the hardest Washington has ever physically worked on set. And it shows though intricate fight choreography and in her confidence. Opening up about it all, the 48-year-old mom found it to be one of the funniest aspects of filming.

“I did have an incredible stunt double who I worked with very closely with, Cena, but a lot of what we did was she was helping me how to figure out how to do the stunt safely, and it was a joy. Like it’s the hardest I’ve ever worked physically on a set without a doubt, but also really fun and the training started way before filming because I was doing, you know, weight training and Pilates and cardio, just the fitness like to improve my fitness. But then there was learning all the fight choreography and the weapons training and like, not just how to shoot the weapons, but how to take care of them, put them apart, take them, you know, take them apart, put them together, all of it. So it was really, really like a journey to prepare to play this role, but I’m so grateful because it was really fun.”

Motherhood was a big storyline in the film. “It’s like not only are they focused on being parents, but they start to learn in the course of the film that to be great parents, you have to be your best version of you. And that part of parenting, if you’re lucky enough for this to be your journey, that a great part of parenting can be partnership and so maintaining that sexy, maintaining your own interests, maintaining your strength, that all of that actually makes you a better parent. And to remember that that it’s not just about what they need but also about what you need as a whole person.”

Catch Shadow Force in theaters now.