Kerry Washington says being both star and executive producer on Imperfect Women gave her the creative control she values most, from casting and hiring to scripts, post-production and marketing. She said she still takes acting jobs without producing credits, but only when she trusts the collaborators completely, pointing to past work with filmmakers such as Rian Johnson and Ben Affleck as examples of partnerships where she could learn and contribute. On Imperfect Women, she said the collaboration between her company Simpson Street and Elisabeth Moss’s Love & Squalor was built on shared leadership rather than hierarchy, with Moss initially bringing Washington into the project after securing the rights to Araminta Hall’s novel.
Washington said the story’s unusual structure — shifting viewpoints between characters, including the perspective of a dead woman — was one of the main reasons she was drawn to the adaptation. She praised the material for encouraging audiences to see events through another person’s eyes, calling that idea especially meaningful in a world where people often assume they understand the full picture too quickly. Across the show’s eight episodes, she said the characters undergo subtle but important changes, with each woman effectively taking the lead at different points in the season.
The actor described the series as a more intimate kind of drama than her earlier work, with the central conflicts rooted in jealousy, desire, fear and denial rather than large external systems of power. She said that shift made the acting process more demanding in some ways because it required a deeper emotional excavation. Washington also emphasized the importance of the writing room, saying Simpson Street pushed for a truly inclusive writers’ room with multiple voices of color. She added that the production team deliberately hired different directors for different episodes so each perspective would feel distinct while still fitting into a cohesive whole.
Washington singled out director Lesli Linka Glatter, who helmed the first episode, as a major creative milestone for the series. She said Glatter’s precision, care and resilience left a strong impression, especially after the director lost her home in the fires just before filming began and still returned to work after a brief delay. Washington called the experience of working with her inspiring.
Reflecting on female-led productions, Washington said the industry has improved, but not enough to make such projects ordinary. She noted that conversations about women-centered storytelling still stand out, even if the landscape is better than it was when early female producer-entrepreneurs like Reese Witherspoon and Drew Barrymore were building their companies. In her view, the real conflict in Imperfect Women is internal, not external: the characters are confronting their own truth, shame and longing.
Washington also discussed a key emotional scene in which Eleanor admits she has loved Robert for decades, saying it was important because it marked the first time the character risks telling the truth. She said she always grounds difficult or morally messy choices in empathy, insisting people do not make bad decisions simply to be bad, but because they believe they have no other option.
Beyond Imperfect Women, Washington said she is filming Netflix’s An Innocent Girl in New Jersey and confirmed that Simpson Street will produce The Whoopi Monologues at Lincoln Center this summer, re-staging Whoopi Goldberg’s one-woman show with five actresses in a tribute to its lasting influence.
