Forget the one-note action hero or the overburdened mom trope. “Shadow Force” gives us something we rarely see: a Black woman with a gun in one hand and maternal instinct in the other. In her action debut, Kerry Washington, alongside Omar Sy, delivers a fresh dynamic that redefines what it means to protect and provide—on-screen and off.
“For me, there’s this interesting theme in my work around protecting children, like, since ‘Scandal’ ended, a lot of the work that I do explores issues on motherhood and parenting,” Washington told theGrio. “I did a play [turnef] film, ‘American Son’, where [my character] was trying to save her son and couldn’t, and that was devastating.”
“So it was really wonderful to kind of have this new chapter in my sort of library where I’m trying to save my son with my husband, and we do save our son,” she added, describing this role as an “exciting movement forward” in her storytelling as an actress.
In this action-packed thriller film, Washington and Sy play Kyrah and Issac, two former international special forces officers who fall in love, and go off the grid in an effort to protect their son. Also starring Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Method Man and produced by Washington and Sterling K. Brown, “Shadow Force” feels like a modern, Black family-oriented twist on the classic ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ love story.
Sy is no stranger to the genre, having starred in action productions like “Lupin” and “The Killer.” However, he says this film made him reflect on his experience as a father of five off-screen.
“In our work, we also travel a lot, so we have a distance with our kids,” Sy shared in a conversation with theGrio. “So I think [Shadow Force] changed my relationship with the fact that I’m traveling for my family. It changed a lot in my perspective of travel…it’s a sacrifice [that requires strength]. But ot’s also very strong to come back and I think the way I come back is different now. I feel so grateful to be able to [safely] come back more often.”
I thought my life was complicated, but after this movie, I realized it’s not that complicated,” he concluded.
Washington, who is a mother to four kids that she intentionally keeps out of the spotlight, says this role helped her see the balance all parents have to navigate between being strong and loving and protective and nurturing. We’ve seen the “Scandal” star fix the unfixable in heels. But in Shadow Force, she explores the nuances of co-parenting while dodging bullets, balancing the emotional labor of motherhood with the physicality of survival.
“All of us who are parenting are bad asses,” she said. “ We’re always balancing the need to be fierce and strong and courageous and take on the world to protect our kids, with the need to be present and loving and generous and warm.”
Noting the balance she and Sy’s characters offer each other in raising their son, Washington explained, “that’s what parenting is in a lot of ways.”
“Not all of us are trained mercenaries who kill people for a living, so the circumstances look different, but we are all in our parenting really trying to balance that courage with that love.”
Beyond the thrilling action scenes and heartwarming jokes, “Shadow Force” features layered storytelling that fully captures the dimensions of Black parenthood.
Watch Shadow Force in theaters today.
