The cast and crew of Hulu’s Onyx Collective series, UnPrisoned, are excited about the chance to tell a story not often told–about life after incarceration.
Shadow and Act sat down with Kerry Washington, Delroy Lindo, Marque Richardson and the rest of the cast to talk about the series.
When asked about the show’s impact on the current era of Black television, Lindo said, “The answer is in the question.”
“The fact that this project landed on you and produced that question with those components speaks to exactly on some level the state of television, that we can all come together and make work like this,” he said, referencing how the series includes Black TV legends like Tracy McMillan, Yvette Lee Bowser, and how the series focuses on such an intimate topic.”
While he admitted that “[i]t will remain to be seen 5 years, 10 years from now whether this is the start of something” that will continue in Hollywood, the trend is currently towards allowing Black creatives to express themselves.
Marque Richardson, who also stars in the series, said, “There’s not a lot of projects that I’ve seen [that] shed light on the re-acclimation process after being incarcerated and the lifelong effects that that has.”
“In terms of the family dynamics,” he said, the series focuses on families with formerly incarcerated relatives “having to have patience and forgiveness and compassion and being able to do it in a light, funny, real-life way.”
Watch the full interviews above.
UnPrisoned stars Washington as a psychologist whose father (Lindo) comes to live with her and her teenage son after serving time in jail.
As Tara Duncan, the president of Onyx Collection and Freeform, said in a statement during the promotion of the series, “From the moment we read the script for UnPrisoned, we wanted this fresh, funny series for Onyx. Tracy tells the story of an endearing but complicated father-daughter relationship with the heart and humor of someone who has lived this all too common experience. We’re thrilled to continue our creative collaboration with Kerry Washington and the teams at Simpson Street and ABC Signature.”
