Kerry Washington plays a secret agent who’ll stop at nothing to protect her son in the thriller, Shadow Force, out in theaters Friday. She says she was drawn to the film because it balances action and emotion.

“It’s this incredible opportunity to do action and stunts and weapons training and all of that,” she tells ABC Audio of her role as Kyrah in Shadow Force, which marks her first time in the driver’s seat of an action movie. “But at the heart of it, it’s really about these two parents who love each other and love their child so much that they’re willing to do everything and anything to protect him.”

Kerry notes she was also drawn to the shift in gender roles that’s portrayed in the film between Kyrah and her son’s father Isaac, played by Omar Sy.

“I really love that you get to see this bada** mom who’s kind of out conquering the world but also this really nurturing dad who’s doing the primary parenting and super present and connected with his son,” she explains. “To see a Black dad and son in that light, I think is so important and really beautiful in the culture.”

As a mother in real life, she says her character is an exaggerated reflection of mothers all over the world.

“I do think, to some extent, every mom I know is a bada** mom,” Kerry says. “We’re not all walking around with AK-47s and killing people for a living, but to be a mom requires an enormous amount of courage and strength and discipline and also love and nurturing. So that balance I think is part of what motherhood really is and Kyrah just does it sort of at the extremes.”

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