SMC alumnus Faly Rakotohavana stars in Hulu’s “UnPrisoned” alongside Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo.

Faly Rakotohavana is a previous Santa Monica College student and rising talent. He is currently starring in the Hulu series "Unprisoned," playing Finn, Kerry Washington's teenage son. (Akemi Rico | The Corsair)

A new Hulu offering starring Faly Rakotohavana, Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo has quickly become one of the year's most acclaimed shows. “UnPrisoned” debuted on March 10 and had the most-watched premiere on the streaming app in 2023 so far. Rakotohava has been deemed one of the show’s standout stars by critics.

“UnPrisoned,” created by Tracy McMillan and executive produced by Kerry Washington, is an adaptation of the former’s 2010 memoir “I Love You and I’m Leaving You Anyway." Described by McMillan as a “spiritual sequel” to her memoir, the show follows Paige Alexander (Washington) and her son Finn (Rakotohavana) navigate new family dynamics as her father, Edwin (Lindo), moves in with them after serving a 17-year prison sentence.

The 20-year-old actor was born in Madagascar and moved to Phoenix, Ariz. at six years old. His American-born mother moved to Madagascar at an early age where she was raised and eventually met Rakotohavana’s father, a Malagasy native. The family moved to the United States to be with the actor’s maternal grandmother who was sick at the time. Rakotohavana credits his grandmother with introducing movies to him as a child and instilling in him the desire to be an actor.

“I’ve always wanted to be an actor, that’s all I want to do,” said Rakotohavana in an interview. “I would watch movies as a child and imagine myself in them.”

After moving to Midland, Texas, he began taking acting classes and participating in local theater. The family moved to Los Angeles after a successful acting workshop jump-started his acting career. In the following years, Rakotohavana starred in the Disney+ series “Raven’s Home” and the film “Secret Society of Second Born Royals.”

Rakotohavana briefly attended Santa Monica College (SMC) in 2021. He took a few business classes at the college but felt “it wasn’t working for him.” He said he made a promise to himself that he would take acting classes for a year instead and if he had not booked any acting jobs by the end of it, he would go back to SMC. A few months later, he was cast in “UnPrisoned.”

How was the process of getting cast as Finn in “UnPrisoned”?

“I was doing a movie in Oklahoma and got an email from my agent about the show. As soon as I heard the name ‘Kerry Washington’ I hoped to work and started crafting. I immediately called my acting coach and we put an audition tape together. When I got the callback, I was actually in the studio for the movie I was working on, so I had to do both at the same time. But I’m glad it worked out!”

Once you got the confirmation you were cast in a Hulu show starring Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo that discusses important topics such as post-incarceration life, how did you begin to prepare for it?

“The chemistry between the three of us was the most important thing to me. Finn himself is a low-key character so I had a lot of flexibility with him. It was the relationship between his mother and grandfather that I wanted to tune into. I spent as much time as I could with Kerry and Delroy on set and sat in their presence to feel what it is like to be around them. Our chemistry got stronger and stronger as the show progressed.”

At first, Finn is introduced as an introspective gamer, but as the show progresses, we learn how emotionally mature and compassionate he is. How did you connect with this character, and did you bring something of yourself into it?

“Of course there’s a little bit of me in him, like his dry sense of humor and sarcasm. That’s how I am. But his whole life had just been about him and his mother, and when his grandfather comes in, he is introduced to a whole new world of things. Finn is then caught in the middle ground between them. He loves them very dearly and he’s just trying to hold it all together. And in order to deal with two extremely smart individuals, you need to be emotionally mature to be able to navigate both of their feelings.”

Finn’s relationship with Delroy’s character, Edwin, is an incredible one to watch. How was crafting that dynamic between the two characters?

“I was pretty intimidated by Delroy when I first saw him. He’s the man. After you hang out with him for a while you realize he’s the sweetest guy on the planet. Developing that relationship with him was really cool. Finn is very adaptive and flexible, and it was really fun to play with that alongside Delroy. We got to create a relationship between our characters that is different from the one Finn has with his mother. In the moments the three of us are together, I had to navigate both of these dynamics and that was really fun.”

That is so true to real-life relationships, right? We behave differently with different people in our lives.

“Absolutely! That’s one of the main things about acting: when you break down a script, you look at each character and you have to write an opinion on them and what you think about them. It doesn’t have to be script-accurate or what the writer wants. It doesn’t matter, it’s what you want. It’s your understanding of that character.”

In the last episode, there’s a scene with the three of you when you need to bring an intense emotional element into your acting. How did you prepare for it?

“I definitely crafted the hell out of it. I sat with it for a long time. I spent days working on that scene and breaking it down so I could try different things on the day of shooting. But when the day came, I threw it all away. When you’re acting with people like Kerry and Delroy, you have great energy to bounce off of. It just happened, I can’t quite explain it. We did more than ten takes and each take was stronger than the last one. It was amazing and it played very well on screen.”

In episode 6, the show discussed the concept of “Nigrescence," which is described as the process of becoming or developing one’s racial identity as a black person. Do you feel you have experienced something similar to what your character went through in that episode?

“Yes, I still do, to this day. On a daily basis. I didn’t know what Nigrescence was before I read the script. When I looked it up, I was like ‘Wow, this is very real.’ Edwin says a line in the show which is “Defending your blackness is one of the blackest things you can do.' As someone who doesn’t obviously look black, as a mixed person, it’s hard to find your identity in this day and age. There’s a lot of tension. I can feel that I know what I am, and I can believe I am that, but all it takes it’s one person to disagree and the whole world to say the same.”

The show is produced by Onyx Collective, a company focused on producing projects from creators of color. How important was it for you to be in a show that celebrates people of color so early in your career?

“I was so lucky to be in a show associated with a company with such a powerful message. They are truly inspiring, and they are doing amazing work. It’s really cool I got to be part of one of their ‘OG’ projects. They are going to blow up, I am sure of it.”

Having moved from Madagascar as a child, living in Arizona, Texas, and California, and starting your career early in life must have given you a lot of different life experiences. Do you incorporate your past experiences and understanding of different cultures into your acting?

“Absolutely. There are some things in life that I do just to experience them. Even getting tangled up in bad relationships just to understand what that’s like (laughs). I think that it is hard to act something you don’t know. Something you’ve never seen or been a part of. I am sure some actors can do it, but I need to embody whatever it is I’m acting. There have been a lot of decisions I’ve made for the craft that I would never make again (laughs). But it’s all for the better, they’ve made me stronger.”

Do you have some favorite moments or memories from shooting the show?

“All of them! Being on set with Kerry and Delroy was amazing. But some of my favorite moments were definitely with Marque (Richardson). We were always the ones who got caught sleeping somewhere on set, so we got to a little ‘war.’ We would always look for each other and compete for who got the most pictures of each other napping on set.”

What are some of the next projects you’ve got coming up?

“I got to be a part of a beautiful film called 'Cricket’s Requiem.' It’s going to rip everyone’s heart out. It’s directed by Richard Janes. Hopefully, that should be coming out soon.”

One final question, Faly. You are a self-described “horror fanatic,” so what is your favorite scary movie?

“You can’t ask me that (laughs). Well, there’s a movie called 'Terrifier' which features Art, the clown. I love clowns. He’s the funniest antagonist I've seen in a horror movie and for that reason alone, I might have to say that it is one of my favorites. Ari Aster is my favorite horror director. 'Hereditary' was really good. I've also enjoyed the two newer 'Scream' movies. But I'll have to say that the first 'Halloween' is my favorite ever because it was the very first horror movie I’ve seen. And if they ever remake 'A Nightmare on Elm Street,' I hope to be a part of it (laughs).”

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