Kerry Washington's children "don't get" her job.

Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington

The 40-year-old actress has three-year-old daughter Isabelle and eight-month-old son Caleb with her husband Nnamdi Asomugha - whom she married in 2013 - and has said her brood are too young to understand what it is she does for a living.

She said: "They don't get it. They really don't. Maybe one day. You just read your bedtime stories and let the world take care of the rest. You just got to stay in mom mode. One day I'll be cool. Probably not in my own home ever, but one day, somewhere, I'll be cool."

When her two children are old enough to understand her job, they'll be able to hear the voice of their mother in the Pixar animated flick 'Cars 3', as she voices new character Natalie Certain in the upcoming third instalment of the franchise.

Speaking to E! News about her role at the world premiere for the movie in Los Angeles, Kerry said: "I love being part of the 'Cars' franchise. It's one of my favourite film series. And I just love being a part of this family."

Meanwhile, the brunette beauty revealed earlier this year that becoming a mother has informed her acting, as she now has a new approach to the way she portrays her 'Scandal' character Olivia Pope.

She said in January: "I'm still figuring it out because we just got back to work. I guess the nice thing is that I did it once before. This is my second child that I've birthed. It's been really interesting for me as an actor. I work very physically. How I approach a character often has a lot to do with the physicality of that character.

"So the challenge of my physicality changing dramatically two times now in the life of the show and Olivia's body not changing, I was trying to figure out how to hold onto her posture and her emotion, her physical orientation while mine is different every day has been in a real exercise for me.

"It has taught me how to grow my toolbox to lean into other areas of grounding her, other than just kind of the walk - the walk has become more of a waddle. That's been really good for me and an exercise for me as an actor."