Back on her grind. Felicity Huffman stars in new movie Tammy’s Always Dying, one of her first projects to be released after she served prison time for her involvement in the college admissions scandal.

The film is about a mother, Tammy McDonald, who finds out she has terminal cancer and has six to ten months to live. “Taking care of me is the only thing you’ve ever been good at,” Tammy said to her daughter in the trailer released on Wednesday, April 15. In response, her daughter (played by Anastasia Phillips) replied, “Why won’t you just die?” Tammy’s Always Dying will be available for streaming on May 1.

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Huffman’s latest role comes only a few months after her run-in with the law. The 57-year-old was first arrested in March 2019, along with 15 other parents, on conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest service fraud charges in connection to a nationwide college admissions scandal. According to court documents obtained by In Touch, Huffman was accused of paying $15,000 to bump up daughter Sophia’s SAT scores. In May 2019, she pleaded guilty. In September 2019, she was sentenced to 14 days in federal prison, a year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine.

The actress began her prison sentence in Dublin, California, on October 15, 2019, and was released ten days later on October 25. She was expected to complete her sentence on October 27, but she was released early because of the BOP Program Statement 5140.36 ‘Release of Inmates Prior to a Weekend or Legal Holiday,’ the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed in a statement. One month later, she started her community service hours.

Prison was a huge wake-up call” for the Desperate Housewives alum, a source exclusively told In Touch at the time. “Felicity is not the same woman. This scandal ripped her life apart and made her look at who she really was as a person. She really strived to be a good parent, neighbor and an upstanding citizen. She made some huge mistakes, but she’s humbled now. It was a huge reality check.”

While her wrongdoing left a lasting impression, the way in which she handled the situation might have helped her career. “Felicity has gone through a terrible, really difficult and painful journey. But the difference is, she is going to come out the other side and people already can relate to her and it also allows for her to play a range of characters,” reputation and management expert Eric Schiffer told In Touch exclusively on November 19. “She now can play dark characters. And so her career is going to recover. I would imagine that in time if when we look back, she’ll have a Martha Stewart like arch or she may even go to a higher level.”

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