Sinclair Daniel, Ashleigh Murray, and Brittany Adebumola star as Nella, Hazel, and Malaika in The Other Black Girl, which is based on Zakiya Dalila Harris’ best-selling novel. All episodes of season one are currently streaming on Hulu.
“The Other Black Girl” follows Nella, an editorial assistant, who is tired of being the only Black girl at Wagner Books so she’s excited when Hazel is hired. But as Hazel’s star begins to rise, Nella spirals out and discovers something sinister is going on at the company.
I spoke with the actresses about which genre in the show was most fun for them to explore, how they approached using the source material, Hazel’s flashback episode, and more. Keep reading for our full conversation!
So, the first thing I want to discuss is the different genres at play here. I’m a psychological thriller girl, but you also have the horror and comedy, and it all just works so well. Which was your personal favorite to play with when it came to these characters, and which did you find the most challenging to balance?
Sinclair Daniel: I, personally, loved any time where things got really spooky and we had some cool tricks around set to make people jump or to create the illusion of a ghost or a spirit or something. I thought that was always a really fun time because we’d all just be like giggling in between ‘cause we’re just having such a great day at work. Then also, I’d say that because there’s so much comedy in the show as well, finding the balance was tricky, but also very fun to be given that type of a challenge, that type of a juxtaposition was really exciting to watch how everyone fit those two things together for themselves and, ultimately, for the whole show.
Brittany Adebumola: Yeah, I think I agree. The sort of thriller, creepy, sort of eerie vibe of the show was fun to play with for me, especially because Malaika, in many instances in the show, especially in the beginning, I guess the first half, is the comedic relief often. And so, you know, especially when we get to like episode seven and we’re at Hazel’s house, it was really fun to just be like, “Nellie, you don’t see what’s going on?” Like, just trade those looks and it was a good time.
Ashleigh Murray: I’m gonna piggyback off of the comedy because episode seven was peak Malaika and when Brittany strolled into the room talking about “Brown Lady,” and she just did that on her own, just made it up, just off the cuff, it was hilarious. I actually partook, or at least got to see, a lot of the comedy go down. I don’t think I was on set for a lot of the spooky, tricky things. The only cool thing that I remember being there to see was when we did the setup, the transition of when I’m massaging Nella’s scalp, and then we move past us and see little Nella getting her scalp oiled. That was probably one of the coolest setups that I’ve seen in a long time. Then, I actually missed — it was probably like my fourth or fifth time watching the show, I was watching one of my good girlfriends, we were having a binge night and it’s that same episode where Nella is up in Hazel’s bedroom and she discovers the paperwork, but then there’s like some thing that just goes by her in the background that you see in the mirror. I did not notice that and I screamed! Those were my top favorite moments to do with the show.
When I discovered the show, my family and I watched it together and it was so funny to see everyone try to theorize and figure out what was actually going on. There were all these moments that threw us off. I’m not sure if you got your full arcs in the beginning or you had to do everything script to script, but was there a moment where you found yourself just trying to guess the next moment or you were excited for audiences to react to and try to fit the pieces together? It really was a perfect show to binge-watch. You could not stop watching it for a second.
Murray: We didn’t really get all the scripts by the time we started shooting, they were still coming in as we were moving through the season and I didn’t know what the hell was going on. I didn’t know what was gonna happen. I kept checking in every few episodes, and I was like, “So this is what I’m feeling, does that sound right? Does that feel right?” They would be like, “Yeah, it does,” and then we just keep going with that.
Daniel: I was gonna say, ‘cause there’s source material, ‘cause there’s a book, people probably thought they knew what was gonna happen when they started the show, but very quickly you can tell that the show even expands upon the mysteries of the book. So, fans of the book could watch the show and still not know what was gonna happen, which I thought was a great addition. I remember Ashleigh would be going up to our showrunners all the time and be like, “Okay, so what am I doing? Why did I do this? Is this coming up? What is happening?” And I would walk away because I did not want to know anything because I mean, it makes sense that Ashleigh needs to know what Hazel’s up to, but Nella don’t know nothing and so, I was like, so Sinclair is not gonna know nothing. I didn’t know what was gonna happen until we got those scripts, even when they wrote the last script, I was like, “We’re still on episode eight, so I’m not gonna read that quite yet.”
Adebumola: I think for me, when I read at the end of the episode that Nella ends up in the karaoke room, that really had me like, “What the hell? Jordan and Gus, what’s going on? What are we doing?”
Murray: You know what, okay, so I’ve watched the show, at least seven times, and every single time when you get hit by the car and Sinclair gets snatched, every single time, I should know what’s gonna happen and it sneaks up on me. I forget what’s about to go down because I’ve already seen so much madness, to begin with, it’s not gonna get much worse than that. It also reminds me of the scene where you’re in the hospital and the bed is moving up hella slow and you complain about it.
Daniel: It’s funny, it’s real little moments. It’s just funny.
Adebumola: Yes, I can’t tell you how many texts I received at the end of that episode where I got hit by the car. So many, “Did they kill you? Don’t tell me they killed you.”
Daniel: Yeah, my cousin sent me a picture of her face and her mouth was just open, and she was like, “No, not bestie!” I was like, “Yeah, you must be on episode eight.”
Sinclair, you kind of mentioned this, but obviously, it is based on a book. Did you draw any inspiration from anywhere besides the book? Does it change how you approach a project when there is source material? Do you go through it or do you kind of stay away from it to make it your own and focus on the script?
Murray: I read the book and you know, this is the second time that I’ve been a part of a project that was based on a form of a book. I was very familiar with the Archie Comics and me immersing myself in that material, didn’t do a disservice when it came time to actually perform it, because I had the knowledge of what the book is, and then I could take what’s in front of me and just focus on that. That also played into me checking in and making sure that what they were giving me made sense based on what I had read, and if they tell me we’re kind of diverting from it, that’s fine, I can let that go. It’s like, you can learn something and still retain it without having to use it.
Daniel: I very quickly — I was reading the book as I was auditioning. I got the first audition and they sent over the pilot and so, I was like, I can’t read a whole book before tomorrow, I’m gonna prioritize the script that they sent me because that’s the story that they’re gonna tell. Then as the audition process went on, I finished the book. So, I was getting all of this information at the same time about what this world could be. So in my mind, they were never really separate entities, it was always the book, the script, and then whatever story we end up telling. I was really experiencing them at the same time, which was great because I always had something to go back and reference, but I had the book open and the script open, seeing where things intersected and seeing where things departed from each other. But I kind of kept them as the same thing in my head. As far as pulling from other things, it was a lot of experience and my friends’ experiences, honestly, like other young Black women who I knew who had similar experiences as myself or as Nella. I was just talking to them a lot without trying to give too much away but yeah, that was how I experienced it.
Adebumola: For me, I didn’t read the book throughout the audition process. I didn’t read it until after I booked the role and then came to find out that Malaika isn’t as much of a presence in the book as she is in the series. So, that really gave me a lot of free rein to just play with Malaika. You know that she’s the friend that’s gonna tell Nella like it is, that’s super supportive, loyal, and bold. But I just got to sort of amplify that and really test the bounds of Malaika’s boldness and all of that while we were filming.
Ashleigh, I would be so mad if I left without asking you about your backstory episode. First of all, absolutely amazing work, but what was your reaction to getting that experience and what was it like to get to explore her over that period of time?
Murray: I was very shocked. I was not expecting it at all and when I was given that opportunity, I was very scared. I was really scared because doing this project was the first time I’d ever experienced imposter syndrome. It was a rigorous audition process and by the time I got it, I was like, “Oh God, now I actually have to do it.” I was really leaning into how easy, fun, and safe I felt on set with Sinclair and Brittany. Sinclair was really kind of my security blanket and when I had to do that episode, I didn’t have her around anymore to kind of lean on, even in ways that she probably is fully unaware of. So, undergoing that discovery of Hazel or who Hazel really is was powerful for me because I was also discovering who I am as an actor and where I’ve come from, the battles I’ve overcome, the scars that still have not fully healed, and having to face myself and my own fear because when I look at Brittany and Sinclair, they are so unbelievably talented. They have a hunger and a drive that I miss having and they’re so courageous.
It actually makes me think about when Brittany mentioned how she doesn’t feel like she’s as bold as Malaika and I saw her boldness every time she showed up on set. Every time she stepped in and took Malaika to the max, that’s a bold thing to do. I have so much adoration for the two of them and in that, it made me feel like, “Oh God, I need to learn how to show up for myself the way that they’re showing up for me,” like I said, not even knowing it. That’s why this project was so transformational and once I stepped into that episode, I just had to be brave and think, well, you know what, if they trusted me to do this with them, I can trust myself to do this with the team that I have on the ground. Sinclair needed some much-deserved rest because she was working, okay? And I’m very proud of what came out of that. I’m very proud of being able to have experienced it on my own and then also, in conjunction with these two women because they have been very, very impactful on me and it shows in the work that I did that week.