The Emmy Contenders Betting On Themselves

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The Emmy Contenders Betting On Themselves

When Dominique Fishback was first offered a role in the Amazon Prime Video series Swarm, cocreated by Atlanta vets Janine Nabers and Donald Glover, she did something that might be unimaginable for other up-and-coming actresses: She said no. “I told my team, please let them know that I’m thankful that they considered me for Marissa,” she tells David Canfield on this week’s Little Gold Men. “But I’m going to have to decline, because I want to play Dre.” 

Roles like Dre—a young woman who goes on a cross-country murder spree, ostensibly in pursuit of her favorite pop star—don’t come around for Black women very often, Fishback says. She’d already had standout roles in Judas and the Black Messiah and The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, and is now on her way to blockbuster stardom in the new Transformers movie. But Swarm and the role of Dre presented an opportunity for an entirely different kind of challenge. “I was so used to playing characters that were ‘easy’ to love or wrap your arms around,” she says. “I didn’t want to miss an opportunity and sell myself short.” 

So many of the standout performances from the past year in television come from actors who were betting on themselves, pushing themselves to the limit in a medium that allowed them to build fascinating characters over the course of many hours of a story. That was true for Paul Walter Hauser, the other interview on this week’s episode, who played suspected serial killer Larry Hall on the Apple TV+ series Black Bird. He describes his time on the set in New Orleans as “going through a rough patch while playing a rough character,” and since making the show has made the decision to get sober. “This whole thing was a catalyst for me cleaning myself up and learning how to love myself and love the people around me much better,” he tells Rebecca Ford. “I’m forever indebted to the folks who hired me because my life, both professionally and personally, has only gotten better because of the show.”

Dominique Fishback Wants to Go All the Way

The Swarm star talks her devastating performance, as well as the tough choices and work that led to it.

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