Tessa Thompson

And thankfully, when I've had my first conversation with Will Olroyd about making the series, he said, I want to set it in this town, Dahlonega.

I happen to be in Atlanta, Georgia, shooting The Last Creed movie.

And I literally got off the phone with him and drove an hour and a half to Dahloneka right away because I just was so fascinated.

I'd spent many, many, many months over the course of years shooting projects in Atlanta, but I'd never heard of Dahloneka.

It was one of the early sites of the gold rush, this really fascinating tiny town.

So I drove up there and I was just so taken by it that I thought, yeah, I definitely want to make the show.

And then when we were working on the show, we got to shoot there and I got to spend increasingly more time there.

But it is a rarefied thing to get to shoot in the place sometimes.

And I think it's really a gift.

Trying to get a sense of the place.

I mean, Dahlonega I knew on paper was almost 98% white.

But then to be in Dahlonega and feel what that feels like to come from Atlanta, which is this mecca.

Chocolate mecca.

Chocolate mecca.

To go into Dahlonega, into that space and be inside of a black body in those spaces to feel what that is.

I'm a great lover, probably because all the items that you find in these places are storied.

But I love an antique mall.

It is my pleasure, my heaven.

And the best ones always exist in tiny towns.

And Dahlana goes chock full of them.