Tessa Thompson

And even then, she really is an object because she's just a cold case, you know, that you're trying to figure out in the past, right?

So it was remarkable to have the opportunity to play that kind of character.

And then also, Justin Simien wanted to sort of

It was an indictment of Hollywood itself in some ways about the kind of things that we're allowed to be on screen as black folks.

And that was something I so deeply felt and had so many feelings about that I didn't even get to process because anytime I was working, it was sort of like, you're just happy to be there.

You're happy to have a job, right?

But secretly, I was feeling a lot of turmoil about what was possible for me, and particularly coming from the theater where you play these incredible parts, expansive parts.

You play these things that you get to sink your whole humanity into.

And then to feel like it's mitigated to this sort of tiny and in very many cases, especially early in my career and at that time in Hollywood, sort of superficial or stereotypical versions of a woman, of a black woman in particular.

I just felt I was tired, frankly.

Yeah.

Yeah, and satire is increasingly rare.

So I just loved the script and sort of died for it.

And it felt like that thing that...

I just knew I had to play that part.

Do you revisit your old work?

Really?

In what sense?

No.

I don't think so.