Felisha Terrell Talks ‘The Company You Keep’ and the Dynamic Between Daphne and Charlie [Interview]

On The Company You Keep, Daphne Finch has been keeping things interesting for the Nicoletti family from the start. As we come upon the Season 1 finale, her alliances have shifted once again. 

I recently had the chance to chat with Felisha Terrell, who plays Daphne, about her role on the hit ABC series, the dynamic between Daphne and Milo Ventimiglia’s Charlie, and what we can expect from the Season 1 finale. 

In 2021, Terrell had recurring roles on three different shows, but she was ready for something more.

“I was really ready for it to be my turn for a juicy series regular role, like this. And my team was excited about pilot season and all that, [but] when pilot season happened last year, it was like crickets,” Terrell recalled. 

“There just weren’t a lot of opportunities for me. And I was a little discouraged if I’m being honest. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, late in the pilot season game, I ended up getting three auditions that were all due — I got them on a Friday, and the tapes were due on Monday.”

“The Company You Keep is the first [script] I read, and I always judge something by how quickly I read it — how easy it reads. And I just couldn’t put it down,” she continued. “Julia Cohen just wrote an amazing script, and it sucked me in right away.”

Terrell was also excited about the character, specifically, and the way that she was written. “I’m a biracial woman. I’ve never played a biracial woman in any of the work I’ve done over 14 years,” Terrell explained.

So Terrell was glad to play a character she said she could “intrinsically understand, from living in these two worlds, where you’re too much of something and not enough of another. And you never really fit in, but you have to learn how to operate and code switch to a certain degree in life.”

“And also, this character, Daphne, has so much to prove, that stems from that. So those things, I was automatically drawn to,” she continued. “In fact, the way all the women are written in this show is incredible. They’re all very strong, very capable, very driven women.”

Terrell shared that there are personal experiences from her own life that have helped shape the character of Daphne Finch as well.

“I found myself really fortunate. I really don’t think there’s anything that happens by mistake,” she said. “I say this to young actors all the time. So much of this is belief, and that nothing that is for you will pass you by. I really believe that.”

“I didn’t just want a job, I wanted the right job. And for me, this is the right job, it’s the right role, it’s with the right people, and it’s the right support system. From the very beginning, Julia had such an open-door policy. We chatted so much about Daphne, and I was able to impart… There’s stories in the writing that is actually my personal stuff that they, with my permission, used.”

“I’ve never been in a position, in a role, where I was able to communicate that,” Terrell continued.

“We have such an amazing group of writers, and I had lunch with them and we’ve just chatted and gone deep into, ‘How was it growing up biracial? What did you experience? How did it feel with the white side of your family versus the Black side of your family? And how were you received?’ And so, I think it was very intentional for me to make Daphne very, very layered.”

The audience has certainly had a chance to see those layers revealed over the course of the first season. Daphne isn’t a one-dimensional villain — not by a long shot. 

“Characters that you think are not alike initially — Charlie, for example, Charlie and Daphne, as we come to watch the season unfold, are actually way more alike than we thought. And I think that that kind of speaks to just the judgments that we make about people, all of us in life.”

“We’re all more alike than we are different, period,” she continued.

“Even that moment with Birdie, very early on, in the bar, when she asked me to cut out the ASL, there was an intentional moment there. There was a tiny bit of softness. And you saw a chink in Daphne’s armor around moms and single moms. That was her, in that little moment, [having] that respect for Birdie, even though she’s still doing what she’s doing.”

“She’s always going to be super strong and have something to prove, but I think, really, at the core of what she wants is to be really loved and accepted by her father,” Terrell explained. “And there’s other layers within that, in terms of what he seemingly took from her and her mom, by not being there, by not probably being helpful, emotionally and financially, that could have, in her mind, helped her mom, saved her mom, given them a better life.”

“So it’s this thin line between love and — I don’t want to say necessarily ‘hate’ — but to me, taking to account all those things makes for a very interesting character.”

Of course, Daphne’s relationship with Charlie has evolved to an interesting place as the season has progressed as well. There’s clearly an attraction there, and in the most recent episode, Daphne took that a step further by kissing Charlie. 

“I think [Daphne’s] not often challenged, and I think she’s used to being the smartest person in the room or the best at something. And she’s had to be that, because in order to get the opportunities or to be seen or to be taken seriously,” Terrell said.  

“I think with Charlie, she’s met her match in a lot of ways, because even though her Spidey-Senses were up from the very beginning in the pilot, that something wasn’t right, at the end of the day, he still got over on them. And yes, she was able to track them down, and now, they’re working for her. But still, and at every turn, every time she had given him a task, he proves he’s as good as she thinks he is,” she continued.

“And I think she finds that very attractive. That’s something we talked about from the beginning, because in the original pilot, there was actually a different scene in that warehouse, that escalates very quickly, with a bit of violence between the two of them. It’s very sexy, but it also goes to a different place, where you’re like, ‘Wait, we have to have somewhere to go. So we actually reshot a piece of that. But that relationship, there’s just edge, I think, that the two of them have.”

Terrell also gave a few hints about what we can expect going into the season finale. 

“Pretty much everything comes to a head. Big truths are being revealed,” she said. “It’s going to be a ride. It’s just really good. I can guarantee you that everyone, when you finish the finale, no one’s going to want to wait months for a Season 2. So I’ll just say that.”

Here’s hoping we get news about a renewal for The Company You Keep Season 2 soon!

The Company You Keep Season 1 finale airs Sunday, May 7th at 10/9c on ABC.

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