“In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast” features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and Awards Editor Jack Smart for this guide on how to live the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
What makes for an ideal collaboration between talent behind the camera and in front of it? Misha Green and Jurnee Smollett, the respective creator-showrunner and star of HBO’s award-winning “Lovecraft Country,” qualify as experts in answering that question.
“Iron sharpens iron,” says Smollett of working with her fellow “Lovecraft Country” cast and crew. “What we have learned over the course of our collaboration is to really just be as honest as we can with each other, as authentic as we can.”
“We’re on the same team,” agrees Green. “We’re going towards the same goal, which is the truth of this character. And we’re both fearless in that, which I also love. I think that’s one of the things Jurnee and I have bonded so much on, is that we’re fearless. We’re going to go! Like, it might fuck up our whole lives, but we’re gonna go there.”
‘Lovecraft Country’ Is HBO’s Latest Must-Watch Series Thanks to Creator Misha Green As a writer-director-producer, Green is also the creative force behind “Helix” and the upcoming “Cleopatra Jones,” “Tomb Raider 2,” and more. Smollett began her career as a child actor, on “On Our Own” and “Full House,” then broke out in “Eve’s Bayou,” “The Great Debaters,” “Friday Night Lights,” and last year’s “Birds of Prey.” Before “Lovecraft Country,” the horror-drama series adapted from novelist Matt Ruff’s riff on H. P. Lovecraft in segregated 1950s America, Green and Smollett worked together on the WGN thriller “Underground”—another story centering Black people on- and off-camera.
“Trust is a very big thing,” says Green, so starting a new project with the same collaborator provides a leg up. “After doing ‘Underground,’ we came into ‘Lovecraft Country’ and it was seamless.... We can now go to the scary parts. That’s what I’m doing in my writing on the page. I’m going, OK, that’s the surface. Where are the scary parts? Let’s go to the scary parts. It’s like I get to level up, and then Jurnee is there to level up with me.”
And Green is not afraid to challenge her actors, says Smollett with a rueful laugh. “There are moments when we’re not clear on the intention. And it’s not about always agreeing. It’s just about, OK, how do we just find our way to the truth? Because that’s our goal with anything: How do we tell the truth of this character, of the story?
“I have so much respect for this woman,” Smollett adds. “She will push you as an artist. And that’s what you’re hungry for in your director, in your captain, in your showrunner. You just want them to push you to grow. And that’s what she does, she forces you to step outside of your comfort zone. And right when you think you’ve hit your limit, it’s like, ‘Oh, no, no, I see that there’s more in there. Let’s go again.’ ”
Jurnee Smollett’s Storied Road to ‘Lovecraft Country’ + Making Art With a Message Maximizing trust on set, and thereby maximizing creativity, is key on a show like “Lovecraft Country,” which requires its actors to both infuse their characters with vulnerability and personal history, and react to fearsome, otherworldly (and, notably, computer-generated) beasts. What’s the secret to bringing sci-fi horror to life on screen?
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to access your imagination,” answers Smollett. “We do it as kids, right?... With this type of work, that’s all it requires: trusting your imagination and committing 100 percent, not feeling embarrassed. But again, you gotta have an environment in which the captain has created a level of safety, a level for you to fail big.”
“It has to first be made on the page, then it has to be made in production, and then it has to be made again in the editing room,” says Green of her approach to the filmmaking process. And whether it’s her cast, fellow producers, writers, or episode directors, “it’s my job to leave room for you to be your best self,” she says.
For more insights and key advice for aspiring storytellers, check out Green and Smollett’s full “In the Envelope” interview wherever you listen to podcasts. Also in this episode are a check-in with Backstage’s editorial assistant Jalen Michael and casting insider Christine McKenna-Tirella’s recommendations of the week, including a cleaning product brand and a TV pilot for MGM/Amazon.
Listen now on:
Looking for remote work? Backstage has got you covered! Click here for auditions you can do from home!