Jess Wu Calder didn’t imagine becoming a director, but she jumped at the chance during Season 2 of “Blindspotting” — even knowing her directorial debut would be one of the most challenging episodes of the series.
Episode 3 of the second season of the Starz comedy follows Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones) and her son, Sean (Atticus Woodward), as they make their first family weekend visit at San Quentin State Prison, where husband and dad Miles (Rafael Kassel) is doing a service. Five years sentence. The installment is packed with nuance, as viewers get to see as the families of incarcerated individuals try to maintain relationships with their incarcerated loved ones.
While Ashley and Miles try to make the most of their circumstances, Sean throws a curveball at their plans when the young, mixed-race child unexpectedly blurts out the N-word in a conversation with his parents. gives.
Although they try to understand the topic first – knowing that their 7-year-old can’t begin to grasp the nuances that accompany the word – Sean’s insistence on understanding the topic leads them through the history of the word. forces her to talk to him. From slavery to the civil rights movement of the 1960s to current issues of police brutality.
Instead of showing dialogue, the show chronicled Sean’s perception of history through an elaborate dance number – a common storytelling approach for the show and a major undertaking for Calder as a first-time director.
“It was definitely one of the most terrifying tests I’ve ever had to go through, because of the weight of that word,” Calder told TheWrap ahead of the episode’s release on Friday.
“This was Miles and Ashley’s attempt to tell Sean the most complex, nuanced bedtime story ever. Because of this, it was important to try to preserve the innocence that they would try to maintain.” [in telling the story]because he’s seven years old,” she added. “So for me, it was important to keep that magical feeling alive.”
Read more of TheWrap’s conversation with Calder about the episode below:
TheWrap: Episode 3 is an important one for the show. What was your approach to producing the installment?
Calder: I always try to find truth and sense in everything. In regards to the weekend trip, it was really important for me to try to do as much research as I could – because I personally don’t have that shared experience – to try to do justice to what it is that these women from all walks of life Days pass
that was an incredible article [followed] a journalist [who] Was allowed to embed with a couple for their entire weekend tour in San Quentin. I remember reading those words, and what bothered me was almost like a throwaway quote where the wife said she was pretty sure her husband never slept because he just watched her sleep. And that, whenever she woke up in the middle of the night, instead of going back to sleep [she’d] Sometimes just watch him sleep.
And I had this thought about these two people, all they want to do is soak up every minute and appreciate every second that they’re together. …the idea of wanting just so desperately for the weekend that your loved one is in jail, but then not being able to because you are rudely woken up almost every hour like that and drifting off to the dream.
Trying to imagine what these people are going through is really how I approached that episode.
Miles and Ashley share a big moment as parents when they are forced to talk to Shawn about the origins of the N-word and all the history and nuance that comes with it. The episode addresses the topic with an elaborate and poignant dance sequence that walks Shawn and the audience through the history of racism in America. What was taking that sequence like that, and then actually executing it on film.
It was very important to me to rely on the incredible colleagues I worked with, including [Jon Boogz]Best choreographer ever.
At the end of the day, this was Miles and Ashley’s attempt to tell the scene the most complex, nuanced bedtime story ever. Because of this, it was important to try to preserve the innocence that I think they would try to keep. [in telling the story], because he is seven. So it was important for me to keep that magical feeling alive. That’s why [we see] The bed is magically moving through various points in time. And the idea of an illustrated background makes it feel like Sean is stuck in a children’s book.
The most important thing about how we approached the choreography was to transcend the inherited emotional trauma that the word has caused throughout history. And most importantly, making sure that the voices of Black women are heard as well. so in the scene showing the auction block it was really important that we saw Sasha [Mallory]Dancer playing the role of a woman left behind after her husband or brother was sold [into slavery], And then, you see her as one of the 1960 students sprinkling salt on her.
we wanted to make that connection [shows] The cycle hasn’t been broken, and it’s inherited that she’s still lifting weights decades later. and then shifting the offset to the most recent time, which starts out as this really delightful reinterpretation of the word, but then, of course, ends in the shooting of a [Black man], I think the emotion in those moments is the through line of the dance.
atticus [Woodward] Gives an incredible performance. Because he’s a kid, we really have to shoot his stuff first. [On set] He is responding and acting out everything he is “seeing” without actually noticing a second of that dance. it’s just a testament [his talent] That he is seven years old and can pull off the emotion of that scene. It’s like a magic trick for me.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Blindspotting Season 2 airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Starz, and streams Fridays at midnight ET/Thursdays at 9 p.m. PT on Starz streaming platforms.
