Interview: Nicole Beharie on Catharsis and ‘The Morning Show’

Nicole Beharie, acclaimed for her roles in Breaking, Miss Juneteenth, and Sleepy Hollow, recently earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama for her performance in Season 3 of The Morning Show. In her role as Chris Hunter, an Olympian-turned-morning TV host, Beharie addressed critical issues such as systemic racism, equal pay, and significant current events like the Supreme Court that have dominated the real-life news cycle on the Apple TV+ series.

In a Zoom interview, Beharie discussed embodying Christina Hunter and how meaningful being nominated for an Emmy was for her – so much so, her initial reaction when receiving the news was disbelief. The actress shared details about the work that went into the all-so-important Episode 3 of Season 3 for her character and some real-life inspirations for her portrayal and what she’s learned working with her co-stars. Read the full chat or listen to it in full below.

Ayla Ruby: So again, I’m so excited to chat. I love The Morning Show and I love your work, so this is amazing.

Nicole Beharie: Thank you. I feel the same way. I love this show and I’m like, well, not about my work part, but about The Morning Show. I’m excited to talk about it, and I’m actually in the mix right now where we’re doing this, but also shooting the show simultaneously. So this has been, it’s interesting because it’s a little refresher before the full jump in to season four.

Ayla Ruby: Well, I feel like, too, this is very exciting, right? Congratulations, by the way. You have your first Emmy nomination, which is so well deserved, and-

Nicole Beharie: Thank you.

Ayla Ruby: Amazing.

Nicole Beharie: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I honestly don’t know what to say. I can’t believe it. Honestly, I was just trying to stay afloat and just bring this character to life and do her justice and… I don’t know. It’s unbelievable. It’s really beautiful.

Ayla Ruby: What was the moment like, kind of getting the news for you, when you found out about it? How was that for you?

Nicole Beharie: I was actually in bed. I was a little bit under the weather that day from, I had a long shoot day, and I don’t know if it was a cold or Covid, but I was like, let me just stay home. And then my manager called me and we were supposed to talk anyway, but she called me and she was like, girl, yeah, woo. And I was like, what is going on?

And then she told me, but I actually thought she was pulling my leg. I was like, yeah, that’s actually not funny. And I really meant that. I was like, this is not cool. It’s not funny. That’s not a funny joke.

Also, I obviously whipped out my phone and I was looking, but you couldn’t find it because it wasn’t a part of the televised [portion]. So I really thought she was just like, we have a funny little relationship. So I was like, that’s not cool. And then I saw it and I was like, oh my God.

And then I told my family, and it’s neat. It’s lovely to be, I mean, I obviously don’t do it for that. All the choices I’ve made in my career have been about, like, interesting people working with great people, stories, the characters stretching yourself and things that I care about. But it’s nice to be recognized. It really is. And then by your peers, it’s nice to get some love, especially in a space that, like, this is a big, gigantic ensemble, gorgeous show. So I was just literally, I just want to do my best. Want to get there.

I just want to make sure I can swim with them. Yeah.

Ayla Ruby: I mean, it totally works. So your character, there’s so many really cool dramatic moments and things, a season for your character, and I’d love to know why do you think she resonates so much people?

Nicole Beharie: I don’t know, why do people ask me that? I mean, I’ve been trying to answer it, but I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. And I think it’s a little, I mean, what she does is cathartic. I think what she kind of stands for, just trying to do her job, and then these things are popping up that have nothing to do with who she actually is as a person. That there are historical issues. Or whether it’s the Roe v Wade or the Aunt Jemima comment that are obstacles to being seen and fully realizing your potential and not just being seen, but seen as a human being, like the basics and also being valued.

I think people can relate to that universally. Everyone knows what that is. But I also think it’s a little dangerous as an actor to be like, oh, this is what people might like about my take on it. I don’t want to do that, because then I might get stuck in it and it becomes like an opiate or something. And then you want to do that thing in your work. So, even a step starting another season, I don’t want anyone to be like, oh yeah, do that thing. Does that make sense?

Ayla Ruby: Yeah, I get what you’re saying.

Nicole Beharie: But I don’t know. I think it’s the catharsis. She takes it a little further than we’re allowed to take it in a way. She steps into the things. And you also see, I think the element that I may bring to it is the discomfort. No one’s just, like, strong. There’s this documentary called King in the Wilderness about Dr. Martin Luther King, and it’s one of the first I’d ever seen where there were some behind the scenes footage and there are letters and everything, and there’s a section where they talk about him blinking and developing tics because of the anxiety.

And all we see is this forceful voice and this man who’s just able to confront everything, and it comes at a cost. There’s fear when you do things, when you step into spaces where people don’t see it. There’s a lot that happens physiologically. And so those are things I also took a look at and tried to work with in my work, that, like, you’re not just a strong this or that. A woman who just comes in, there’s trepidation.

There are other things that are happening there. Even if you end up winning the gold medal, there’s a lot of discipline and training that went into that and blood, sweat, and tears. So maybe, if anything, it’s the extra little colors of, like, I don’t know what I’m doing and none of us do.

Ayla Ruby: You mentioned choices a couple of minutes ago, and you mentioned the little things behind the scenes that we don’t necessarily see. There are so many dramatic moments in this season, but also episode three, it’s huge. There’s so many choices that you make as an actress and bringing that storyline to life. And I’d love to know about how you prepared for that and what choices you made as an actress to just have all of that.

Nicole Beharie: That’s a great question. I think it’s a series of things. Like I said, looking at documentaries like that or interviews, very uncomfortable interviews and looking at mannerisms, how people’s breathing changes, things like that. This is an odd thing, but I listen to a lot of music. Chris’s daughter’s name is Naima, which is a John Coltrane song.

So I’m a little weird like that, where I’d be like, oh, connection. Let me listen to John Coltrane now. So I was listening to a lot of jazz and John Coltrane, and I started thinking, maybe a good way to play with this character is finding the downbeat or finding the stuff in between, which is something that I like to do anyway. But you have a standard, you have lines, and it’s like My Funny Valentine, or you can be like, and try to get as much in as you can with the little space that you got.

And so I think that’s it. I think just playing with rhythms, and then watching people in really uncomfortable predicaments. Because I didn’t want to play it like Nicole would play it necessarily. I think I would’ve been a lot more shut off or not have gone and done it at all. We’re definitely different, unfortunately. We’re definitely different. And I think that that’s the catharsis though, is you get to do the thing that may not turn out so good in real life.

Yeah, that could be super dangerous. But that’s the thing about film and television, anyway. I hope I answered your question.

Ayla Ruby: No, you did. I’m still sitting with it and I’m still thinking with it because the thing about that episode that just struck me so much was there was such a quiet vulnerability there in the moments where you weren’t speaking. There’s such a physicalness too, that just, I don’t know. It was amazing.

Nicole Beharie: Thank you. I mean, people are going to be like, yeah, right. But there are interviews of, it was James Baldwin’s birthday this weekend, and there are interviews with him or Malcolm X or Nikki Giovanni, and, like I said, Dr. King, Tony Morrison, where they’re being questioned in the worst ways possible about their ethnicity and just, like, existing and the way that they’re postured. And then also of the interviewer.

I watched a lot of that stuff, and there may have been little things that I don’t know if I was like, I’m going to touch myself here and breathe that way and do that. But I just watched a lot of that stuff over and over again. I was like, that’s how you raise the stakes and try to embody it.

Ayla Ruby: Awesome. So in the latter part of the season, there was also the Supreme Court storyline, which you mentioned. How did you approach that? How did you prepare for that?

Nicole Beharie: Girl, I just wore a pink dress. That’s all I know for that part. I was like, what? What’s happening? I don’t care. I’m in Valentino today though.

Ayla Ruby: It was a pretty dress.

Nicole Beharie: It was cool. I mean, honestly, again, you’re on The Morning Show and they’re like, we’re doing a Valentino episode. And I’m like, I’ve been doing a lot of indies. I love them, but they don’t have those budgets. Sometimes I’m like, do they have my size? Do they have my, no, we’re going to just make it work. So getting a custom Valentino fit to your body is a dream. But with that and feeling like such a girl in pink and I had a little, little cleavage happening, and then hearing that news as the character, I think it was really powerful, the juxtaposition of that.

Ayla Ruby: Yep.

Nicole Beharie: Of we’re having a party. It’s us. We’re celebrating women, and we’re also not, and there are people that as we progress, what we’re currently dealing with, as progress is happening, there are people that are going to want to shut it down and violently. I don’t think it was the same kind of preparation for that. It was more of just, like, what we had all experienced in the last few months. So yeah, it was just the visceral, honest reaction of what has just happened.

Ayla Ruby: Was there anything really challenging besides what we’ve talked about or really just gratifying professionally, to bring to life this season and kind of cool to do? Besides the Valentino dress?

Nicole Beharie: No, I mean all of it. Everything that we’re talking about, it’s hard. They’re all hard conversations.

Ayla Ruby: Yep.

Nicole Beharie: But the way that the show does it and the courage to do it is something that I’m really proud of, that I’m involved with a group of people, like a collective, that they’re just ready to do that.

And again, we were just talking about Holland [Taylor]. Holland had to be that character, which could be very, everyone hates that person, but she was able to find so much so that you felt a sense of empathy for her as well, and where she’s coming from. I’m just proud of that, that it’s not black and white that we’re willing to go there.

And even now we’re working on season four, we’re going further. Chris is doing some pretty interesting things. Yeah, there’s nothing in it that I’m like, all of it was just more than what I even signed up for. I just thought I was going to be like, hey guys, doing the sort of new bubbly energy, which was something that was going to be new for me. I was like, oh, I’m going to be this character that’s just full of energy and she’s bringing this new vibe. And then it was like, bam, bam, bam. But I’m like, I’m here for it.

Ayla Ruby: Has the show changed your perspective at all on the news industry or even the morning news, and kind of that world?

Nicole Beharie: That’s a good question. I don’t know. As a performer, you always know there’s behind the scenes, because that’s what we deal with. So we know that people’s front-facing self is not necessarily the whole thing. So not necessarily in that way. I think it’s made me more empathetic about how careful they have to be and how many people they have to appeal to in a particular way. Like, The Morning Show, we are actually looking at lines for something right now that it’s a hilarious joke, but it’s like, is it too much for morning television?

And will it turn away this demographic? And who can tell that joke? And just things like that, that as I’m watching it and you’re just enjoying it, you don’t realize that all of that is going into probably the writing of it as I’m watching know GMA or something like that, that there’s a lot going into it. So I have a lot more compassion for those people.

And before I was like, oh, they just have great personalities. They get up there, laugh. I’m sure behind the scenes everyone has their egos or whatever, but it’s way deeper than that. And it’s a really generous,

Ayla Ruby: And I know we’re starting to get close on time, but is there anything else you want people to know about the show or your work or moving forward with season four? Anything you want to share about anything?

Nicole Beharie: Man, I do want to share that there’s something really special about being in this cast with these women who are just innovators, that have been swimming through these seas, through this industry and in this industry for a long time. And also in just different ways from Holland to Greta, to Reese to Jen, you know what I mean? They’re all in different pockets, Karen, all in different pockets, all in different ways.

Amber, Shari Belafonte, I mean, working with them has just been so edifying to me. It really has been. And there’s a thing that you kind of learn, I think, as an actor sometimes just to be, you don’t want to be too loud. You want to be too this, you want to be too that, you got to be a good girl to make it work. And I’m seeing how gracefully people can be not a good girl, if that makes sense. How you can get things done. And when I say that’s priceless, to be like, ah, okay, okay. You can own your power and get things done and do it in, so it’s possible.

Nicole Beharie: Yeah, it’s good. And so the gift of the Emmy nomination is fantastic, but there’s also the gift of this particular experience.

Ayla Ruby: Well, I love that. And I think that’s a wonderful note to end on. And just thank you so much. This has been wonderful.

Nicole Beharie: Thank you. Thank you.