Steven Prusakowski
If HBO’s Get Millie Black feels like a gripping page-turner, there’s a reason. Created by award-winning author Marlon James, the series marks his seamless transition from page to screen, as he produces his first-ever television show. Much like a novel, James crafts a rich setting and populates it with complex characters, exploring them through shifting perspectives that allow viewers to continuously uncover new facets with each episode.
Get Millie Black follows former Scotland Yard detective Millie-Jean Black (Tamara Lawrance) who returns to Jamaica to work a missing persons case involving a child. As the case expands to something even more sinister and sprawling than originally, Millie also finds herself in the middle of an expected family reunion that has her rebuilding ties with her sibling, Hibiscus (Chyna McQueen).
Shot in Jamaica, the series is rich in layers of cultural swatches that when blended with the vivid characters and engaging mystery pulls you in and does not let go. James’ approach of adding inner dialogues as voiceover not only heightens the intrigue, it also provides multiple perspectives on the events and people involved. We soon learn nothing is as simple as it seems, and the intricate character facets make for a fascinating journey through the voices and minds characters who all have something to lose.
Awards Radar had the opportunity to sit down with the creators (including James, and EPs Jami O’Brien and Simon Maxwell) and cast of Get Millie Black (Lawrence, McQueen, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, and Joe Dempsie) to discuss some of what went into making the series including the decision to use the highly effective and creative voiceover, the importance of shooting in Jamaica, the sibling dynamics and much more. Below are some highlights from those interview, but watch them in full video interviews (located at the end of the article) more effectively Get Millie Black.
Warning: There are some mild spoilers up to episode 3, if you have not caught up, proceed with caution.
On the thinking behind Marlon James’ creative use the voiceover:
James: It ties into classic noir. You know, you’re watching one of those old detective shows and the person is like, ‘It was a dark and stormy night when she walked in, ‘ kind of thing. And it’s one of the sort of foundational aspects of a crime story. I was wondering, how can you sort of subvert it, sort of pay tribute to it, but subvert it? For one, a narration is just one person’s opinion. What if over the course of five episodes, they get five opinions on the same subject? What if the way in which every, it’s almost as if every episode teaches you a new way of looking at Millie. There are people who have known her all her life – then there are people who barely know her 24 hours. So the portrait we get of her and the story that she’s in constantly changes.
On the strained sibling relationship between Millie and Hibiscus:
Tamara Lawrance (Millie-Jean Black): The characters are similar really – obviously their shared biology, but also their shared lived experience. I think there’s a connection, because only Hibiscus and Millie know the home that they came from. So there is a tenderness and a sensitivity around the mother. But there is also myself and Chyna were meeting for the first time. So there is also this distance, this thing of having to get to know someone. Which us, developing a friendship throughout the shoot, also lent itself to that… having to really reconnect with this person that you think you know, is really is an entirely different person now that you had to get to know in the present.
Chyna McQueen (Hibiscus): At the end of the day, Hibiscus and Millie, they understand each other, but they’re both hiding it, that they understand each other, and that’s what I love.
On what it meant to shoot the series in her home country, Jamaica:
Lawrence: It meant the world to me. It gave me an opportunity to reconnect with my own heritage – my mother’s Jamaican. It introduced me to friends that are now family to me, to queer and trans community in Jamaica as well, which was really beautiful to realize. Because of the objective perspective that kind of queerness doesn’t exist in the Caribbean or is kind of minimized or delegitimized even from within the Caribbean. So it was great to encounter that – and I think it’s also what makes the story so authentic and so special.
Eustache Jnr: You just don’t understand how vibrant the place and the beauty of the place, but the complexities of the place at the same point of time. The Jamaica that that we ended up discovering wasn’t the hotel resort Jamaica. No, it was like the real stories that are missed because the Marlon James’s of the world aren’t always given the opportunity to tell stories like this or they’re not given the platform to highlight sort of stories like this. So yeah an incredible experience.
On how the use of the voiceovers to help viewers better understand Curtis:
Gershwyn Eustache Jnr (Curtis)
So when you listen in to the voiceovers just themselves in terms of Curtis’s own view of Millie Black. I think it’s an initial kind of maybe elder sister relationship that he sees her as I’m kind of learning from her and through that this admiration sort of develops So then when we do see him injured in in in the show Just having to take a step back. We see how mentally and physically Difficult it is to for him to accept it to the point where he’s you know, he’s you know he’s you know, he’s you know That it’s causing tension between himself and Daniel and more.
On the decisions behind taking on their roles:
McQueen: What drew me to her is her determination, and how she doesn’t stop until she gets what she wants, and how she stands up for herself. Also a trans woman playing a trans woman, so, I mean, why not?
Joe Dempsie: (Luke Holborn)
He was just such a sort of juicy complex character that you know, I really enjoy trying to sort of dig in to get into the weeds with him. I haven’t played such a kind of arch manipulator before so hopefully that you know. You hopefully he’s his storyline is a real. Emotional roller coaster for an audience in terms of the way they perceive him and whether there is any chance of any sort of redemption
Get Millie Black premieres new episodes each Tuesday at 9pm EST on HBO. All previous three episodes of the five-episode season are streaming on MAX.
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