Cory Stillman
Directors Deondray Gossfield & Quincy LeNear Gossfield believe in authenticity above all else when it comes to their work on Showtime’s The Chi. Quincy is a Chicago native, one of several working on the long-running drama series. He married Deondray, an LA native, in 2014, and their creative partnership has birthed an attention to detail that stems from both the similarities and differences between their upbringings.
“Though these two worlds are miles apart, they are almost culturally indistinguishable,” says Deondray. “Quincy knows those fine details that make Chicago unique: music, food, architecture, landmarks, vernacular, etc., while I bring in the overarching themes that are just built-in for anyone who has ever lived in the Black inner city. The desires, problems, knuckleheads, heroes, and sense of community are all the same.”
Their work on the season 6 finale “Thanksgiving” draws from that kind of cultural specificity, while also contextualizing it within the universal family themes we so often associate with the November holiday.
“The holidays can be a cacophony of emotions and unexpected events,” says Quincy. “We wanted the episode to be identifiable: the stress, the drama, the yearning, the loss, the warmth, the laughter, and the revelations.”
Conveying such a complex mix of emotions and ideas can be a challenge for any directing duo, but especially so in a finale episode that relies so much on dense exchanges of dialogue amongst its characters. Episode writer Resheida Brady penned a thoughtful and profound script for “Thanksgiving” but the responsibility still fell on Deondray and Quincy to make the episode feel dynamic and alive.
“A large portion of this episode is people sitting around dinner tables in conversation. We wanted the audience to feel moved even though the characters were seated, so we designed the scenes to be in constant motion,” says Quincy. “This helped us with a beautiful rhythm between the four homes, capturing the tension and drama around each table.”
As The Chi‘s seventh season now picks up steam, there has never been a better time to catch up on one of TV’s most underrated series. Check out our full conversation with directors Deondray & Quincy LeNear Gossfield below!
The finale brings an emotionally charged close to this season. How did you approach balancing the intensity of family drama with the warmth and nuance of the Thanksgiving theme?
Deondray Gossfield: It was quite the tightrope walk; if you lean too far into the warm, fuzzy feelings, you fall into the abyss of melancholy, or if you lean too far into the murder and mayhem, you lose the beautiful balance between the show’s two themes: family and crime. We had to make sure that we gave the same care to both extremes and find their intersectionality. Family love is extremely heightened when something threatens its very existence, and crime is often born out of a will to survive and sometimes becomes a vehicle to take care of the family. Lena Waithe and our writers do such an exquisite job of intertwining these two elements that they become inextricably linked. We then have the task of translating this delicate dance between good and evil onto the screen. We like our heroes to be flawed and our villains to be multi-dimensional. To see Douda, our show’s nemesis, be alone for Thanksgiving, yet desperately wanting company, is painful for the viewer, even though we are fully aware of his body count. It’s because he is multidimensional and sometimes shockingly altruistic in his criminal activity, like all of the things he did to keep Jake off the streets, yet is also capable of shooting you point blank in the head if you stand in his way. Conversely, our heroes can sometimes make super questionable choices, like when Emmett throws caution to the wind and goes into business with Douda. He knew the risks and dangers, but did it anyway to get a leg up and take care of his family. It was crucial that we conveyed these very subtle similarities between the crooks and cherublike.
Quincy LeNear Gossfield: Oddly, holidays are some of the most emotionally taxing times of the year for many people. You often have to commune with relatives with unresolved issues and gripes while trying to bury the hatchet in the spirit of the holiday. Then there’s the melancholy of loss and the memory of loved ones no longer with us. The holidays can be a cacophony of emotions and unexpected events. We wanted the episode to be identifiable: the stress, the drama, the yearning, the loss, the warmth, the laughter, and the revelations. This was a perfect setup and distraction to impact the audience with the unexpected deaths later in the episode.
Were there any particular scenes or character arcs in this episode that were especially challenging or rewarding for you to direct?
Quincy: Carefully addressing the theme of depression and mental health sensitively was vital to us. There is an often-unaddressed mental health crisis happening amongst men, particularly African American men. In reality, suicide rates are high. Furthermore, holidays are days when this is even more prevalent. Curtis Cook, who portrays Douda, put his all into that performance. He really went inward, and it impacted us all on set. Many of us were brought to tears. He did a fantastic job, and although brief on screen, it was a beautiful moment, if not heartbreaking. Seeing this strong and powerful man broken down, lost, and alone, feeling very vulnerable at that moment, authentically represented so many men who mask their pain.
Deondray: One very hard scene was the shooting of Rob (Iman Shumpert). His death scene just also happened to be his final scene of the episode, so it was a day of emotional, double-goodbyes. Iman had grown on me and Quincy after having become the producing directors at the beginning of season six. He was doing his homework, and his performances were growing and becoming so captivating onscreen. We were so proud of his growth. When we learned that we’d be losing him at the end of the season, we were heartbroken, but we made sure that every moment he had in the finale counted and that his death would be amazing. There were so many emotions on that final day. We had been working hard with the crew to get the special effects and camera moves correct before we shot. It was going to be done in a single take, and we only had two resets, so there was very little room for mistakes. On the other hand, the team was bummed that this would be the last time we worked with Iman. In the end, the scene came out perfectly. We only shot the reset because we wanted an alternative camera movement. Both takes were magnificent, and Iman stood back up between each take, grinning ear to ear; he liked it too. The death was worthy of the character he created. We hugged, laughed to keep from tearing up, and said, “See you on the next one.” It was a bittersweet day.
The Chi has a very grounded, community-centered tone. How did you work with the actors and crew to maintain that authenticity while still bringing your creative signature to the episode?
Deondray: Well, we already won half the battle with casting. Many of our actors are Chicago natives, thereby inherently authentic. The rest of the cast tends to come from places that are thematically similar to Black life in The Chi. The same goes for Quincy and me; he is a Chicago native, true blue and understands the beat of the city from a very real and lived experience, while I’m from South Los Angeles, and though these two worlds are miles apart, they are culturally almost indistinguishable. Quincy knows those fine details that make Chicago unique: music, food, architecture, landmarks, vernacular, etc., while I bring in the overarching themes that are just built-in for anyone who has ever lived in the Black inner city. The desires, problems, knuckleheads, heroes, and sense of community are all the same. We study Lena and the writer’s words, dissect them, then hold up our camera lens and turn the brownstones and concrete into something complex and beautiful, giving these forgotten communities a voice and humanity.
Quincy: Behind the scenes, we work very hard to create and maintain a true sense of community with our cast and crew. It is truly a family, and the love and respect for one another are authentic on and off-screen. It’s not just a work family; it extends into our home lives. It’s very much a reflection of the greater Chicago community, which we as a city are very proud of.
What was your visual approach to this episode? Were there any specific camera movements, lighting choices, or color palettes that helped underscore the themes of tension, reconciliation, or tradition?
Quincy: One of our biggest challenges was making multiple talking-head dinner scenes exciting. A large portion of this episode is people sitting around dinner tables in conversation. We wanted the audience to feel moved even though the characters were seated, so we designed the scenes to be in constant motion. This helped us with a beautiful rhythm between the four homes, capturing the tension and drama around each table.
Deondray: You’ll notice as you move through the episode that we go from very warm, earthy tones reminiscent of the season to very contrasty and shadowy lighting. The change also corresponds to the setting of the sun. It’s all layered and subliminal: we open with the day and the beginning of the holiday celebrations that are full of hope and optimism, and as the sun sets, and darkness looms, so does the sense of doom that we convey with underfilled lighting and underexposure, like something wicked this way comes, and it eventually does with the deaths of Douda and Rob. You may also notice that just before Robgets shot, we bathe him in full light, almost angelic, while Nuck, his killer, is completely in the dark, and Zay, who is somewhere between these two extremes, is lit only on one side of his face to signify his dichotomous nature.
Were there any scenes that evolved significantly from script to screen during production? Can you share how your direction helped shape those moments?
Deondray: Originally, there were supposed to be two sequences at the end of the episode: Alicia finds Rob dead on her front porch, then breaks down in shock and horror as she’s comforted by Shaad. Then later we see Nuck arrive at Emmett and Kiesha’s, drenched in blood, barging into the house to see his son. He then grabs the child and cradles him as Emmett and Kiesha look on, bewildered. They were supposed to play one after the other, but we decided during prep that it would be more impactful for the two scenes to intercut, so we shot each sequence in several beats rather than two separate continuous shots so that they could cut better together for a nice contrast of a life gained, with Nuck’s newfound son, and a life lost, with the death of Alicia’s son, Rob.
Looking back at the episode, what do you hope resonates most with viewers, and how do you think it helps set the emotional or narrative tone for what’s ahead in Season 7?
Quincy: Expect the unexpected; such is life, such is The Chi, but even among the uncertainty, there is life, love, and hope.
Deondray: I think for me, the biggest theme I want to get across is that change is inevitable and life is impermanent. Change and death are guaranteed, and it’s what you do in the meantime that counts. Be better than you were yesterday, and tee up hope for tomorrow. Douda seemed to be destined to be a fixed terrorist of the South Side of Chicago and had everyone kissing the ring. Then, after an unceremonious death at the hands of Nuck, the power dynamic instantly shifts and the city breathes a sigh of relief… for now. What seemed like a new, healthy, blissful burgeoning relationship between Tiff and Rob, was suddenly cut short, also at the hands of Nuck, letting viewers know that the city’s reprieve was in vain, and that evil has only changed hands. Season 7 is all about the new sheriff in town and how the city will adjust again to acquiesce or defeat him.
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