The first scripted drama for the Onyx Collective -- Disney's content brand for creators of color that saw massive success with last year's Academy Award-winning Summer of Soul -- delivers an exciting character-drive take on the legal drama that's plenty impressive for a host of reasons. Loosely based on the celebrity attorney Shawn Holley, Reasonable Doubt focuses on the people surrounding Jax (Emayatzy Corinealdi), a skilled and successful criminal-defense attorney juggling her law practice along with her splintering marriage. Throughout, she wrestles with her responsibilities -- to both her clients and her daughter -- as well as her own wants and needs.
Reasonable Doubt Creator/Showrunner Raamla Mohamed and stars Emayatzy Corinealdi, Angela Grovey, Tim Jo, Sean Patrick Thomas, Michael Ealy, and McKinley Freeman sat down with CBR to discuss the show ahead of its Sept. 27 two-episode debut on Hulu. The group spoke about the surprises they discovered on set and what it means to be a part of the group's first scripted series.
CBR: This is the first scripted drama from the Onyx Collective. Raamla, why was Reasonable Doubt the perfect project to lead off this kind of content from the brand?
Raamla Mohamed: Well, I think Onyx Collective, they're all about Black creators and diverse voices. I think, for this project, not only obviously, on screen -- we have a lot of Black and brown characters on the show -- but also behind the scenes, like myself being creator and our showrunner, having people like Kerry Washington and Larry Wilmore as Executive Producers on the series as well, it was... [Reasonable Doubt] has a very diverse cast and crew behind the scenes. So I think, really, this is a great first show for Onyx to say, "Okay, look, this is what we're about. This is what we're doing, not just on screen, but also behind the scenes."
Emayatzy, the show is really about uncovering all these layers of Jax -- who she is, what she wants. What would you say surprised you the most?
Emayatzy Corinealdi: I will say Jax -- her audacity and some of the choices that she makes were a bit surprising to me. Those are the areas where I had to realize, and you can't judge her based on that. You can't judge her. I couldn't judge her for those things because then that makes it a bit more difficult to play the character. There are things that I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, I don't know if I could -- or if I would -- do that." That's also what made it so fun to play it because it's like, what if I did do that? I get to live it out through her. That's the best part of being an actor. A lot of the choices that she made were pretty surprising yet fun, and I wish I was as bold as her.
There are a hundred legal dramas on television, but this one -- in front of the camera and behind it -- is definitely unique to the modern system. What made this experience unique for you?
Angela Grovey: When I was reading the pilot, I knew this was going to be something interesting. The words lifted off of the page so beautifully, and I was like, "Not only do I want to know more about these characters, but I want to play this part even more." Then to have all of these amazing people attached to it... I mean, all the boxes were checked for me, but you know what, it was that pilot -- that writing got me super jazzed about the story...
When I read it on the page, I auditioned with a completely different look and feel to my [eventual] approach to the character. Then, by the time I went into fittings... I was able to celebrate being a plus-size beauty, as I lovingly call myself, that I can be smart and sexy. That was a little surprising [thing] that I didn't anticipate when I was auditioning. I gotta tell you, it feels really, really good to be representing for the plus size beauties out there, being an intelligent Black woman. I love that I'm really proud of some of the stuff that we got to create.
Tim Jo: I mean, for me, being a person of color, oftentimes I approach a role and I go on set, and I've got my armor on. I've got my sword and my shield, saying like, "I'm not only representing myself, but I'm representing a community." So I'm about to like, "I'm gonna fight it out. I'm gonna stick to my guns on things, and I'm just gonna fight for what I believe is true to my artistry, but also true to my community," and all that kind of baggage.
We get on the wrong set -- or we get on most sets -- we're gonna still need all that armor. What I realized about this set was I could go to that set naked and not care at all about it because I knew I was supported. I knew I was being valued, and I was being lifted by everyone around me, from the very top to the bottom. So I could just show up and trust that little bit of myself, and I could just hug that part of myself and perform from there. That was a pleasant surprise.
What was it about this story that really caught your attention and made you need to be a part of this show?
Sean Patrick Thomas: What really appeals to me is the DNA of the project -- that it's all conceived and run by Black women. I love the fact that this is their opportunity to put out there and show the world how brilliant their point of view is and how brilliant everything that they do is in terms of telling a story from their perspective and seeing these characters and stories from their perspective and how actually universal that is.
So that's what excites me about it because it was a class act operation from the top to the bottom, from the writing to the camerawork to the directing to everything -- all spearheaded by Black women. I think that's incredible... Not everything that you do is something that you would actually watch if you weren't in it. That's what I love about this show is that even if I was not in it, I would love it. The quality is so high. Just the unexpected twists and turns are so clever and genius that you just get hooked.
Michael Ealy: The original genesis for me was the writing itself. I told Raamla, who is a star, I told her that I hadn't seen black people written this [way] in a long time. I felt like all three of these characters, I would have been willing to play any one of those guys... We always get that same question, 'What is Reasonable Doubt about?" I think after you see the first two episodes, even if you think you know, by the time you get to the end, you realize you knew nothing.
That's what I think is magical about it because every time I want to talk about what the show is about, it doesn't just coincide with the first two episodes. I saw the journey of the show over the course of the season. The way this thing wraps up, the way that Raamla brings everything together at the end, I think people will just be blown away by what they learned by watching this.
McKinley Freeman: Just to add to what Michael and what Sean said, it definitely starts with the creative process for this entire show. It started from the very beginning, from the writing all the way to the editing to the press people setting this interview up. The people that we have every step of the way, there are a lot of talented people passionate about this show. They showed up to work every day, setting examples, and our goal was to be true with the opportunity that we'd been given and the freedom that we'd been given creatively.
So hopefully, people enjoy it all... All of us were involved from the beginning all the way to the end. The exciting part for me would be, during the Zoom table reads, watching all these talented people bring these words to life -- like Michael said, it was really, really special.
Reasonable Doubt premieres with two episodes on Sept. 27, exclusively on Hulu.