Actress Jasika Nicole can be seen on season two of WGN’s hit show Underground. Nicole previously starred on Fringe.
On the new season, which airs March 8, Jasika will recur as Georgia, an abolitionist with a station along the Underground whose quiet confidence hides secrets of her own… Check out our exclusive interview below:
I want to start with you, because you’re joining the cast. Can you tell all the fans a little bit about your character?
Jasika: Yeah. My character’s name is Georgia. She’s got a very lovely, friendly temperament. I think it’s because she’s hiding a lot of stuff inside of her. She is passing as a White woman and using the privilege to try and help more people escape out of slavery, through the Underground. She has a house that’s got all these secret rooms. You meet her in the very beginning and she seems like this lovely, nice, friendly character. Then, you see she’s got a lot of layers beneath her.
How has it been to work with Jessica and join the cast?
Jasika: I love Jessica so much. We had so much fun. In the show, our characters play really close friends. They ultimately become like confidants for each other. That was kind of our journey on the show as well. She’s just very lovely. I had already saw her in season one and thought that she had done such a great job. To find out that she is such a great person in real life, was very exciting for me.
Speak about your research and diving into the character?
Jasika: I felt like she was probably an amalgamation of a lot of different people. The idea of people of color at that period of time trying to benefit the most that they could with what they had. I think that this is just one of hundreds of stories of ways that Black people lived at that period of time. Not everybody was enslaved. Not everybody was poor. Not everybody had the same experience. I like that they have given a nuanced understanding, of what it means to be a Black person at that time and a Black person now. We’re not a one dimensional community of people. There’s so many different experiences, that you don’t always get to see portrayed. In media outlets and entertainment on television, so I love that you have this Cato, who really has the biggest journey of any character on the show and my character too. That has, so many different levels and layers to her.
Aisha Hinds joins the cast as Harriet Tubman. Read what she had to say below:
Tell me, what is it like to tackle the monumental Harriet Tubman?
Aisha: Tackling Harriet Tubman is a great, great, great honor. It’s also a tremendous call to duty. She is a icon. Definitely, I walked in reverence of her for a very long time. I’m thrilled that I get to embody her and to share so many elements of her story. This season, you will dig deep into the depths or her, and get so many details about her. That you feel like you’re having a full out fleshed encounter of her. I’m excited to be the vessel that’s doing that. I’m excited to be a part of a production that is making history, about history. They’re essentially creating theater for television, for episodic television. Harriet Tubman, as a subject is one that hasn’t been done on episodic television ever. For such an icon, that’s pretty astounding.
Speaking of your research and preparation, what most surprised you about her, as you were trying to form this woman?
Aisha: Honestly, I think I was one of those people that fell into the trap of just knowing this woman, in that we’ve largely known in the pages of our history book. Sort of this stoic figure in our historical portraits. The depths of her, the layers. How funny she is. How witty she is. The things that she cared about. Her love life. What she laughs at. What she likes to eat. What she likes to cook. Just the way that she sings. How smart she was, for a woman who could not read. This was a woman who couldn’t read a single word. Yet, she was able to navigate her way 600 miles north to freedom. She didn’t study botany. She didn’t study astrology. She didn’t study theology, but yet these ideas, the comflience of these ideas, is what lead to her becoming one of the famed conductors of the Underground Railroad.
