William Jackson Harper Talks NBC’s New Series ‘The Good Place’

The Knockturnal shared breakfast with William Jackson Harper from NBC’s new comedy series “The Good Place”. He plays Chidi, a professor of morality and ethics and Eleanor’s (Kristen Bell) “soul mate.” Directed by Drew Goddard, other actors include Ted Danson and Tiya Sircar.

William talks about media’s lack of representation when it comes to minorities, and some of his favorite shows. Here is a short segment from the conversation:

Is there any character on screen you’d like to play?

WH: I feel like I’m kind of getting to do it right now, because getting to be a black nerd on TV is really cool. I’ve always been pretty nerdy myself so it’s nice getting to play that role. I love the idea of (portraying) the different aspects of the black experience—not that this (show) is necessarily about the black experience—but there are tons of guys actually like me. There’s something about not having to be cool and I’ve never been cool, so it’s nice to do that on screen.

Is there any particular episode coming up you’re looking forward for us to see?

I just want people to see the first one, and get the context.

What should we expect from the season?

Literally anything can happen. Even as we were reading the scripts we were sort of like “What is happening now?!” You have no idea where it’s headed from week to week.

What’s your message for aspiring actors?

WH: I wish I hadn’t completely tied myself to work, that made me a little myopic. In order to be a good actor you need to have life experiences, and in a lot of aspects I wasn’t living my life because I was just chasing jobs. So make sure that you’re living your life, maintaining relationships and willing to do whatever thing that’ll make a good story. Go ahead and say yes to new experiences more than anything. Do as many jobs as you can, grow your network, because that was the most important thing for me. If I hadn’t worked in theater as often as I had, I wouldn’t have met as many people to get into certain rooms. Don’t depend on a shortcut. I feel like a lot of people want shortcuts that’ll put them there immediately, and there are a lot of people who leapfrog. They show up, they’re twenty two years old, and they get that huge job and never have to look back. But for most of us, we have to wait till our thirties to get something. But because I’ve worked for so long I was ready for the opportunity when it came; I felt ready to do this job and I did the best work I did.

What are your favorite shows on TV right now?

WH: I love Atlanta. It is so so good—I’m a big fan. I love Game of Thrones—I started watching from the beginning when fifth season was getting ready to air. Stranger Things—I feel like they made that show for me personally, like they came into my memory and were like, “hey what do you like? You like bikes? Yes. You like board games? Yes.”

Where do you think Hollywood is at right now in terms of diversity and inclusion?

WH: There’s a long way to go, but there are conversations being held. There are certain ways in which the conversations are being held which make me uncomfortable—some people will say, “we are going diverse with this role and we’re going to pick a brown person.” And it’s like okay, let’s not just throw that out there as a sort of catch-all for people of color. Let’s actually think about ways in which people of color are being represented in a way that makes sense. That means getting people of color in the writers’ room, women in the writers’ room. We have to represent our society a little bit more truthfully, and not just similarly abled white people all the time. The world is a very big place with a lot of different people. I like that the conversations are at least being held and more people are starting to think about it, but there’s a lot of work to be done.

The Good Place premieres on Monday, September 19^th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMf24rEsMOs