The series newcomer counts herself among the viewers asking “What’s going on?”
between her and Lena Waithe’s character in the show’s last episode.
Warning: This story contains spoilers for the season 3 finale ofMaster of None.
Naomi Ackie as Alicia in Netflix’s ‘Master of None’.NETFLIX
The last point is a question to which even Ackie doesn’t have the answer.
“Who are we?
Who changed their hair?
Lena Waithe as Denise and Naomi Ackie as Alicia dance in ‘Master of None’ season 3.NETFLIX
What’s going on?”
she asks, joking about the ending’s temporal vagueness.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First things first, how’d you get involved withMaster of Noneseason 3?
Lena Waithe and Naomi Ackie on Netflix’s ‘Master of None’.NETFLIX
I feel like this project was top secret.
NAOMI ACKIE:It was super, super secret.
I got involved at the beginning of last year, just before COVID.
It was just a normal audition situation.
I had been a fan ofMaster of None[seasons] 1 and 2 when I got the email.
I always get surprised when those kinds of emails come in.
Because I’m like, “Really?
Oh my gosh, what do you want me to do?”
The audition was incredible.
It was mainly improvised, which I loved.
I was very grateful.
How many of your responsibilities were figured out beforehand?
Did you know you’d be a producer on the project coming into it?
Actually, that happened afterwards.
So that’s how it started.
I was kind of going, “Oh, I wouldn’t say that, I’m from London.
We’re telling a story.
And I was like, “What?!
Yes, yes, c’mon.”
And that’s basically how it happened.
Did you all have Alicia’s background figured out before shooting?
Although she’s new, we meet her in such a settled stage of her life.
I think each project is different.
Some require a lot of that work and some don’t.
The picture of Goldie Williams is a picture I have in my house.
And so slowly but surely, it felt like me and Alicia were one in the same.
We felt like the same person, so the backstory didn’t feel necessary.
But then I think the chemistry was just right, and we understood the story.
You’ve begun to know it so well that we just fit.
You’re also playing a character a decade older than you.
What was that like?
Did it feel like a window into your future?
Oh gosh, I have this whole thing where I feel eternally young inside my heart.
I felt very “adult” doing this role.
The process and emotions and dynamics felt very mature.
It was really interesting for me because I haven’t really had to do that in my work yet.
Usually, I’m playing someone pretty young my age or maybe slightly younger.
I feel like I grew up a little bit.
Don’t you love Cordelia?
He was telling me, “Making this is just like jazz.
You just improvise; you make it up as you go along.”
So it was really special to be able to capture that.
Last seasonAngela Bassettplayed Denise’s mom on the show.
This season you haveMarianne Jean-Baptisteon the phone as Alicia’s mother.
Is that like the Black British equivalent of Angela Bassett playing your mom?
I was like, “I can’t believe I don’t get to meet her, man.
Gosh damn, it’s ridiculous.”
But she was incredible, so good.
Having those scenes felt really lovely because of that.
Marianne sounds just like my family members, like she’s from the same part of London as me.
“Did it feel like theater at all?
Yeah, it did sometimes.
There were some scenes where I was like, “Aziz, say ‘cut.’
Aziz, say ‘cut.’
It felt like there was a presence.
That was quite an interesting exercise.
It’s meant to be super open-ended?
Are you ever forever with someone?
Are you evernotforever with someone?
That love and connection never, never go away.
Sometimes it lives in a fantasy, sometimes it lives in reality.
So yeah, that final episode felt like a tying of loose ends and an unraveling of others.
And yeah, it was a nice way to wrap up the show for us performatively.
I feel like we had grown a lot once we got to that point.
Master of Noneseason 3is streaming now on Netflix.
