“She made Royal work for it a little bit to gain her trust.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How’d you become involved with this show?
Was it an audition process?
William Jackson Harper as Royal on Amazon’s ‘The Underground Railroad.'.Amazon
WILLIAM JACKSON HARPER:I didn’t think that a project like this would come my way.
It was just “OK yeah, this is it.”
In your opinion, what does Royal see in Cora?
William Jackson Harper and Thuso Mbedu on the set of Amazon’s ‘The Underground Railroad.'.Amazon
Well, there’s a couple of things.
There’s something about that that’s just like, “What is going on here?
Something’s very, very wrong.”
That set off the alarm bells for him.
So there’s a level of admiration that’s already there that it’s like “Good for you.
The world told you, you weren’t allowed to be a free person.
You weren’t allowed to have self-determination and all that.
And you decided that you were going to say, ‘Screw all that.
I’m taking it anyway and dealing with the consequences that they come with.'”
What was it like working with Barry Jenkins?
And getting to be part of some of his cinematic signatures, like the romantic glances?
He’s so down to earth.
It’s really strange.
This is how it has to be.”
And [Barry’s] so collaborative.
He’s the exact opposite.
He is open to you experimenting and trying new things and surprising him in takes.
And when I first met him, he was just a normal guy.
He takes the work very seriously, but he doesn’t seem to take himself so seriously.
He trusts us a lot.
It was just a great process.
I trusted him with this because he’s not a person that just does things because they’re cool.
There’s a reason for everything, and he was going to direct each and every episode.
And so I really trusted him to tell the story with tact and compassion.
It’s not about that.
No, I really didn’t think of it that way.
I guess that there is some truth to that, right?
Like it does feel like in certain scenes, certain genres are being explored.
That’s one of those things that I really trust Barry [with].
If he wants it to feel that way, it’ll feel that way.
So she could just relax and enjoy peace and freedom on Valentine Farm.
Do you have a particular favorite scene that you all shot?
Honestly, the Shucking Bee was so much fun.
We were just, as a cast, getting rowdy and having a good time.
Actually, any dialogue you hear is largely unscripted stuff.
And we were just having a blast while we were doing that.
I love Black people.
And let’s reset."
I think that was also how we approached Valentine Farm.
This is a happy, safe place, until it’s not.
And we really leaned into how comfortable we were around each other and playing that and enjoying that.
There’s something about that that feels really beautiful.
That really doesn’t want to allow us any of that.
So yeah, that was my favorite scene to shoot.
What were your feelings surrounding the demise of Valentine Farm and Royal’s death?
So I wonder what it was like to be a part of that experience.
I definitely found myself almost feeling I was about to lose control in the fight, in the battle.
It was a really tough scene, and also near the end of shooting.
So to be going through that on set was hard.
It was a really tough day.
Oh, I’m not really sure yet.
We shot the pilot.
And so, I don’t know.
Past experiences play into it, so we’ll see.
The Underground Railroadis now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
