‘The Other Black Girl’ Author Zakiya Dalila Harris Reveals Why Nella’s Ending Changed for Hulu: ‘She’s Deciding to Take Charge’
In Hulu’s “The Other Black Girl,” Nella is the only Black woman at a prestigious New York City publishing house — until Hazel arrives. The two colleagues get along great at first, building a camaraderie as they navigate an all-white work environment buzzing with microaggressions (and full-blown racism). But then Nella (Sinclair Daniel) suspects something is off with Hazel (Ashleigh Murray). And that something turns out to be a hair relaxer that smooths not only your locks, but also your perception of reality. The goop brainwashes Black people into submissiveness, and the publishing house has been at the center of the scheme for decades.
The eight-episode horror-comedy series is based on Zakiya Dalila Harris’ bestselling novel, which was inspired by the author’s experience growing up in Connecticut, where she attended a predominantly white school. When Hulu picked up the show in 2022, Harris came on as executive producer, and Rashida Jones joined the exec-producing team as well.
“I came into the project and Zakiya was already attached, which I was very happy about because this book is so specific,” Jones said. “The tone is so well crafted and so many of these characters were in her head. I can only enjoy the book as a reader and do my best to adapt it visually, but the entire world has existed in her for such a long time.”
Harris, she added, was a willing and open collaborator. “I get the benefit of somebody who’s spent so much time crafting a universe and then I can help get it to this next step.”
Translating an author’s vision can be a famously fraught process, but for Harris, being “very hands-on” throughout production made for a harmonious experience. “I was in the writers room, and I had a really big role in casting,” she said. “A lot of authors are like, ‘Wasn’t that scary to know that it’s going to be something completely different?’ The thing that was great was that I was in the room, so I got to see where a lot of those decisions came from.”
The series deftly juggles laughs and scares, sometimes even in one scene, as when we watch Hazel prepare for another day at the office and discover that she is holding a member of the resistance-to-the-hair-relaxer group hostage in her apartment. The scene unfolds to the sounds of Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love.”
“That, to me, really encapsulates the show because the song, it’s so gentle. It’s like a nice warm blanket, but we really wanted it to feel creepy,” Jones said. “The idea was that you start the day with this gorgeous girl getting ready, come to find out she is holding somebody captive. To me, the friction between that piece of music and what you end up with at the end of that sequence—that was the goal of the show, where you realize that this character is compromised in many ways, including morally.”
One of the biggest changes from page to screen was the ending, which (spoilers ahead) leaves Nella only pretending to be brainwashed by the hair cream so she can help take down the nefarious network. This ending sets up a potential second season and leaves the audience with a sense of hopefulness. “We’ve seen so many tragedies on TV and on the news, and tragic endings for Black and brown people,” Harris said. “After we’ve put Nella through everything on the show, I feel so proud when I see that there’s this turn and it’s like, no, she’s not on board with this sinister plan and she’s deciding to take charge and do something. It’s going to be messy, but if we get a season two, at least we’ll get to see her fight.”
Additional reporting by Tomris Laffly.
This story about “The Other Black Girl” first appeared in the SAG Awards Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read the full issue here.
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