Nicole Beharie talks about her time on Sleepy Hollow

[just444]

Nicole Beharie on #SleepyHollow: “Sometimes I think that some people I was working with didn’t like that I was unwell but loved by the audience. ...everyone of color on that show was seen as expendable and eventually let go.” Yes. That happened in real time & it was so awful. https://t.co/iNd3MCqKN3
- Mo Ryan (@moryan) June 19, 2020

source
For me

Comments

[jeuxdemaux]

Fuck these racists for thinking we wouldn't mind them reducing the lead Black woman as a side character in her own goddamn show. The 1st season was very much loved because of Nicole and they did this shit to her.

[heyignatzmouse]

mte!
I started watching this show after I saw nicole in “shame” and once they started focusing on john noble’s character I got bored and stopped watching.

I prob would’ve tried to catch up at some point if I didn’t find out about how they were treating her.

I think I remember they were trying to frame it as her being difficult but none of the black ontders were buying it.

[zoaster_toaster]

The racism and ableism in this is so appalling.

[djbbgoose]

What happened to that show is a travesty. The first season started off really strong and had a great, diverse cast with a lot of great setups for future storylines, and then Nicole was sidelined in favor of boring characters/stories and even her death was dumb and sacrificial, a terrible end to her character

funny how people were like "the leads shouldn't hook up that's such a cliche" despite their overwhelming chemistry, just because the romantic lead this time was a black woman

[abbiemills]

It was wild because Tom was really clearly into Ichabod/Abbie, too, and hated filming with whats-her-name.

[jeuxdemaux]

Did Tom ever talked about how unfairly they treated Nicole or was he complicit in it?

[abbiemills]

"Abbie Mills represented more than just another character in the show. It wasn’t an easy decision for them to make. I know that. The writers, they like writing Abbie Mills. And I like acting with Nicole…[It] was a decision that had to be made. But I don’t know the machinations of the politics behind it... My relationship with Nicole has not changed because of her death on the show."

He did say this about her being fired and Nicole said her fellow cast members/crew were great (she specifically said nothing about writers/showrunners), so I assume they're good and he had to deal with his contract.

[abbiemills]

Watching this show fall apart in real time was shocking and depressing. I will never forget them not telling her they were recording commentary for the DVD release, let alone inviting her to take part in it.

This on top of slowly writing her out for flopass whisper-witch.

Tom seemed to be pretty good at being really clear he was pissed in how they treated her, iirc, and checking out without her.

[ms_mmelissa]

I only ever watched that shitty show for her. She was consistently the bright funny spot of the show and I find it so hilarious that the showrunners completely misread the vibe of the audience and tried to refocus everything on the white characters who were the least interesting parts.

I'm glad she's healthy and she's still booking parts.

Also this just shows how VITALLY important it is to support black behind the scenes creatives if you care about black actors. Ava DuVernay's rise allowed her to create a show that hired woc but predominantly black women directors. She hired Channing Godfrey Peoples, CGP was able to turn her directorial TV work into a movie and she was able to pick Beharie up and give her a real meaty role for the first time in years. If you don't have black women pushing behind the scenes Beharie could easily have never gotten back in the game. She's a 35 year old black woman, mainstream Hollywood and the white indie scene don't care about her.