SDCC 2015 Exclusive Emayatzy Corinealdi Talks Amazon’s Hand Of GodPosted by Wilson Morales
July 20, 2015
One of the earliest panels at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was with the cast of Amazon’s Original Series, Hand of God, starring Ron Perlman, Dana Delany, Andre Royo, Alona Tal, Garret Dillahunt, Elizabeth Sarah McLaughlin, and Julian Morris. Erykah Badu, Lance Bass, Hunter Parrish, Jon Tenney and Jacob Vargas will appear in guest starring roles.
Created by Ben Watkins, and marking the television debut of filmmaker Marc Forster, “Hand of God” stars Ron Perlman as the honorable justice Pernell Harris. The show centers on the powerful Judge Pernell Harris (Ron Perlman), a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side, who suffers a mental breakdown and goes on a vigilante quest to find the rapist who tore his family apart. With no real evidence to go on, Pernell begins to rely on ‘visions’ and ‘messages’ he believes are being sent by God through his ventilator-bound son.
The series will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Instant Video this fall.
In attendance at the panel were Ron Perlman, Alona Tal, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Garret Dillahunt, Elizabeth Sarah McLaughlin, Julian Morris and creator Ben Watkins.
For Corinealdi, this is her first TV series as a cast regular. Known for her breakthrough role in Ava DuVernay‘s award winning Middle of Nowhere, Corinealdi plays Harris’ high-end call girl/confidante, Tessie.
Blackfilm.com recently caught up with Corinealdi as she talked about her role, being at the festival and her upcoming role in Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis film, ‘Mile Ahead.’
Was this your first time at San Diego Comic Con?
Emayatzy Corinealdi: It was my first time. I was prepared in the sense that I had heard so much about Comic-Con and from the pictures I have seen and that whole world of people dressing as in different costumes, I was expecting that. While I didn’t get the full experience of being there because our press day was so full and we didn’t get to go to the main floor, there are some things that I did get to see at our autographs signing. It was amazing to see people committed at wearing costumes of their favorite character. I was surprised at their level of commitment. I thought it was a lot of fun. With this festival, it’s really about the fans and you get the chance to interact and see their support.
What can you say about your character in Hand of God?
EC: My character is named Tessie in the show and she has a relationship to Pernell Harris, played by Ron Perlman. He’s a morally corrupt judge who believes he keeps hearing from God about getting justice for his son. I play this high priced call girl who’s been in a relationship with him for a while now. While he’s deciding to change his life, he feels that there are certain things that can’t continue in their relationship. The thing between them is that they have this friendship with a certain amount of respect for each other.
Tessie is really the only character who doesn’t want anything from Pernell. She’s not seeking to get anything from him or to change him. Everyone else around from his wife to his friends all want something from him, so Tessie represents a safe place for him. Tessie is a woman, who you will find out throughout the course of the show, who is experienced and why she is the woman she is now and the choices that she made. What I loved about her is that she’s a woman who decided to be a call girl, although one would never think that this is her profession. Because of this profession, there is a tendency to judge her. Once you get to know her, you would get to see who she really is and why she made those choices.
What was the attraction to doing this series?
EC: There were a couple of things. I loved this pilot when I read it. When my team sent it to me, and they had sent it with a bit of a warning because they know about how I feel about different types of subject matter. In general, I’ve always been selective about the types of things that I want to do. They gave me a warning as to the character. When I finished it, I was pleasantly surprised by the possibility of Amazon being willing to go there. Especially when we’re talking about spiritual things and religion and power and sex. I was taken back by their willingness to go there in such a real and honest way. When you have that subject matter, you can go one or two ways, either be squeaky clean where everything is perfect and no one makes any mistakes or go completely the other way. This was neither. This was so much more truthful than anything I’ve seen on television in regards to spiritual things. That’s what made me interested in doing it. In doing TV, I felt that it would be a good opportunity for me. I had always felt that all I wanted to do was movies. Then when pilot season came up, there were more opportunities than in the film business. Then I changed my point of view on that.
Within the pilot episode, you have a nude scene with Ron. Were you comfortable doing it?
EC: No. It’s not something that I had done before. I was completely uncomfortable with it. It wasn’t a love scene. I have never really done a real love scene so to do two things that I hadn’t done was very uncomfortable to me but what made it exciting was that I really believe in this character and I really believe, as the story unfolds, I could contribute to that. For that reason, I was ok with the scene because I knew that if I came into with the right perspective and frame of mind, I could really affect change in some way.
If you come back next year to Comic-Con in character, who would you come as?
EC: That’s a good question. I don’t know. The first thing that comes to mind is Catwoman, but that’s so boring and basic and I’m sure there are lots of people dressed as Catwoman there. I have to think about that.
Growing up, were you into comic books?
EC: No, not really. The only thing I read were the Archie comics, but other than that, I wasn’t into the comic world.
You never know if sometime in the future you may be called upon to be in a comic book film.
EC: Absolutely! Trust and believe that I’m completely open to that possibility. I have nieces and nephews who would love me to see me play a comic book hero.
You have another film coming out with ‘Miles Ahead.’ What’s the status as far as the release date?
EC: I have not seen it yet. A couple of times when I’ve been told about screenings, I have been working. I may be one of a few from the film who hasn’t seen it. I can’t speak on the status because I really don’t know. I think they are working that out and fielding offers from what I understand.
In playing Francis Taylor, did you do a lot of research for the role?
EC: Yes. There was a lot of research done, especially with her still being alive. Don (Cheadle) made sure he set us up so that we could meet and I could a get understanding of who she is and her experiences. That was very important to me in studying everything I could about her. I made that my mission. We connected, so the research was fun in that sense.
