INTERVIEW: Reasonable Doubt Star Emayatzy Corinealdi + Executive Producer, Creator Raamla Mohamed

I'm great um it's a pleasure to be
discussing uh your new legal series
Reasonable Doubt and um just so excited
to meet you so congrats on that thank
you thank you so I want to take it back
for a quick moment and I want to ask you
both what was your first like not big
break but your first break into the
industry and both of your uh writing as
well as acting
ah
um well for me the the biggest break
that opened the doors for me uh was a
movie I did called middle of nowhere
with Ava dubernet back in 2012 I think
it was
um for me I guess well it's funny
because
um I uh
so I used to um work for the Los Angeles
Sparks as a promotions coordinator and
um and they let me write the uh
announced the PA announcements between
them between the timeouts and stuff like
that and I would get really excited
because I would try to cope with
response and you know different things
so that was like the first one I
realized like oh I think I like this
kind of writing thing but as far as I'm
in the industry my first job was as a
writer's pa uh season six of Gray's
Anatomy and that kind of you know
started my entryway into working in
television and I moved my way up and
eventually uh became a writer on Scandal
nice and how did um I want to direct
this to ramla how did the idea for
Reasonable Doubt come to be
um and how did you get involved with the
Onyx collection uh on Hulu
oh um so uh first of all uh Sean Holly
who's an inspiration for the series uh
she met with Larry Wilmore and Kerry
Washington and they wanted to do a show
about her so they kind of came to me I
obviously worked with Carrie from
Scandal and then little fires everywhere
um and so yeah so we started developing
the show
um and you know the pandemic kind of
happened so we're trying to develop it
for streaming and then on its Collective
was just kind of getting started and uh
and Tara Duncan you know wanted to read
the script uh that I had written and she
really liked it and yeah and then
everything kind of happened very very
fast and then you know they wanted to
make it their first scripted show so it
was you know it was all very very
exciting because um you know they had
you know were kind of just starting on
this path with um with their you know
programming and so I'm just been very
happy to be kind of a part of that and
launching and you know they just wanted
Oscar so I'm hoping look they have an
Oscar maybe this will be a hit it and
it'll just be you know like I'll just be
like all we do is gold you know so
absolutely
and Emma Yahtzee I want to ask you your
name's so beautiful what is the history
or the meaning behind your name first
thank you it's it's from my dad gave me
the name my dad's from Panama mom's from
Ohio and uh there's a story of this
princess and Panama named yamati that he
wanted to name me but my mom didn't like
that so he took her mother's name Emma
and yamati and made emoryatu
nice very beautiful thank you and you're
you're playing Jax this high-powered
attorney in La uh which seems you know
she seems to have these questionable
ethics at first but she's holding her
own in this white dominated you know
legal industry so can you tell us about
your character and how you got involved
with playing her
yeah um you know Jax is she's she's
powerful you know she's successful she's
very confident she's very driven
um and she's just she's just a very
self-confident woman you know in all
aspects of her life For Better or For
Worse
um and I kind of came to this project
you know I got the script I was getting
ready to do another job I thought that
was sold and done and then I got this
script and that just kind of changed
everything
um I read it and said oh my gosh
absolutely yes how can I how can I do
this and so I went through this through
the audition process with um with Carrie
and ramla and Larry everyone and um
here we are now
and she she just she just nailed it it
was just not even a question absolutely
yeah for sure I've seen it I've seen um
quite a few of the episodes so um
writing and uh she absolutely nailed it
oh thank you and Ronald you're known for
working on Scandal and little fires
everywhere and outside of you know
having a majority black lead cast in
this series how is this story similar or
different from uh those projects
well you know I will say you know I'm
working with um you know Shonda Rhimes
and Liz tigalar
um I I learned a lot about just you know
writing and character and you know
storytelling
um I mean I I went to USC for my masters
but I always say my real master class
right was was working in television and
having to actually do the job uh so I
feel like as far as the molarities I
really think that those shows are so
character driven you know even as twisty
or as you know kind of addictive as they
are um and I really learned that you
really you have to make sure that you
have characters that are real and
complex and that you as the the Creator
and showrunner know who your characters
are so that you can actually create
something that audiences can connect to
so I think as far as that those are
those are the similarities but as far as
differences I mean again like I you know
I really wanted to show a woman having a
you know a really full life you know
um with career and friendships and a
partner and and having to balance all
those things
um and also you know and and being a
little messy you know everyone loves a
message a messy character uh because you
know they can both relate but also
distance yes you know if it's a back and
forth
um and and yeah I just I I just I just
feel like TV is really you know should
be experienced uh by a bunch of people
whether they're together or not and and
have something to talk about and uh
that's some joy to share yeah I was
going to ask you a little further down
but I'll ask you now you know this is a
story that you know you see you're
grabbing your girlfriends with wine time
and you know diving into the drama and
we see so many projects like this like
sex with the city and you know now we're
getting to tell our stories and you know
why is it important for us to be able to
tell these stories and you know you know
possibly other demos should be tuning in
you know because they're not so
different from their own
yeah yeah I mean one thing I you know I
loved about you know shows like insecure
um or even like you know The Cosby Show
or whatever and whatever The Fresh
Prince of Bel-Air the these shows that
were you know these black shows is that
you would hear you know other races be
like you know what my favorite show is
you know is is um you know insecure like
you know white women saying it and it's
because they there was something that
they could relate to the Friendship so
just the basic humanness right the
humanity of these shows um and the same
way like we said Sex in the City like
there weren't any black people on Sex in
the City and I was you know probably too
young to you know be getting
manoloblonics but at the same time I
still was able to relate because the
characters were so
um you know interesting and Rich and so
yeah so for me I I really really that
experience of watching TV and seeing
yourself in in uh in television on
screen is it's super important to me and
and it shaped kind of who you are and
your experiences at times like I
remember watching Sex in the City and
you know and with my friends I I even
remember watching lemonade when my
friends when it you know debuted it's a
shared communal experience
and um Jack um excuse me
um how can fans be possibly inspired by
Jax's character I mean she is
challenging challenging the industry and
is there anything that you know we could
expect any teasers you can drop on some
of the drama to unfold
um well I think as far as how people can
be you know inspired by Jax you know
she's good at her job you know she she
does well at her job you know and she
takes it seriously um I think there's
something to Aspire to in that regard
um to see a woman of her stature you
know she's a partner at this Law Firm
she's had to work hard to get to that
space you know there there is certainly
something to to esteem about her um as a
result of that and then I think you know
even just where she is just as a mother
you know and juggling all of these
different things you know
um I think there's there's a lot of
aspects of Jax that we can really look
up to and women can can find themselves
um see themselves and say hey you know
what she's doing it I'm I'm doing it you
know um that's that's what I love about
it it's not she has the mess she has all
of that as well like we all do
um but I think at the end of the day she
is a woman who is I believe a great
example in a lot of different ways
especially with her career and how she
approaches being a mother
absolutely ladies thank you so much it
was a pleasure and wishing you both the
best thank you so much thank you thank
you