‘Get Millie Black’ premiere gives glimpse into Marlon James’s J’can Thriller
Published:Sunday | November 24, 2024 | 12:14 AMYasmine Peru - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Get Millie Black is, essentially, a multi-layered detective story teeming with plots, subplots, and counterplots. Booker Prize-winning writer Marlon James digs into the underbelly of Jamaican society, exposing the stark and the toxic while exploring themes such as the post-colonial legacy, transgender issues, and relationships.
The series introduces former Scotland Yard detective Millie-Jean Black, skilfully played by Tamara Lawrance, who returns to her homeland Jamaica, where she gets immersed in a missing person case, which leads from the gritty bowels of downtown Kingston straight up to the cool hills of ‘uptown’. She also has her own personal ghosts to deal with such as a brother, who she was told was dead, only to see his signature on her mother’s death certificate. Her quest to find him leads to a can of pronouns. Millie Black finds her brother no longer goes by Orville, now identifying as she and going by the name Hibiscus.
Undoubtedly, Get Millie Black ticks a lot of boxes and presents an array of characters who are quite credible. James says he was initially inspired by the Gully Queens in Jamaica, a group of LGBTQ persons who lived in the gully and were targets for ridicule and even brutality.
James, who was present at last Thursday’s screening at Sovereign Centre, told The Sunday Gleaner that by the time he started filming in 2021, the Gully Queens were “pretty much gone”.
“There are all these ‘Jamaicans’ – Jamaicans in the gutter, Jamaicans in the hills – and I was really interested in the whole wide swathe of the country. The Gully Queens were inspiring because they were people on society’s margins. And again, this is a detective story, and a detective story is always interested in who’s in the margins ... because they hold the secrets. They usually affect the story. And as Jamaicans, we have to talk about what do we do with our queer Jamaicans because they are part of the fringes, too. It’s 2024, I think a show reflecting Jamaica should reflect that,” James declared.
The project, which started out as notes on hotel stationery, has been in the works for nearly 10 years, and making his screen-writing début was “incredible” for James. He feels that the only thing people would be surprised about is “just how Jamaican the show is”.
“We hired more than 200 Jamaicans as crew, and 98 per cent of the cast is Jamaica. It’s five episodes, four of which were shot in Kingston and Hellshire. At every single turn of this Jamaicans were so wonderful and helpful and wanted this thing made, and now we are here, and this [is] something which I never really thought I would say … mi can tell mi modda seh mi a mek TV show,” he said.
Financing for the project came via the UK’s Channel 4 and HBO. Simon Maxwell of Motive Pictures, which produced the show, shared that he was always a fan of Marlon James and had long wanted to work with him.
“We got talking about our mutual love of detective shows ... we love that it gives you a vehicle to explore the world. The movie Chinatown … you would think it’s nothing like Get Millie Black, but it’s got quite a lot of similarities in terms of being an investigation that starts off as an ordinary, routine investigation, but the lead investigating character ends up pulling the threads that lead to a much bigger conspiracy that exposes the whole underworld of the society in which the story takes place. And that’s all true of Get Millie Black,” Maxwell told The Sunday Gleaner.
His company ran the physical production of the show and then brought it to Jamaica to produce it in partnership with Cinecom’s Natalie Thompson and Justine Henzell. Noting that it has been a “career highlight” for him, Maxwell was full of praise for the “world-class” local crew.
“They are incredibly professional and a joy to work with. The local talent as well. Lady Patra is a star in her own right in the music, and Christopher ‘Johnny’ Daley is incredible. But there’s a whole host of rising stars who rose to the occasion. Also, I need to give a massive shout-out to Chyna McQueen. It was her first role and she just came along and gave a stellar performance. She’s amazing … as well as what we call her ‘Sunlight ladies’, the transgender actors in the show who live and work in the gullies. They were a key part of Get Millie Black.”
Acknowledging that “the show goes to some really dark places”, Maxwell said that he hopes that people will “have their thoughts provoked in a good way”.
Lead actress Tamara Lawrance, whose mother was born in Jamaica, described the entire journey to Get Millie Black as “very profound”.
“I hadn’t been to Jamaica since I was three years old, so to be able to come back through work to tell a Jamaican story is a very special experience. And working with so much amazing local talent. I feel very proud of everyone. I’m obviously very nervous about it coming out next week but also very excited because I feel that it is such a special show, and there are so many elements of it that we have never seen on TV,” Lawrance told The Sunday Gleaner.
Lawrance was fascinated by the Millie Black character who she describes as unfiltered and confident.
“Oftentimes when we see women in leading roles there has to be an element of maternity or sensitivity or these kinds of feminine tropes, but I love that Millie isn’t a stereotypical leading woman character. She is someone who has many traits about her that are very unlikeable, many traits that we would see as masculine. I think that leaning into a character that gives me so many layers was the best part for me,” Lawrance explained.
She shared that the initial phase was “gruelling” because three weeks after finding out that she got the role, she was in Jamaica. With support from the Jamaican police force, she learnt to load and fire guns and get into the role of being a detective. And the “amazing” Fae Ellington was a dialect coach.
With regards to the messages filtered through from Get Millie Black, Lawrance spoke of “the amazing queer and trans cast, the many elements of Kingston and relationships.
“There is Millie’s relationship with her sister Hibiscus; with her detective partner and best friend, Curtis. I hope that people can learn something about sisterhood, about interpersonal relationships, especially through Millie’s story about surrender and knowing when to let go of the things you can’t control,” Lawrance stated.
Get Millie Black premières on HBO on Monday, November 25, at 9 p.m.