Round Table: Hour Nine | Season 1 Ep. 9

I am sorry for your loss.
And for your son.
And for not receiving the respect you deserve.
[MUSIC - BJ THE CHICAGO KID & SHIRE,
"WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE"]
Where do we go from here?
Thank you very much for obviously being
a part of this discussion, but also
just being a part of the "Shots Fired" journey with us.
Thank you.
We just kind of like marvel over how you came to be a part
of our "Shots Fired" family.
And I just think back to when you first came in.
And our first meeting, you came into our writer's room.
I think Gina was on-set--
[inaudible].
--location scouting or something.
And you had to interrupt the meeting at first, because you
had to take a call from your daughter, who
I think at that time might have been 13.
And it was amazing.
Because just even at that moment, I saw Breeland.
Because the one thing that we really knew right away
from Breeland is that the most important relationship
he has is with his daughter.
And before anything else, he wants
to be a hero to his daughter.
It was just so fortuitous.
Because when I walked in, and as you say,
I got a telephone call from my daughter Lilac.
And I had to work out something with her.
I can't remember what it was.
She was in the middle of doing something, probably a show
or some kind of sporting thing.
And I think you and I immediately
connected over that.
But as soon as that happened, we started
talking about the character.
And what I was immediately impressed by
was you gave me a blank portfolio of photographs
and newspaper articles and ideas and thoughts and quotes
about who this character was or where he had come from
and the kind of person that he would have been
and where he would have grown up and what
he would have believed.
And I was just so impressed by the level of detail.
And obviously, I hadn't read anything at that point.
But it kind of boiled over from this beautiful portfolio
that you'd done.
You'd sort of put all the big character beats
up on a whiteboard for me--
Right.
--as to what would possibly happen over the episodes.
And right at the crux and the center of it
was this relationship with his daughter.
And so it all seemed kind of like kismet, I suppose,
that we had sort of got to that point.
[glass breaking]
You going to get it now.
Cop!
- Get outta here. - Get outta here.
Go back to your momma.
[crowd yelling]
Crooked cop!
[object hitting leg]
Ah!
Just when you really feel like you hate this guy,
you empathize with him.
Human beings are flawed.
And as much as human beings will have
an honorable, moral backbone, we all
veer off at times, because of--
sometimes, because we're trying to do good by our children.
Sometimes, because we're trying to do good
or trying to do the right thing, because of our parents
or whatever.
But we veer off the path, because we have to--
because we're sort of bound to do it.
If Breeland is the big bad, why is he doing those things?
And I could tell the way that you were creating this thing,
that there would be reasons down the line.
20 years of loyalty to be your fall guy?
Durkin's gone.
It's your word against Arlen's.
I got your back, Calvin.
When you see some of these videos of these police
shootings, it's like there's a shooter
and then there's the police around who didn't step up
and say what really happened.
Yeah.
And it was kind of what we were following with Breeland,
where you didn't do the shooting,
but you made the decision to cover up.
Those decisions ultimately eat away at you.
In the scene with his daughter in the football park,
she still has this love for him and this belief in him
that he's a good man.
But he can't see that person in the mirror.
But she can.
And he doesn't see that when he looks at himself anymore.
He sees somebody who is broken and gone.
And he has to make a decision to do the right thing by her
and, therefore, him.
But she's the kind of conduit that pulls him, I think.
She's his kryptonite.
She is.
If he was a bad guy, she's the kryptonite that
brings out the good in him.
Yeah.
But I do think that it's interesting to think, well,
will he?
Will he be able to dig himself out of this?
He thinks he's all right.
And he thinks he's going to get to the other side of one
of those kind of like, you know, those scary bridges in, you
know, like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or something.
But as those rungs are going away,
he's starting to realize that he's not going
to make it to the other side.
Well, I just love that moment, though, where we are convinced
and Breeland is convinced that Ashe is responsible
for him going down.
And he's going to just mess up her whole custody case.
And then he gets a call from his daughter.
And it's like that last, final push
that Breeland ultimately makes that decision that I'm
going to do something heroic.
But it's also, what is heroic?
Because as a masculine, lieutenant, police officer,
who's thought that he's done the right thing all the way along,
it's what ultimately is that heroic element?
What is the thing that changes you?
And it's ultimately, it's the things that are closest to you.
And in this case, his 14-year-old.
And she's the one who clears the fog
and makes him be able to see.
Right.
Right.
I hope-- interesting storytelling,
that the moment that you're seeking redemption and feel
like you've gone to Shameeka and what happens there, that no
one's ready at all to forgive.
But you come back to home where you feel is safe
and where you at least have people who believe in you.
And in that space, somebody-- we don't know who-- rolls up.
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
The thing is that I knew from day one
when I first met Reggie that I was going to die, which really
was one of the things I was most attracted to, honestly,
about it.
It's so refreshing to be able to go into a job knowing
your outcome and not having to think,
are they going to kill me off?
Am I going to make it back for Season 2 or whatever?
Right.
And knowing that I didn't want to do that.
So I was really happy that you get this finality to it.
It was bittersweet for everybody
to just see Breeland say goodbye in a way
that the character didn't want to say goodbye.
But it was really interesting, because you felt like, OK,
now he's turned a corner, now he has
a chance to start making the right choices, and that's it.
Yeah.
You talked about getting to work
with some really great people.
And you had relationships with different people in the cast.
I think that probably the strongest relationship you had
is with Sanaa Lathan.
And Breeland and Ashe have a pretty deep dynamic.
There was a tension between the two of them
from the very first moment that she walks in.
I think he feels that he's immediately being
looked at in a different way to how
he's used to being looked at.
And it's by a woman.
And by-- it's by a black woman.
And he is immediately on his guard.
And she sees him too.
There is an element of sexual tension.
But there's also an element of power
playing, which obviously--
It was like this collision that was,
like, it's gonna happen.
Yeah, it's destined somehow to happen.
And it's funny.
Because Sanaa and I, from the very first moment
we met each other, were just giddy and
stupid and silly and laughing.
And it's so great when you have that relationship with somebody
off-set and then are able to switch it
as soon as you start working.
So I was really impressed by her.
The funny thing about beating your bitch ass is your threats
don't phase me anymore.
And I'll fight you in the alley.
And I'll fight you in the courtroom.
Like I said, we do what we gotta do.
It's very rare in this business that we get to do something
that is enjoyable, means something, and ultimately
gets you to plumb the depths of everything
that one wants to in a character.
And so I thank you back for that.
And also, assembling this kind of extraordinary group
of people who felt so deeply, as you did,
passionately, about this subject,
and to be able to mine it.
Yeah.
We began "Shots Fired" with asking two questions.
Why was Jesse Carr killed?
And who killed Joey Campbell?
And now there's another question, which is,
who killed Breeland?
So thank you to Stephen Moyer.
Thank you to Gina Prince-Bythewood.
Thank you for joining us for our "Hour
Nine" roundtable conversation.
Join us next week for "Hour 10," "Shots Fired" season finale.
Don't miss it.

Round Table: Hour Nine | Season 1 Ep. 9 | SHOTS FIRED

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