(rhythmic drum music)
- I'm Oliver Trevena in studio with The Hollywood Reporter,
joined by the talented Michelle Mitchenor.
How are you? - I'm so good.
- Yeah?
- I'm excited to be here, thank you for having me.
- Such a glowing smile.
- Oh, thank you.
- Yeah, just comes in, it's so happy.
It's lovely, it's lovely, it's lovely.
You are not a lethal weapon, I can tell you're nice.
(laughing) You are on Lethal Weapon.
- Say the wrong thing though, you never know.
- You know okay, easy, easy, easy.
We don't need to go that way. - Okay.
- But yes, season two, coming to the end of season two.
- Yes.
- So lots going on, Sonya Bailey.
- Yeah, that's you. - Absolutely.
- That's you, that's you. - It is, it is.
- How's it playing that role?
Cause she's very strong, powerful, is that kind of.
I notice the smile now, in the show.
- Yeah?
- Coming out every now and then.
That's you, that's you. - Every, yes.
- Yeah. - Yes.
I adore being a part of this cast,
and being a part of this story telling.
Simply because we've taken this iconic.
(laughing) - Yeah.
- Movie franchise, right? - Right, right.
- And we've made it our own. - Right.
- And, it has just been such a blessing
to bring this to life and it is standing on its own.
And being Detective Sonya Bailey is great
because I kind of get in between Riggs and Murtaugh.
I'm like, guys! - Mm-hmm, right, right.
- Let's focus here. - Right.
- Let's actually solve some crime.
- Right, right. (Michelle laughs)
- You know while they're dealing with so many things
in their personal lives, I am their, you know,
it's kind of, keep everyone in line.
- And is that, would you say you're like that in real life?
Do you keep everyone in line? - I do.
- You do. - I do.
- I had a feeling you were going to say that.
- I do, I can keep people in line.
- Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, good to know.
And you mentioned, you know,
this huge movie franchise now been brought into a TV show.
Is that a lot of pressure going into that?
Especially knowing the movie first as well.
- Yeah, well, luckily for me, I didn't do the pilot.
- [Oliver] Right, right.
- I came on in the second episode.
And so I can only imagine how that felt to--
- Yeah but that's still quite early.
- You know it's very early.
- Second episode is still quite early on.
- No, for sure, but I can only imagine how they felt like
going into the pilot, like, is this going to work?
But as soon as I was casted-- - Right.
- And I read the script for the second episode
and even up until now-- - Aha.
- What gave me
just confidence in how it would do,
and how people would love it and react to it,
was how good the scripts are-- - Right.
- And how much again, we've made it our own unique world.
- [Oliver] Um-hmm.
- And you almost watch and you're like,
oh this is based off of the movie franchise
but it is so different.
- Bring your own twist onto it.
- Yeah, bring such a beautiful twist to it.
- Exactly, exactly.
- There's no Bailey in that movie franchise.
- This is true, this is true. (Michelle laughs)
- Well you mentioned coming in on episode two.
- Um-hmm.
- [Oliver] It was quite a small role in the beginning.
- Yes.
- And its now just been brought to this,
you know, bigger part in the show.
Was that always the goal, for Sonya?
- No, well, from my knowledge,
it was just going to be a couple of episodes.
- [Oliver] Okay.
- And I was just re-occurring,
and I just kept being added to each script.
- [Oliver] That's nice.
- Like I just kept getting emails, I'm like,
okay, this is more than five episodes.
- Just roll with it.
- And I was rolling with it
and then halfway through the first season,
they offered me to be series regular,
and here we are now-- - Lovely.
- Talking to you. - Look at that.
And in the beginning, when you actually auditioned for it,
you thought you completely messed out, right, is that true?
- Yeah, I just (laughs) went in with this attitude,
like I read what they were saying about her being tough
and from Cali, and I was like, oh, okay.
So she's not a traditional detective.
So I went in with my baggy boyfriend jeans
and my Timberland boots,
and I had like these fake dreadlocks in my hair.
- Okay. - At the same time.
- Undercover detective if that's safe to say.
- I don't know, but I was like,
I think I should go with this feeling.
and so when I walked in the room and every other actress
was suited and booted. - Right.
- As a detective should be. - Mm-hmm.
- And secretly kinda how I am now on the show,
- [Oliver] Right, right.
- I was like, okay, maybe I went too far.
so I went in and yeah-- - And you know.
- I went in feeling like, okay,
we'll just have fun at this point, you're here.
And they called me back later that day.
And afterwards Matt Miller,
the show runner and creator of our series
was like, so, where are you from?
Like, What's your deal? - Right, right.
- Like, What's your whole thing?
And after that I didn't hear anything for a week,
so I was like, you know, that's fine--
- Let it go, let it go. - It's cool, just let it go.
Just try to move forward.
and they called me on a Friday, it was like,
can she come in today?
But can she just clean up,
wear a button up, put her hair back?
(Michelle laughs) Put on some pants? (laughing)
Actually come to book this job!
And so, yeah. - And you did that?
And you did that? - Yeah, I did, I did.
Cause I wanted a job. (Michelle laughs)
- And you've starred within it.
- Yeah I was like, hair back, and put a little makeup on.
And you know. - It's good, either way works.
- Yeah. - It's a show jer.
- Yeah, so-- - Multilayered.
Multilayered. - Exactly, you know
And yeah, at least they know I can
go under cover if need be.
- Amazing, amazing. - So it's beautiful.
- The shows nowadays especially, you know,
Lethal Weapon and stuff like that,
these big franchise shows,
have some amazing people come in and guest star.
- Yes.
- If you could have any actor right now
guest star on your show, who would it be?
- Ooh.
- [Oliver] Just say there is a season three.
- Sterling K. Brown from This is Us.
- That's a good one. - Cause I love that show.
- That's a good one.
- You just come and, I don't know, hang out.
Angela Bassett because their show is on Fox 2
and they're in LA. - Okay.
So she could just come and we can--
- That could work too. - Have a moment together.
- You've thought about it, that's clear.
This was a question I was just asking for one,
this is something she's thought about every evening.
- It's like end up, right? - Yeah.
- And then Jennifer Lawrence maybe comes
just to hang. - As Red Sparrow, yeah, yeah.
Maybe she's like, I don't know,
maybe she's the convict of the episode, I don't know.
- Look at this, you've really put some thought into this.
- I should just go on the writer and just pitch all of this.
- Maybe, I mean, you could just do it all, do it all.
- I'll just smile. - Yeah, that would work.
- Taking it back a bit, you were discovered by Spike Lee.
- Mm-hmm. - Which is pretty incredible.
I mean that's an amazing first kind of
breakout gig to go into.
- Yeah. - A bit of pressure there.
- Yeah, absolutely, well, what happened before that though,
throughout that audition process
the director wasn't released the script.
Itself wasn't released the project wasn't released.
So only had the sides that I had for the audition.
- So you had no idea.
- I had no idea what I was walking into--
- Wow.
- Until the day before for the final call back.
And my agent was like, oh by the way,
Spike Lee is the one who's directing this,
and it's for NBA 2K16, and they wanna put
a film component into their video game
and they have Spike Lee directing it.
And I was like, okay.
- She shouldn't have told ya, she shouldn't have told ya.
- Yeah. - She shouldn't have told ya.
- I was like, okay. - Yeah.
- But is will tell you, when I was driving there,
that morning, I was at a point in my career
where I was getting a lot of nos.
My bank account was on negative.
(Michelle laughs)
I had quit my job recently cause I just felt like
I was running a rat race.
I just wanted to just step out on faith and bet on myself.
And when I was just driving there that morning, I was like,
I'm getting this role!
Like, I'm not leaving without this double-you.
I'm going to get this win.
Like I just kept telling myself that, and, you know.
- Look at that. - Yeah, and here we are.
- And then it all began. - Yeah and it all began there,
and I'm just so grateful for just
having that belief in myself and belief in my abilities.
That even if I didn't get that audition,
I just knew that something was coming for me
and I had to just sacrifice and I had to take this risk.
- Amazing. - Yeah.
- And before that, you were dancing.
- Yes. - And I read you've danced
with Beyonce, you've danced with Alicia Keys.
- Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
Sometimes I'm just in awe of just how
blessed I've been, you know, the universe has been like,
here girl, you can handle it,
and it's always been things on the fly.
And I know for sure that my preparation for all these things
is the reason why I've been able to step up to the plate
and handle whatever's been given to me.
- Okay.
- And it's been an a lot of years of hard work.
And you know, I went to a performing arts high school,
and I was a dance major in college,
and just doing a lot of crazy things--
- Hussle the way. - Just to be great.
- [Oliver] Hussle the way.
- And now knowing that in my future it was gonna be things
like Spike Lee, you're gonna see him tomorrow.
But had I not danced for people like Beyonce
or been in the rooms with Rihanna and Alicia Keys
I probably would've been shaking in my boots.
- Right, right.
- Like, How am I gonna do this.
but I walked in, I'm like, what's up Spike?
Like, let's do this. - It all prepared you.
It all prepared you. - Yeah it all prepare me.
- Right, let's see if you're prepared for this.
- Oh no! - This is THR's top five.
- Okay. - Just five quick questions.
TV show you would love to turn into a movie.
You've done it the other way around.
- Yeah.
- TV show you would love to turn into a movie.
- Queen of the South.
- Okay. - I love that show.
- It could be a good one. - Yes.
- Movie that you watched as a kid that you wish you were in.
- The Goonies. - It's my favorite!
- Can I say one more? - Yeah go on.
No, no it's one, you keep doing this.
- Okay, okay, okay, okay. - No you can't.
No I'm gonna put my foot down there.
You can't - Okay.
- Hollywood crush, past or present.
- Mahershala Ali, presently, yeah.
- Such a smile as well, that man's in the room.
(laughing)
Describe your journey as an actress so far in one word.
- Fast. - Fast, that's good.
- Yes. (laughs)
- Keep it going, keep it going.
A career moment that comes to mind
when I say the word highlight.
- There's so many, and you're only giving me one.
- I'm only giving you one Michelle,
that's the way this works.
- That's the way this works.
Chi-Raq, my first movie.
- There you go. - With Spike Lee.
- That's a good one, it's a strong highlight.
- Yeah. - Strong highlight.
Lethal Weapon, Tuesdays, watch this one in it.
(Michelle laughs)
She's great, watch the smile.
- I don't smile on Lethal Weapon.
- Sometimes. - It's serious.
- Sometimes. - I'm business.
- There's little like, little hint.
(Michelle laughs) - There you go.