(upbeat music)
- You said that this wasn't particularly sort of difficult
but obviously you killed off a big character
in the most recent season.
A, I'm interested why that wasn't a difficult choice,
but also the conversation.
- The actor's like ouch.
(laughing)
No, I'm kidding.
- But also having that conversation.
Because that was a child.
So then you have to go to the actor and say
this it it and what that is like
and then I'll open that up.
- Um, okay well
we do, the show is governed by the principle of
surprising, yet inevitable.
So, the dominoes have to fall a certain way.
The character's twin brother
had committed a series of acts for which
in their world you get got.
So then his sister
being a good, a white hat in our show,
tries to save her brother from his fate.
And as a result of him doing, making these choices
she is the one who gets hurt.
That is surprising because it's not him,
but it's inevitable
because he made some terrible choices.
So in terms of the storytelling,
I feel like the story always leads you where it's
supposed to go.
Sometimes you want to buck that.
Sometimes you don't want that.
Sometimes you don't want that character to die.
I mean, in the case of my show,
characters die every season.
But sometimes you don't want that.
I mean I've had actors who I loved personally
and I was like
(crying noises)
as I typed their demised.
- But they die so well.
(laughing)
- But they die so well.
But in that case it was, you know, I felt like
there was no other choice.
- I carried her.
I carried that girl.
In my body, ghost.
She was blood of my blood,
flesh of my flesh.
This isn't just happening to you.
- But I'm gonna be the one to end it though.
I won't rest until the man that killed our daughter
is dead.
- I always talk to them
about a week before the production draft goes out.
Because when the production draft goes out
the department heads are gonna know.
The department heads will talk especially,
you know they will.
So you have to control that.
I also don't want anyone else to know.
And in this case you have to talk to the actor
and their mom.
- Mmm-hmm.
(gasping)
- So this was no the first character
I'd killed off the show by the way.
- [Moderator] Right.
- This is like deep into season four
of a lot of people getting got on the show.
So it was more
I think for the child actor
she was frightened and confused.
And then you bring the parent in
to say like hey it's not the end of the world,
there will be other jobs, you know that kind of thing.
(upbeat music)
- What was sort of the biggest debate,
conversation you had in the writers' room
about either in the writers' room
or with executives about
getting something to screen.
- I think in the very beginning it was a lot of
making the rules about how we were going to
illustrate the city of New York.
So when we were casting parts that were Dominican,
Cuban, Puerto Rican, looking for actors
who were actually Dominican, Cuban, Puerto Rican.
- And it's hard when you have to split that closely
because, you know, just getting an actor
you like in the role is difficult.
You have to cast such a net.
- But you have to,
you do have to cast a net, you're right.
In terms of New York, that's there, right.
So then it was the conversation about
we can't shoot in Toronto because we're never
going to get this diversity of Latinos.
And then having dialect coaches who can give you
Mexican slang, Cuban slang, Dominican slang
and then trying to explain to the network
that that's super important.
Because people at home know the difference.
Even if you don't.
That was like a big thing
and then the other thing that I think
was probably our hardest was
really about women and men.
Because I didn't have any female execs when
I was developing the show.
And so I was constantly kind of having to stretch Angela
and Tasha, these two characters
and explain women don't act like that.
They don't act like that.
The note that you're giving me
is not how women actually behave.
- Give me an example.
- Well I had a note very early on that
no one understood why Angela didn't just want
to be with Greg because he was a nice guy.
And I was like women don't like the nice guy.
They pick the nice guy when they're smart
and they make a calculated choice,
but that's not really what they want.
They want the bad guy.
And especially the bad guy
who you last when you were 15,
you was your first love, who's real dangerous,
and has big muscles and happens to look like Omari Hardwick.
What are you thinking?
You know what I mean.
Like that's where you're gonna go.
- [David] I start to cry.
- I'm sorry.
- Oh no.
He's like I'm the nice guy.
- I like to think I am.
- Yeah, I don't find you that nice.
(laughing)
- I don't get it.
And that's why I'm crying.
I don't get it.
(laughing)
Neither muscles, nor nice.
- But that was a really fun thing
to get through that period and say
and I have to get the Stars folks credit
at one point they finally said you know
none of us are women, we're going to have to trust you.
And I was like that would be great
if you would just trust me, in general,
about all things.
And I would also like some more money in my budget.
Thank you.
(laughing)
- [Woman] Yes, always.
(upbeat music)