Whether you discovered him on stage delivering a Tony-winning performance in the dual roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in "Hamilton," or on the big screen as a Bay Area parolee trying to turn his life around in "Blindspotting," or by listening to his band clipping, there's one thing that's clear about Daveed Diggs: he's got passion.
Diggs harnesses that passion beautifully in the second season of his acclaimed Starz series, "Blindspotting" (premiering on Friday).
Based on the hit 2018 indie movie of the same name that he and lifelong friend Rafael Casal starred in and co-wrote, "Blindspotting" uses comedy, drama, rap, and dance to spotlight issues of race, class, and police violence in Oakland, California.
While Diggs and Casal starred as Collin and Miles in the original film, the series focuses squarely on the relationship between Miles and his fiancé Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones) and his mother Rainey (Helen Hunt). (Diggs and Casal are executive producers on the show and have written numerous episodes).
In season two, we watch Ashley — now married to Miles — cope with raising her child with Miles while he's in San Quentin prison on drug possession charges. "Verse" (what Diggs calls the raps in the episodes) and "movement" (dancing) are prominently featured, making the show one of the most unique currently on TV.
Insider had a chance to chat with Diggs recently about the evolution of "Blindspotting," that "Twister" sequel he tried to make with Hunt, and why he's not talking about what it was like to play Sebastian in the live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" — yet.
Writing-wise, what was the biggest challenge in creating "Blindspotting's" second season?
I think we sort of landed in a good place by the end of season one of how to integrate the verse stuff and the movement stuff. It was an experiment that we wanted to try on TV. Obviously, we did a lot of verse stuff in the film, but doing it in a short-form way, we were experimenting with it, and what we landed on ended up being really impactful.
The mandate for season two was to be funnier — twice as many jokes — but also have the movement pieces being really at points where the words are not going to be good enough. So that was a big thing in the writer's room: if we can't say it in the time allotted then that's okay, because we can do it this way.
Very much like key moments in the movie.
Yeah. That's how verse worked in the movie: a character plea to the audience for understanding. And when verse doesn't work, we have movement in which we don't have the language for this.
A highlight of using verse in this season is watching Helen Hunt do it. Did you have to talk her into doing it?
No, she asked. She was like, "Is Rainey ever going to get a verse?" And we were like, "Yes! We didn't know that was a thing you wanted to do." So that was another cool challenge in the room to be like what does that sound like? What are her speech patterns like? When's the moment for that, when words fail her? So putting in that episode where she's worn down by he son being incarcerated and speaking out to the audience felt like a great place for heightened language.
Is there a storyline in season two that happily surprised you?
I am really happy with how much Jacque (April Absynth) and Cuddie (Lance Cameron Holloway) were able to make their way into the season. I love those characters. And it's tough, there are a lot of characters in this show, so to have a storyline that's an offshoot that there's still enough of it in there to feel there's been a journey, I was very proud of that.
And I think more of Trish (Jaylen Barron). We found out last season how funny she is, so just letting her go this season was one of the greatest choices we made. Jaylen takes Trish in a lot of interesting places. In fact, she and Ashley get to a good place by the middle of the season, which is kind of nice — the two young female leads of the show at each other's throats for a long time — it's cool watching them squash their beef and become advocates.
In the second episode, we get a fun surprise cameo: Oakland rap legend Too Short. How did you get him on the show?
Man, we asked. [Laughs.]
Okay, let me ask it this way: do you start writing with him in the story, and finally it gets to a point that if he doesn't say yes, you all have to scramble to rewrite it?
Yeah, we hung that episode on getting Too Short, and we were like, "This better work." We started coming up with plan Bs but none of them were very good so it was great that he was game to do that. It says a lot about him that a legend like that would be able to do this thing that — I hope he sees it this way — is both honoring his contribution but also laughing at himself a little.
Did he have any notes?
He did. His biggest was that the Too Short persona is always being a player, so go ahead and make fun of that. It was such a good note.
Rafael directs numerous episodes this season. Would you want to direct any episodes if there's a season 3?
I don't know. I think about this a lot. I don't think of myself as a director but I think if I ever were, it would be season 3 of this show. It's the most protected environment I could possibly do it in because I know the story really well, I know the characters really well, and I'm still surrounded by Rafael, and producers Keith and Jess Wu Calder, who have been rocking this with me for 17 years now. This is the only place where if I directed it I know it wouldn't come out bad. But I don't know. It's not a thing I have a huge itch for. But that could change.
Your Collin character has not shown up on the show to this point. Has there been an interest at all to show up?
Oh, I still don't think we need him. I think the show has plenty of interesting characters. Like way more than are actually able to be served.
Let's touch on a few things outside of "Blindspotting" before we wrap up. Please give me some insight on what happened with the "Twister" sequel you, Helen Hunt, and Rafael were talking about doing in 2021. I've got to know.
Oh man. I'm not going to get into it mostly because I'm probably going to misremember things. But all I'll say is there was an opportunity where we were talking about that, and it didn't happen, and the reasons that it didn't happen are potentially shady. But shady in the way that we know the industry is shady.
Okay, we'll leave it at that. Can we talk about you playing Sebastian in "The Little Mermaid"?
We can't. Because I don't have the talking points and Disney is litigious. So I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to play myself like that. [Laughs.]
Then let's end with this. For you and Rafael, has there ever been a moment where you two have been able to fully take in and appreciate how much you've built? This all came from an idea that you guys had back in the early 2000s to make something about life in Oakland?
Man. [Long pause.] We don't really talk about it that often, but every once in a while, we'll just look at each other and start laughing. I mean, it's all ludicrous. It's not how stuff is supposed to happen. But I'm super grateful for it.
Season two tells a pretty closed story, which is the same thing we did with season one, and the reason for that is because we don't know if we're going to be able to get to do another season. So every time that we get to play in this world some more it's like [looks around the room] alright, let's keep going!
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.