Director Anthony Hemingway talks to Awards Daily TV about his direction of the highly acclaimed episode “Minty,” featuring Aisha Tyler’s pivotal monologue.
If you’re not watching WGN’s Underground, and you’re looking for a new show to watch, make Underground that show. Its first season is terrific and the second season excels. However, you cannot miss tonight’s episode which breaks away from format and superbly focuses on Harriet Tubman for the entire episode. The episode, “Minty,” features Tubman (Aisha Hinds) in one room, telling a group of abolitionists her story. Hinds’ work and performance is outstanding and will no doubt garner awards chatter. Wait until you see it.
Anthony Hemingway is responsible for the incredible camerawork that takes us on this journey with Harriet and deserves to be seen. I caught up with Hemingway who is excited for the episode to be seen.
I had to watch this episode twice because both the episode and the show are just so emotionally and visually powerful.
Thank you so much for saying that. This episode is so close to my heart for so many reasons. Even from the superficial reason of just having the ability to elevate my artistry. I absolutely was excited to do it, and to hear you say that, it really touches my heart. It’s a special episode that has so much meaning and girth behind it for many purposes. It’s so timely and important. There’s so much inspiration to it too. It’s one of the things I got really excited about when Misha Green and Joe Pokaski had first talked about the idea. Once the script came out and to see it come to fruition was a big moment.
It was scary and exciting at the same time because all of us looked at each other and thought one room, one actor for an entire episode? A load of pressure fell on my back very quickly, but it was one that I was very happy to take on, this responsibility of pouring endless amounts of blood, sweat, and tears into. It was one, that even as I was directing it, was feeling it. I felt every emotion because of Aisha’s phenomenal performance of really stepping in and embodying the spirit of Harriet Tubman, it was just magical.
What an amazing actress. My God. That opening scene… She gave me goosebumps. The episode opens and you zoom in and show us those scars and that lighting. What was the choice behind opening the episode that way?
Misha and Joe get all the credit for having the guts and the bravery to break the format and do an episode like this that I can’t remember ever seeing in my lifetime. It’s one of the things that I love that’s so remarkable about them as visionaries and writers and artists, just the show in general continuing to do what we set out to do in the beginning. We wanted to be bolder in season two and elevate from where we landed in season one. You couldn’t have this story without giving the space and capacity to the conductor, which in this case is Harriet Tubman.
In a way like this that really only tries to honor her in such a remarkable way, I felt like we were doing theater in that she’s giving a one-woman show. Mischa and Joe found their entry point from so much research when they discovered that Harriet was giving public talks in the 1850’s and sharing her humanity, her life, and encouraging others to do the same of helping and giving, that was their in. Our tag is Tubb-talk. [Laughs]
The least we could do was give her the complete stage to just stand there and ultimately peel layer after layer, share her life, and her story. Throughout it, and a lot of the choices in what you witness in that experience is allowing us and everyone who comes to it is realizing that there is a piece of Harriet in you. It allowed us to see and discover her in a way we had never done before. I can’t recall in my education of History of knowing as much as I did gaining more education throughout this process. She becomes this 3-D figure instead of this 1D picture we’ve seen, and we’ve not really fully exhausted. Once we found the intent in what we really wanted to do, it really inspired every other choice.
Visually, it was starting with showing her vulnerability and seeing this woman who is a hero and seen to be so strong, be human, and have her own anxiety and nerves. That was the choice to really start with this place to give her a beginning, as strong and as confident as she was, she is a human being, and she has this moment of preparation and a moment to be still. You obviously see what she does which is to lean into her faith and find the strength to go out there and find what she was gifted to do, which was share her life and help others to join the cause and to help save other lives. That was the thing.
Walking into that space, it was like Rocky going into the ring which was why I did the slow-motion shot. There was also that feeling, you could almost feel her heartbeat in that moment, and that was arresting for me. As we did it, and as we watch it, I feel her anxiety in that moment. Joe said a comment, “It’s so perfect, we get to see Superman become Clark Kent and back to Superman.”
What you did and the way it was done, I felt like I was in that room. I felt like I was going through that with her. Watching her. That’s what made it so powerful. How did you find the whole visual language for the episode?
It was one that took a while to really land. Knowing what our ambition was and what we set out to do, our initial instinct was to ask myself, “What am I going to do to keep this entertaining? How am I going to make this visually moving?”
We set out to try to find the different locations and to find what was the right setting. Choices of a church came to mind, a community hall came to mind. Being in Savannah, I had thought of shooting outside and using nature, but then, of course, understanding the whole psychology behind it. She was risking her life to do this, so we had to have an environment that felt safe. She was being hunted at this time, so it sent us into this tailspin of looking at so many different options.
Where we ended up, felt right. We shot at an old railroad museum. Architecturally, it just felt right. From the wood tones and the windows, light was one of the things I wanted to make sure we were able to sustain. I wanted to show the progression of the day. I wanted to also have the ability to show the sense of vulnerability, that she was still doing what she was doing, but at any moment, someone could have busted the door. So you had that feeling of the unknown or unexpected by using the way of the windows.
Once we got in there, we have an amazing production designer, Meghan Rogers, we are all soulmates, and how we approach the visual language and how we change to find the DNA of the show. It all starts from a place of psychology in understanding the character and the narrative. Once we found the place, we were able to give her the godly, angel-like moment of being a silhouette against the window and show the progression of the day. It felt melodic in a way that allowed us to find these beautiful compositions that gave her the platform to be the star.
It was scary and exciting at the same time because all of us looked at each other and thought one room, one actor for an entire episode?
Again, going back, I really had to come to a place of surrendering my own faculty without trying to overdo it, and only react. It was going into it with the concept, but allowing the performance to dictate the choices because it was one where I had to be open, listen and to pay attention in terms of how Aisha performed Harriet. Once we found all of that, it was not until then that I finally really found it.
I can’t say I had this genius plan, it was really one of honoring and respecting Harriet’s legacy and only trying to do nothing but give us a platform and a way of painting this picture that felt like royalty and making it nothing more and nothing less that cinematic.
You felt her spirit. You really captured that. What was different about shooting this episode compared to other episodes?
Let me tell you. It was shot in three days and that was definitely part of the challenge or part of the anxiety for everyone initially of realizing what we needed to do knowing and understanding that I wanted to give Aisha as much time as I could for her to really live in the moment and find times and options to really make it come alive. Three days was yikes.
Normally, you shoot in six?
No, we normally shoot in nine days.
Oh my goodness.
That just speaks to the testament of Aisha and her commitment. She had the script for a week. I don’t know that theater that does that. I don’t know any actors that do 18 pages a day without stopping. It’s truly remarkable. It was definitely an undertaking. The challenge is one that causes us, and I know it does for me sometimes, to follow my instinct and really just trust the moment. That was the big thing overall. It was really trusting the approach, the episode, the performance, and every choice that we had and had to make because we didn’t have time to do it otherwise.
When you’re watching, I noticed you had minimal cuts towards the end.
That was one shot. Again, that was for the viewer to join the ride and receive what she was giving and sharing. At the end, it was this God’s eye view. Now, we’ve grown, what she said has permeated to everyone listening. She’s collected more viewers and support, and now we have this moment where we are drawn closer to her.
At the end, we break format and she’s talking to the camera and that’s where we are able to bridge the gap of dragging the past into the present and realizing so much of what she talked about then, resonates now, and is so much more timely and relevant to where we are in the world. It’s a call to duty for all of us when she’s looking right at you, she’s definitely motivating us to be proactive and join the call.
The music throughout the season is powerful. What did you talk about for this?
Overall, this in your face musical component that’s been in your face since the beginning, Joe and Mischa wanted this device to make it contemporary. It really helped drag this into the present and helped us realize that as old as this stories are, they’re as contemporary as today’s headlines. We have an ability to take a page from all their books and learn from it and use it now and see the strength and resilience that they had and embodied.
I love the quote from Nina Simone that says, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the world in which we live.” So, for us to tell this story that is old as time, relates to where we are right now. A lot of times whether it’s the exact song or a part of it is sometimes scripted. This episode has less music than we generally have. We watched it and realized we didn’t want to take away from being captivated and really engaging with the performance.
The “Minty” episode of WGN’s Underground airs tonight starting at 8pm ET.