With parents who love her and support her dreams, a loyal best friend, and breaking records at the age of 15; Jolie Dumont has everything she could have dreamed of. Everything seems on track for Jolie until everything is nearly instantly torn apart.
Amid her father’s scandal, Jolie (Kaya Coleman) and Janelle (Sagine Sémajuste) relocate from Belgium to Baltimore. While Janelle calls Baltimore home, Jolie has no connection to it and is unimpressed with the city, even after discovering her family’s Ranch and involvement in rodeos. That is until she meets the horse she names Beauty. Jolie and Beauty have a connection often shown to the audience through their growing relationship with each other. Both Jolie and Beauty are in environments new to them. Both figure it out as they go, and have been removed from what they know.
We caught up with Kaya Coleman and the producer & showrunner Pilar Golden from ‘Beyond Black Beauty’to talk about Jolie and Beauty’s journey in this new Prime Video Series.
The show deals with the complexity and array of emotions around familial relationships and how they’re impacted by distance, forgiveness, vulnerability, and even betrayal. What was the challenge of merging these themes in storytelling for you Pilar, and how did you approach them as an actress, Kaya?
Pilar Golden: From the storytelling point of view, it wasn’t as challenging as it may seem, in that we did our due diligence to arc out each character including Beauty. We were very intentional in the room, we would spend a week on character arcs in the beginning, in the middle, and the end to ensure everyone was tracking, and making sure that the feelings were authentic to the story we were telling.
Kaya Coleman: For me, what was really important was to find a grounding that I could connect to regardless of all the outside things going on. Through that, I did a lot of breathing techniques. I worked a lot of moving energy in my body. I think my approach was very physical acting based because [Jolie is] an athlete, she’s very connected to her body. And, I kept cultivating that body, mind, soul connection.
With parallels to the book ‘Black Beauty’, what drew you to build such an impactful story in Baltimore, Maryland? What motivated you to go beyond the English countryside as mentioned in the book, and beyond Belgium where Janelle and Jolie’s story began for the audience?
PG: When I joined the project, there was already this Belgium piece connected. There was already a relationship with the country. As a storyteller, I needed to figure out how to make it work, and thus was born a biracial protagonist who is thrust from one world to another, making her a fish out of water. I specifically chose Baltimore because I, myself, am from Maryland. And when you get the opportunity to create your own TV show, you write what you know. But most importantly you write a love letter to the people who supported you the most and that was my family. This is an homage to the Black women who raised me.
From a production standpoint, what are some things that are incredibly important to have when launching a new season of a show with so many Black characters, specifically Black women, in one of America’s Black cities?
PG: Shonette, I love this question! Thank you for asking because it gives me an opportunity to highlight the Black women behind the scenes. We have Alicia K. Harris who was our producing director. We have Nicole Simmons who was our production designer. Roxanne [de Nobrega], Melonie [Lawrence], and Patricia [Cuthbert] were hair, make-up, and wardrobe. It was very important to have Black women behind the scenes to ensure not only that our cast felt seen, heard, and safe, but they felt beautiful.
When you’re making a show about Black people, what you need behind the scenes are Black people. So, that’s what we endeavor to do.
Kaya, your character, Jolie, had several tense moments on screen. How do you as the actress behind Jolie care for yourself in between the intense scenes?
KC: Thank you for asking that question because I think that it’s really easy to forget that we’re still human at the end of the day. For me, again, doing a lot of breathwork. I use showers as an opportunity to cleanse the energy of the day. I worked with prayer, and I had so much support from the cast and from my mom on the show, her name is Sagine [Sémajuste]. She was there to help me decompress and release the energy. I did a lot of shaking. I was dancing a lot. I was moving my body to let these really big emotions release when they’re no longer needed.
What was the level of training it took to ride the horse as well as face time with the horse to gain trust?
KC: I had no experience prior, but I was up for the challenge to learn. I was doing, I believe, 2-3 training sessions each week. For a couple weeks in California then I was in Alberta [Canada]. I did a couple of specific sessions with the horse, and then when I was in Ontario [Canada], I was hanging out with the horse in between takes. I loved to tack the horse myself and put on the saddle myself. I just really wanted to be a horse girl! Our incredible team of horse wranglers and horse trainers; they trusted me with that and we took care of the horses together. It was very natural.
The soundtrack for the show is phenomenal. Did you, Pilar, have a hand in pulling that together or did you have a team work on it as they referenced the story?
PC: Every piece of the show is intentional. I’m very hands-on in every element of the show and the music. I’m very grateful to Sinking Ship Entertainment who found the money because music is crucial to the storytelling of Black stories. Specifically, this family.
So, very appreciative of Danica [Bansie] who is one of our music supervisors, another Black woman. [She] understood the assignment and delivered.
‘Beyond Black Beauty’ is one of the first modern tellings of black women in the equestrian world. It demonstrates how incredibly powerful dedication and aspiration can be, and provides young black girls with another example of what achievement can look like for us. While the show outwardly represents Black women’s power and community, the team also made a concerted effort to have Black women behind the scenes and taking the lead on hair, make-up, wardrobe, music, producing, and much more to ensure the story connects with viewers.
Regardless of age, many of us who watch will likely see ourselves in one of the characters on screen: our dreams, our flaws, the challenges to face them all. Thanks is due to the many talented men and women involved in this production both on and off screen; as we continue to amplify black stories, and characters through television, gratitude is certainly owed to the incredible team behind ‘Beyond Black Beauty.’
