Warning: Swarm spoilers forward.

Dominique Fishback remains to be grappling with the finale of Swarm. The brilliant star on the heart of Amazon Prime’s buzzy new slasher sequence, Fishback has been maintaining with all the net discourse surrounding the present, and in some circumstances, has even discovered herself difficult her personal interpretations of the work. The Swarm finale ends on a second that looks like a hallucination, however when the actress thinks again to filming, she admits, “I used to be dedicated to being like, this truly occurred.” After listening to what others have needed to say, she’s now contemplating the chance that, possibly, everybody else is true.

Created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover, Swarm finds Fishback within the position of Andrea “Dre” Greene, a younger Black girl from Houston with an unhealthy devotion to a Beyoncé-like pop star named Ni’Jah. After her finest buddy — and solely confidante — Marissa (performed by Beyoncé protege Chloe Bailey, in one other meta second) dies by suicide within the first episode, Dre embarks on a cross-country killing spree, brutally murdering anybody she perceives as being disrespectful to her Queen. Throughout seven episodes, Dre adopts and sheds a slew of identities, and thru all of it, Fishback stays a gripping heart, delivering a terrifying efficiency that’s without delay unsettling however undeniably engrossing.

Although Swarm is Fishback’s first lead position in a sequence, the gifted actress has been on the rise for some time, first breaking by with the David Simon dramas Present Me a Hero and The Deuce earlier than graduating to hefty roles in hit movies like Challenge Energy and the Oscar-winning Judas and the Black Messiah. This summer season, she’ll make her blockbuster franchise debut in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. However till then, she’s greater than happy studying all of your loopy rumors and conspiracies. “I really like all of the theories persons are arising with concerning the character,” she says.

Donald Glover initially wished you for the position of Marissa, however you set your self up for Dre as an alternative. Why Dre?

As an artist — and as a Black actor, too — there’s not quite a lot of occasions the place you get the chance to play one thing so removed from your self. I used to be like, oh, that is my alternative to do one thing like Heath Ledger will get to do with the Joker, or like a Harley Quinn. Different actors have been getting alternatives to stretch past themselves.

Donald and Janine have additionally talked about intentionally writing Dre as inscrutable as doable, leaving you with out a lot to latch onto. Did you discover Dre exhausting to characterize?

Often, I journal as my characters. With Dre, I used to be like, man, I do not actually perceive you on paper. You go into your toolkit of craft and appearing, and the one factor I’ve in widespread together with her is love. Dre loves her sister. She loves Marissa, and he or she loves Ni’Jah. That is the place I went with it. I did not examine serial killers or fandom or any of that stuff, as a result of it did not matter.

Black girls don’t typically get the chance to specific this type of unfiltered rage. How did it really feel to discover that emotional terrain?

It was positively exhausting on days. I take into consideration these grownup breaking rooms — we’re acknowledging as a society that we’ve rage and frustrations inside us, and that we simply have to interrupt issues. As an actor, you get to go slightly bit additional and launch that. I really feel like I get freedom at Dre’s expense.

I am assuming it’s a must to go to some darkish locations throughout these moments. Do you’ve gotten coping methods for popping out of them when you’ve completed filming?

I took it very critically. I do know probably the most highly effective instrument we’ve is the thoughts, as a result of the day we needed to do the assassination scene for Judas and the Black Messiah, I used to be so tousled. I spotted that my physique could not inform the distinction from what I made my thoughts consider. For this, I wished to make it possible for I used to be protected, so I might pray about it. I had my buddy, the actress Monique Coleman, come to set with me for the primary kill scene. I additionally advocated for a therapist to be on set. Not only for me, however for the opposite actors and the crew, as a result of you do not know how individuals may be triggered. I made certain that I used to be capable of have periods with my very own therapist. Baths, video journals, meditation as a lot as I might. However I used to be actually drained.

Swarm was partially impressed by a tweet about how Black actresses are requested to play therapists, legal professionals, medical doctors, and other people with all their shit collectively, once they might “be serial killers too.” Have you ever ever felt just like the scripts being handed your method had boxed you into sure archetypes?

I believe it’s simply the character of issues. If any individual sees you play a spouse rather well, then the following script you get goes to be, like, “Spouse!” I simply thank god that I’m a author, and so at any level, if I’m similar to, I wish to do rom-coms, I can. If I’ve to put in writing it myself, I’ll write it myself. However I’m going to do a rom-com.

There are individuals who suppose Dre could be on the spectrum, whereas others counsel some form of dissociative id dysfunction. How would you describe what’s happening with Dre?

I didn’t label her in any respect, as a result of I didn’t suppose it was crucial. The one factor that Donald and Janine instructed me was that she was emotionally stunted. That, to me, appears to be like like her attempting to compute data. She will get requested a query, and he or she tries to go looking her reminiscence mind for the correct reply for that point. I approached her from an actor’s standpoint. There’s the scene within the diner the place she picks a strawberry out after which pushes the entire plate of fruit away. We all know that Dre likes junk meals. After I bit that strawberry, it was bitter, and I didn’t prefer it. I knew if I did not prefer it, Dre was actually not going to love it. However I didn’t map that out. It was permitting myself to be current and never hiding the truth that she had an expertise or a sense.

Is there a world during which one thing apart from Marissa’s loss of life might have despatched Dre on this violent homicidal path?

I really like all the theories that persons are arising with concerning the character. I believe so long as she had Marissa, she had a grounding level, an anchor, after which when she misplaced that, she misplaced her grip on actuality.

The connection between Dre and Marissa feels so actual. How did you and Chloe Bailey work to determine the complicated sisterly bond between your characters?

Our first time assembly one another was once we rehearsed sooner or later earlier than filming. However we had been texting at that time, so once we obtained on set, we simply clicked. Chloe is so heat, beneficiant, caring and loving, and I simply love her a lot. I’m completely satisfied that the sensation is mutual in order that we will proceed our friendship and our sisterhood.

There is a time soar between episodes 5 and 7, the place Dre is now going by Tony, an id that felt radically totally different. What occurred in that hole of time?

It was crucial to the creatives that every time Dre kills, she will get extra assured. She does not know easy methods to dance, after which she kills two individuals and hastily, she will. That makes it scary. It’s like, oh, she does shape-shift. She’s very good in that method. We do not know the way many individuals she truly ended up killing. By this level, she’s on the run. What can be the following neatest thing to enter disguise? Minimize all of your hair off and costume otherwise. I believe the boldness she embodied at that time was an amalgamation of all of the occasions she had taken various things from totally different conditions [to survive].

Let’s discuss concerning the ending. It looks like Dre has possibly gotten some form of catharsis, however as an viewers, we all know that she’s not higher. How did the ending really feel for you?

After I was filming it, I did not suppose it was in her thoughts. I used to be dedicated to being like, this truly occurred. It was so humorous when any individual in an interview was saying, “Oh, I did not suppose it occurred.” I used to be like, “Oh, shoot! You are in all probability proper.” However then, there’s episode six, which has “Carmen” working on stage and being arrested. However ugh, I do not know if there ever can be a “completely satisfied” ending for Dre. I do know there’s no completely satisfied ending for Dre with Ni’Jah. There’s no method Ni’Jah’s going to take Dre into her arms.

What do you hope individuals take away from Swarm?

That it was a singular method to inform a narrative. It was taking one thing that we will establish in society, after which making it right into a psychological thriller with the power to have social discourse about it. Artwork is subjective. Like it or hate it, however any individual determined to make their very own artwork. I wish to do music, and I may be actually nervous about doing music, or I can say, Dom, you’ve obtained one life to stay, make your artwork. Any person determined to have this loopy thought [for Swarm] and make some artwork.

Talking of creating artwork, you stated you’d take into account writing your personal rom-com sooner or later. Who can be a super romcom co-star?

I might ask Daniel [Kaluuya]. Additionally, Jonathan Majors stated he desires to work with me. So let’s get me and Jonathan Majors in a rom-com.

Properly, Jonathan Majors has already talked about eager to do a rom-com…

Oh, shoot! Let’s manifest that then!

Have his individuals name your individuals, let’s get it going!

Details.

Swarm is streaming on Amazon Prime Video now.