Dominque FishbackinSwarmis the kind of performance that makes careers.
ThinkJennifer LawrenceinWinter’s Bone.Brie LarsoninRoom.Florence PughinMidsommar.ZendayainEuphoria.
It’s the kind of performance that makes folks sit up and pay attention.
Dominique Fishback in ‘Swarm’.Prime Video
But Andrea ‘Dre’ Green is not just any role.
AndSwarmis not just any show.
It’s a show built to be a phenomenon.
Dominique Fishback visits the IMDb Portrait Studio at SXSW 2023.Corey Nickols/Getty
Fishback’s first major acting credit was as “Black Woman” in a 2014 episode ofThe Knick.
Something she couldn’t say aboutSwarm.
“She gave me freedom in that I don’t fear time any more.
Dominique Fishback in ‘Swarm’.Prime Video
I used to fear time.
I used to think time was an adversary.
They die very young and they don’t get that much time.
Dominique Fishback, left, and Billie Eilish in ‘Swarm’.Prime Video
How does it feel to get that incredible response for your work?
I really, really did.
And it was definitely a lot of work.
(l-r) Dominique Fishback, Kiersey Clemons, Norm Lewis, and Cree Summer in ‘Swarm’.Prime Video
It’s just Dre.
So that means essentially I’m in every single frame of the show and scene of the show.
And that was a lot.
Chlöe Bailey and Dominique Fishback appear in ‘Swarm’.Warrick Page/Amazon Prime
It was like 15-hour days.
I was giving everything that I had to the point where I took six months off after shooting it.
Have you watched the show?Do you enjoy watching yourself as an actor?
Dominique Fishback in ‘Swarm’.Prime Video
I always have to watch something at least once before I have to talk about the show.
Did you have a favorite scene or a scene that surprised you how it turned out?
Honestly, there’s a lot of scenes that I like.
Dominique Fishback in ‘Swarm’.Prime Video
I really enjoy episode two because I feel like there’s a lot of physical comedy in Dre.
I loveJim Carrey, and I love Lucille Ball, and I’ve always admired them.
Then I started off by doing very dramatic things.
It was just awesome.
So I was excited about that.
And Damson [Idris], I love him so much.
We’re great friends.
And then just getting to know Billie [Eilish].
Billie is so sweet, she’s so generous and so kind.
Paris Jackson is also so warm and generous, and I just felt honored.
Was there a scene that you filmed that you loved doing?
I definitely enjoyed the scene with Billie [episode 4].
So it was really important to me that she told that story about her grandmother.
I really asked them, I said, “Can we make this scene like a therapy scene?
Can we hear from Dre’s experience?
Because any other place, she’s being somebody else.
I just was crying.
I was crying so much after that scene.
I was moving so slow.
It really drained me to do that role, that particular one.
I talked to the therapist on set after it.
I want to share Ni’Jah with you because I love you.”
And Kiersey Clemons is such a great actress.
You have to have a really powerful and strong actress to deliver a monologue like that.
Especially with a scene like that, because Dre…
I don’t get to say anything.
You want to have somebody that gives you so many levels.
That monologue is an amazing monologue, and it really caused Dre to snap.
I always approach them heart-first.
I know what it means to love my little sister.
And I know that she loves Marissa and she loves Ni’Jah.
So that was really my approach initially.
You have to be a clear vessel if you want to honor the story and honor the character.
Because Dre doesn’t think she’s doing anything wrong.
And that’s always important for me as an actor.
And for people to feel, even though we don’t want to feel, for her.
Or we may not want to feel for her.
I think the ending of the show really speaks to that.
How do you interpret the ending?
You know what I mean?
Now I see all these speculations online and I do feel it was all in her mind.
And none of us are God.
So is that a happy ending?
What do you hope audiences take away from the show and from Dre?
Donald [Glover] was like, “The main thing I want to do is try something.
If we fail, we fail, but I just want to try.”
And as women of color, we’re acting the same understandable characters all the time.
They’re making shirts with that picture of the tear falling after the first kill.
And it feels like it’s going in that direction.
People are just so excited to see that.
And that’s what we love, that people are talking about it.
So I’m just happy.
I’m just really happy that people are receiving it that way.
Now that you have this sense of freedom from doingSwarm, what do you most want to do next?
I don’t know what role is next.
I know that I’m writing a poetry book right now, like a memoir, but in poetry.
I started acting when I was 15 in a theater company.
to get to act, you had to write your own stuff.
I want to do an epic rom-com.
Romeo and Julietis my dream role, I want to play Juliet.
And I love the bookChildren of Blood and Bone.
It’s a novel and it’s got magic and princesses and princes and things for us like that.
And that’s my dream.
I want to do things like that.
I just want to keep doing any genre that my inner child desires.
And that’s how I pick things.
And that’s how I even decided to doTransformers.
It’s because,What would little Dom do?She wanted to do that.
She kept getting rejected and she kept saying, “No, I could do that.
