Retta Is Ready to Play the Femme Fatale
If you’re not watching the second season of Good Girls, you’re missing out.
The Midwestern caper dramedy is the perfect midseason watch for those in need of a serious laugh, a good cry, or the rush of an occasional grocery store robbery. That, and it’s a show centered on women who have each other’s backs and will do anything-disposing of bodies, lying to the police, and washing fake money-in order to make ends meet and keep their families safe.
Parks and Rec alum Retta plays one of these badass ladies, her character Ruby joining a life of crime with her childhood best friends (Christina Hendricks and Mae Whitman) to pay for expensive treatments for her sick daughter. While the New Jersey native is mostly known for her biting humor, Good Girls presents a different side of the actress, allowing her to show off her dramatic chops and giving audiences an entirely new appreciation for her talent.
BAZAAR.com recently sat down with Retta to discuss the second season of her hit NBC show, the power of defying negative stereotypes of Black women onscreen, and the complex roles she hopes to tackle in the future.
Harper’s Bazaar: So, Good Girls is my newest obsession. It’s empowering, relatable, and makes you root for these women to win, especially Ruby.
Retta: Thank you. I love playing Ruby and I love that she is a full human being with a range of emotions. This is the first time in my [20-year] career that I am getting to play someone who is in a loving and long relationship with her husband and with her best friends.
Of course, I love the caper aspect of it. It’s fun, I get to run around with a gun, rob a store, and do the action stuff. And honestly, I never thought this was something that I would be asked to do because I have never gotten these types of opportunities before. Usually, I am just the sassy black friend.
HB: My friend and film critic Rebecca Theodore-Vachon tweeted that she loves that you play a plus-sized dark-skinned black woman whose husband adores you and your weight is never part of the storyline. Ruby represents a fully-fleshed out black woman, which is still sadly rare onscreen.
R: Ruby reflects the women I see in the world everyday. We need to see more of us. We deserve to get our chances to be funny, bold and complex. Yet despite the reality of our existence, roles like Ruby are few and far in between. Honestly, it’s trifling when you constantly get stuck being a trope-the sassy everything: nurse, maid, teacher. Like really?
"Ruby reflects the women I see in the world everyday. We need to see more of us."
HB: Was Ruby originally written white or colorblind or was she African-American from the jump?
R: The role was actually written for me. I met Jenna Bans [the show’s creator] when I was working on The Girlfriend’s Guide To Divorce and one day, she told me she had written Ruby with me in mind. And I know that people always say that, but I was the headshot on the board for who she wanted for the part.
HB: That must have felt amazing to know that this was tailor-made for you.
R: It was awesome. It was one of those major Hollywood milestones for me. This is the first time in my career that I didn’t have to audition for a part. This solidified the belief that I’m in this industry and I’m here.
HB: What are Ruby's best and worst characteristics?
R: I love that she wears her emotions on her sleeve and is obviously capable of crying, as am I. Ruby definitely gets that from me. And while I know people love that Ruby is the moral center of the trio, always like, “Guys, I don’t think we should be doing this,” I almost wish she wasn’t. I hope she has an arc about that. I want her to own all of this crazy stuff they are doing. [Laughs] And she has it in her.
HB: Every episode, Ruby is in tears at the drop of a hat. You're known for comedy-we’ve never seen you like this before!
R: I think I’m bit a bit of an empath-not totally psychic, though. But if I read a scene that requires crying, I’m truly tapping into how this person may be feeling. I know what it’s like to break someone’s heart or be so angry that all I want to do is cuss you out and want to slap your face. [Laughs] I’m able to pull from those emotions, so crying comes very easy for me.
HB: That scene near the end of Episode 2, where Ruby stands up to her husband Stan, refusing to apologize for all of the bad things she’s done because she did it save their daughter, was quite powerful and funny! She really was “that bitch.”
R: [Laughs] Ruby betrayed Stan for so long [with her lying and robbing the bank], so I think she thought she owed it to him to let him have his minute to be mad and make her feel bad about what she had done. And in a way, she knew he would come around, but something changed. Maybe it was the whole stress of the Boomer drama, being backed into a corner or the marriage counseling at church, but she was finally done letting him make her feel guilty and she put her foot down. Playing that scene was fun.
HB: I want folks to know that a few minutes ago, you put me on hold to yell out your car, “Hey girl!” to Christina. Clearly the chemistry between you all is real on- and offscreen.
R: Working with Christina and Mae is pretty great. We all hit it off pretty quickly and we have so much fun on set. Now, I met Reno [Wilson, who plays Stan] after them and we had never met before. But after hanging out, it was like we were the same person, just on different planes. We like the same music, we have similar backgrounds. It’s eerie. That’s important, because we have to play a couple who has been together for 20 years and is often mad at each other, and it takes a special kind of person to pull that off and not have it questioned. On-screen, we look like that couple, which is due to him being so open-hearted and kind. He puts me at ease.
HB: What would you like to be cast in next?
R: Now that I’ve gotten to play Ruby and do something different, I want to do more drama. I also want to play the femme fatale. Why not? I want to get to the point in this business where there is no part where anyone would say “Oh, she can’t play it” unless the part is actually written about an anorexic white girl. If not, I want them to ask, “How about Retta?”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Good Girls airs Sundays on NBC at 10 p.m. EST.
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