Samira Wiley lights up when she talks about the theatre. Her eyes shine a little brighter, her smile widens an inch and her gestures become that much more animated. The Washington DC-raised actor discovered her love for the stage at the age of 10, which led to her studying performance at the Juilliard School in New York.
‘Theatre is where I feel most at home,’ she says. Wiley is explaining this all to me from her apartment in Toronto, Canada, where she’s in the middle of filming the latest season of The Handmaid’s Tale.
‘When you go to the theatre on a random Thursday, the show you watch that night is not going to be the show that they put on tomorrow, nor the show they did yesterday,’ she says. ‘I just love it. It’s so fulfilling to me in so many ways, having experienced both sides of the theatre.’
It’s apt, then, that this September Wiley will join the cast of Lynette Linton’s interpretation of Pearl Cleage’s 1995 novel Blues for an Alabama Sky at the National Theatre, playing the lead role of Angel Allen, a struggling blues singer. It’s her first time working on British soil.
‘My mother is from the UK, so I have wanted to work in London – specifically in theatre – for a long time,’ she says. A new city offers the opportunity to catch up with old friends (and possibly make new ones).
‘People re-energise me and that’s why I’ve been so excited to find a whole new family there.’ She says she’s particularly looking forward to Notting Hill Carnival, which she’s never been to, and experiencing the euphoria of the iconic festival after its two-year hiatus. After I give her a full tutorial on what to expect, our plans are cemented. ‘I should find you for Carnival!’ she laughs.
It will be a summer of English fun before she settles into life on the West End, a moment she says was a long time coming after the pandemic postponed the production. (Wiley began talking to Linton about the play in late 2019.) ‘It was heartbreaking, having to pause this project. But you don’t usually get years to work with your director, so I see it as a blessing – we have a real friendship now.’
It also gave Wiley time to welcome her daughter, George Elizabeth, with her wife, the television writer Lauren Morelli. ‘We had our newborn [during the pandemic], plus I’m diabetic, so we stayed indoors. It’s weird thinking about not being able to just go out, but we figured out the necessities.’
She is still trying to work out how to master the juggle. ‘I can’t just be a mother and go to work,’ she says. ‘I’m not that sort of person; I need to have time for myself [too]. Awareness and mental health are super important.’
Wiley became a household name on Netflix’s hit show Orange Is the New Black, and was a bartender when she landed the role of Poussey Washington in 2013. She says getting that job transformed her life, as it allowed her both to work with a cast of ‘powerful women’, and also pay the bills. (Her first ‘extravagant’ purchase was an iPad, she recalls, laughing).
‘It felt like working with a bunch of sisters. There were women in front of the camera – and behind it – from all walks of life. That experience gave me my career, and a glimpse into what life as an actor is and can be.’
Following her OITNB exit, she took on the role of Moira Strand in Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale. Playing Moira earned her multiple Emmy nominations, and she eventually took home the award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2018. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale has elevated my career in a way that I would have never dreamed,’ she says. ‘It’s been amazing.’
How has she been preparing for her National Theatre performance while also filming one of the most-watched shows on television? ‘A lot of my work is about imagination and collaboration,’ she says.
‘I’m not the kind of actor who reads tons of books [for research].’ But she’s clearly captivated by the era depicted in the play: ‘Imagine living in New York in the Thirties, surrounded by Black excellence – including Langston Hughes [the jazz-poetry pioneer and a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance]. The layers are so delicious to me.’
Tapping into the complexities of her character Angel, who is seen as a motherly figure yet possesses a youthful innocence, compelled her. ‘I had been so attracted to playing Angel because I haven’t been offered a role like this in America yet.
There’s a nuance to Angel that I’m ready to explore and there seems to be a mutual understanding in the UK that, as an actor, you’re not expected to take on the same sort of roles every time. It feels refreshing, and I am completely open to whatever this experience brings – it feels divine.’
As for what she’ll do next, it’s narratives about women who have been ostracised or outcast by society that appeal the most. ‘The roots of OITNB were in telling stories about an incredible group of women and the mistakes they made. To be able to overcome that “othering” of people is what interests me.
'I’m a part of the LGBTQ+ community and I’m a Black woman – I want to see more diverse stories. I’m tired of watching the same plotlines about the same types of white people.’ For now, though, Wiley has opening night to get excited about, where she’ll be surrounded by the cast, with friends and family cheering her on in the audience. ‘It’ll be a celebration, a symbol of us crossing the finish line.'
‘Blues for an Alabama Sky’ plays at the National Theatre, September 20 to November 5.
This article appears in ELLE's September 2022 issue, on sale on July 28.
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