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Them: The Scare: Deborah Ayorinde on Horror Anthology, '90s Revisit

Deborah Ayorinde (Riches) spoke with Bleeding Cool about returning to the '90s in the Little Marvin horror anthology series Them: The Scare.

Anthologies have proliferated in the age of streaming from Ryan Murphy's American (Crime/Horror) Story franchises dabbling in horror and crime with a mix of returning favorites and new cast, HBO's True Detective features original season-long arcs with completely new casts. Even Shudder's Creepshow is a classic horror IP with a new generation of fans isolated with non-serialized stories. Little Marvin brings his vision of Black horror to Prime Video's Them. Season one, Covenant, took viewers into the 1950s from the perspective of a Black family who moved from North Carolina to an all-white neighborhood in Los Angeles during the Second Great Migration. Season two, The Scare, jumps to 1991 as LAPD Detective Dawn Reeve (Deborah Ayorinde) is assigned to a grisly murder, and she slowly unravels the mystery – with things not as they seem. Ayorinde spoke with Bleeding Cool about the contrast between playing Livia "Lucky" Emory in season one to playing the more stoic detective.

How Deborah Ayorinde Uses Empathy to Drive Detective Dawn Reeve in Them: The Scare

Bleeding Cool: You're no stranger to anthologies since you were also on 'True Detective' and now with the second season of 'Them.' Was it challenging or refreshing to be able to play multiple different characters? Since you were Lucky in season one, and you're playing Detective Dawn Reeves now. What was that transition like?
Ayorinde:

I would say it's both refreshing and exciting. Playing Lucky in season one was near and dear to my heart. I hold her dear, and I hold her in me, but I had to leave that character behind to allow Dawn to live and take up space. That was fun, but it was a challenge I was up for.

Were there any inspirations that helped flesh out Dawn, or was it something Little Marvin had planned and carved out for you?

Little Marvin is a genius, so a lot of it was on the page. For me, with every character as an actor, your job is to build this and bring this character to life. You must bring your inspiration. There's only so much that he can do on the page. It was me drawing from my own experiences being the only woman, the only black woman, the only black person, whatever in spaces of leadership, where you literally, the only person that looks like you and what that feels like, the pressure that can put someone under.

I drew from my experiences of being in the (San Francisco) Bay Area in the 90s. I talked a lot to my mom about her experiences as a working woman and working mother in the 90s, taking care of business while also juggling many different hats. There were so many stories that I pulled from that were just right around me that were amazing. Dawn was also going through this journey of discovering herself, and unraveling the mystery of herself is something that I can understand is like getting to know yourself in ways that you realize you feel something subconsciously affecting you, but you don't know where that's from. I feel like that journey and seeing Dawn go through that journey was something that I thought was so relatable.

What's the biggest culture shock for you, revisiting the 90s for 'Them' season two and having to immerse yourself in that world?

The crazy part is it didn't feel as much as it is as much of a culture shock as one might think since I lived in California in the 90s, more of the mid-late 90s. It felt more like nostalgia than a culture shock, to be honest with you, because it was just an interesting time to be in California. It was bittersweet nostalgia and it brought me back to a lot of moments that were amazing and sweet, but also a lot of moments that weren't so great.

Them: The Scare, which also stars Pam Grier, Joshua J. Williams, and Luke James is available to stream on Prime Video.

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