DOMINIQUE FISHBACK
IS POWERING ON.
Dominique Fishback was the standout in last year’s street-levelsupers flick, Project Power, and she further proves her star potential in electrifying drama Judas And The Black Messiah. Playing Deborah Johnson (Mama Akua), partner of Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton, she also utilises her background in performance poetry. “The poem I read to Fred in the movie, I wrote myself,” she tells Teasers. “I’m always writing…”
What drew you to Judas And The
Black Messiah?
I’ve always been interested in the Black Panther party. Right before I met [writer/director] Shaka King I was reading the book A Taste Of Power by Elaine Brown, a female Panther, because I was writing my own kind of Romeo And Juliet-esque version of a Black Panther party story.
How did you find working with Daniel Kaluuya?
He’s kind of a gem. He galvanised me, and I wanted to rise to the occasion, in a sense of like how Mama Akua carries the legacy of Fred Hampton because he isn’t here. How can I rise to the occasion to be, in a way, that thing for Daniel? But he was a great leader.
And Jamie Foxx and Joseph GordonLevitt on
Project Power?
I asked Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “How do I know if I’m coasting? Because I want feel like I did everything I could.” He said, “If you were coasting, I don’t think you’d be asking that question.”
So I really learned how to trust myself. To hear Jamie Foxx say, she’s going to be on stage saying, “Thank you, Academy...” and that he learned from me, was very surreal. I was honoured.
What role would you love to tackle next?
I’m a hopeless romantic, and I love Romeo And Juliet. So Juliet is a dream role. But also, there’s a book called Children Of Blood And Bone. They’re making it into a movie, and I would love to be a part of that world. It’s about a [fictional] African country. I would really love to dip my toes into the fantasy world and the magic world, and the action and fighting with swords, and stuff like that.
ETA | TBC / JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH OPENS LATER THIS YEAR.