The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly) - The Hollywood Reporter Awards Special
Janine Nabers Courts Discomfort
The co-creator of Swarm discusses the Emmy-nominated pilot episode, co-written with Donald Glover, that serves as an intro to the world of the serial killer Dre
When Swarm co-creator Janine Nabers was on a closed set watching the pilot’s now-infamous sex scene where soon-to-be serial killer Dre (Dominique Fishback) creepily watches her sister Marissa (Chlöe Bailey) having sex with boyfriend Khalid (Damson Idris), she felt a sense of unease. She turned to fellow creator Donald Glover and said, “I’m so uncomfortable,” she remembers. “And he was like, ‘But you wrote it.’ ”
Nabers is Emmy-nominated for writing that episode for the limited series. Titled “Stung,” it introduces the audience to the eerie universe of Dre, an obsessive fan of a Beyoncé-type pop star named Ni’Jah. After the death of Marissa — inspired by a real-life internet rumor about a woman who committed suicide after the release of Beyoncé’s Lemonade because it confirmed that the pop star had been cheated on — Dre turns to murder. Speaking with THR, Nabers walked through setting up Dre’s world and how she borrowed from reality.
What were your initial thoughts about how to introduce Dre and her world?
My one goal was for us to see that her relationship with Marissa was very co-dependent, but also that there are moments that make you uncomfortable within that co-dependence and that Dre is someone who fundamentally might not understand her sense of purpose or her effect on people and the space around her. She is a fly on the wall in her own life. Not that she’s slow; there’s an innocence to her. But then the end of the pilot is a bit of a face slap. You’re just like, “Oh, I did not see this coming” — not knowing that you’re watching the origin story of a villain. You think you might be watching the origin story of a woman finding her voice or a woman finding her sexuality or a woman proclaiming her love.
There was so much conversation online around that sex scene. Did you have any sense when writing it that it would be such a hot-button moment?
Being on set during that, it allowed me to realize, “This is a character that’s so different.” The scene is necessary because there aren’t many people that can do that. That’s a testament to her oddness. It’s a testament to something is maybe not completely grounded with this person and it makes you uncomfortable with this character and to not trust this character necessarily. Leaning into that was it.
How did Dominique’s performance give shape to Dre?
Her performance was just so weird. [Dre] was weird on the page, but her performance made her even weirder. Just the way her eyes move, the rhythm in which she speaks [and] this kind of deadeyed stare that doesn’t change.
How did you think about writing and staging Khalid’s murder, Dre’s first kill?
It feels like it’s a seduction. You go in thinking, “Maybe this is her loss of innocence. This is her kissing a boy for the first … whatever.”
You think it’s going to be these two people coming together over the loss of this person that they shared, but it is actually [when] she has her first kill. The intimacy of them sitting next to each other [under] these cool, dim lights and the lingering looks. That was all very purposeful, the misdirect of what the story is in the pilot. And the brutality of this kill, and then her reaction to it — it’s like an exorcism or something. She becomes this other person by the end of it.
What is the fun in creating a fake pop star in Ni’Jah?
It was a lot of fun because you’re obviously basing it off of real inspiration, but we’re also having fun with it. And it was great. I mean, the music was so good and so unique. And Nirine [S. Brown], the woman who played Ni’Jah, is just so beautiful. She’s a wonderful dancer. She’s been a backup dancer for people like Beyoncé. We wanted to plant the seed to something familiar because we just wanted Ni’Jah to evoke a feeling that people understand today in terms of the magic of who this woman is supposed to be.