Sinclair Daniel

Once I got the role, I did chemistry reads with all the Owens, all the Malaikahs. So I was on the phone with these people a lot. Okay, I don't even remember at what point I had the job. I was just like, I hope there's a lab at the end of this.

Hi.

I'm Sinclair Daniel and I play Nella and the other Black Girls streaming on Hulu.

Hello everybody, and welcome back to Off the Beat. I have got some pep in my step today, of course. I'm your host, Brian Baumgartner and Ding Dong. The Witch is dead. Maybe you've heard the news, maybe you haven't. The Screen Actors Guild strike is over. One hundred and eighteen days later, sag Aftra has reached a deal with the studios who that was a long time. We have a new contract now that hopefully we'll make all this

I'm good.

It's been so long now.

I know, it's been a couple of like lifetimes.

How are you doing.

I'm good. You know. It's just now starting to get like wintery cold. So drinking a lot of tea, wearing a lot of scarves, having a good time.

Okay, you're in New York, right, yeah, I am yeah, and it's getting it's getting cold. You're feeling fall.

I'm feeling fall. We usually skip fall and skip spring and just go straight to the extremes. So I'm really trying to revel in the niceness that is happening outside right now.

Well, you and I, Oh my gosh, we last. It's been almost a year before if you could believe that, Uh, it's been almost a year. I want to tell everybody about how we got to know each other. But I want but I want I want to start. I want to start just with you. I want to I want to. I wanta this is your life. This is okay, this is s Claire Daniel's life. You grew up in New York? Is that right?

No? I didn't. Actually, I grew up in d C. So not super far. But I was born in d C and then lived around that DC Maryland, Virginia area for a little bit, and then in high school and moved.

To California, California. Where in California, Pasadena? Oh there, Da, it's actually very nice and it's a really nice place.

So you went to high school out here?

I did? Yeah, I went to LaSalle High School shout out for two years. Shout out LaSalle in Pasadena.

Yeah. Yeah, what was your So why did you move to California? Was this? Was this a parental thing?

Yeah? So my mom's parents were living in California and she was looking for a little bit of a change and they were getting older, so it just made sense to go out there. We would go a couple of times a year anyway. So you just hit the bullet.

He bit the bullet and moved out. What what were you interested in as a as a kid? What were you what were you focused on? What were you interested in?

I was really I was a theater kid through and through. I was. Yes, I was just having this conversation with my cousin the other night and she was like, wait, how did you get into this again? I mean the The answer is I had a lot of allergies as a kid, and both my parents worked full time jobs, so I needed something to do from three to six pm that was indoors, okay, because I couldn't do the

Yeah, so this is like you're talking about like even elementary school or was this like in high school?

Okay, probably starting around fifth grade, and so I was really into that. I was really I also liked winter activity sports, so I also because no pollen, I liked to ski and ice skate what you can also do in California, which was very exciting to learn, right, surf and ski in the same day.

And we're are you doing Were you doing like school plays or were you branching out from that children's theater or Yeah.

I was doing the school plays. We would do like one play in one musical year, and then I would also do some summer programs. I started to do those. I did like community Christmas time, theater productions, pretty much anything that would allow like a kid to just come and participate. I was. I was pretty into that.

And when you moved to Pasadena, did you get into the I mean, I find it so lame, like to call it Hollywood, but for lack of a better, more accurate phrase, like did you start doing an agent thing or were you doing commercials or were you still pretty much just strictly doing theater in school and stuff.

Yeah, I was not doing all that stuff. I was really of all the kids who were. I wanted to be the kid who had to leave school early because I had an audition and sorry, I can't come. I'm going on the Disney Channel next week. But I was very much not that. My mom was like, you're gonna stay in school and if you do the play in school,

Really yeah, I think I was.

I could not even tell you what it was. I went in. I was so excited I got to do this one audition. It went really well. They called my mom and they're like, okay, so how do you guys feel about emancipation from your parent and I didn't know if that was so I was like, yeah, let's do it, and she said no, no, no, no, Wow.

I didn't even know that was a real And what's the what's the point of that so they can better control you?

Yeah, I think it's so they can screw you over. I think it's just like so they can have a fourteen year old sign on the dotted line and they don't need like a co uh, a co signer, no guardian or anything. You speak for yourself essentially, or you temporarily turn over your rights to somebody else. Like kind of interesting dark when I got into it.

Wow, so that is that. That is not a good that's not a good start. I'm surprised you are where you are now, that's crazy, all right, So you you continue to do the theater stuff, and then what makes you decide now, okay, so you're doing theater because you have allergies. You need an activity to do, right, But when when is the moment for you that it changes and you decide, no, no, this is not an activity.

I think it was less of a like Eureka moment and more of, you know, the span of a couple of years. And when I got to the age where the school play was no longer kind of a requirement or like you know, most kids didn't have to be in it, I kept doing it because I thought it was really fun. And I think that's really what has always been the motivating factor to me, is that it's just so much fun. And then in high school, when I moved to California, they had a pretty good arts department,

It's crazy. I charge them.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars to follow through on that. So I had to really sit with myself and just say, what do I want to do for the rest of my life? And the only thing that came up for me really that I thought I was any good at or that made me happy, or that I could in reality see myself doing for a long time was acting and performing. So I applied to college with that. That's

Yeah, me too. You know, I think that we're rare. I mean, you make the joke, but you know it is true. It's it's insane that people are asked at that age like, so what do you want to study? What's your focus for work? Ever? But I think most people change like three or four, absolutely five times. But it sounds like you and myself, like once I got on the train and it was a similar time for me in high school. It was like, oh no, this is this is actually what I want to do. You

Yes, this was probably. College auditions were probably the most stressful audition I've ever had in my life. And I'm including TV movies, Broadway like college auditions, you know, states were high and yes, so most schools require you to do a contemporary monologue and a contrasting classical monologue, if not more. And n Yu didn't ask for a classical monologue. They just wanted to contemporary monologues. And they sent a representative out to Los Angeles, which was nice, so I

Just imagine what was Tish where you wanted to go?

Yeah, I mean I had, I had, I had a top three and Tish was on the top three. But really I did not even think I would get in. It just seemed like such a a dream reach, you know, going to study acting in New York City. That's that could never happen to somebody like me. But it did, and I'm so glad I made that choice to apply to try and then.

Also to go What did give you.

A lot? And I also gave them a lot and I'm still giving them some every month. But I did get a lot out of that experience. I mean, I still live in New York and going to college here. My circle hasn't. I mean, I've met more people, but my college circle is now my professional circle. These are now people that hire me and I work with and we just see each other all the time and it's amazing. So it gave me a really amazing foundational community. You know, I moved here as a teenager and I was hanging

Yeah, I mean you bring up a couple of super interesting points in terms of you know, you're in this school and as you say, there's no quad, the city's your campus, But it sounds like you really took advantage of that and having though that variety of experience. It's sort of the opposite of most college experiences, right, because I feel like, almost intentionally, most colleges are we are a bubble to help protect you and help you to

Right, Probably the best sell NYU can make is where it is. It is New York University, so you get New York that is promised. Yeah. I felt like a baby bird being shoved out of the nest. But yeah, we the adjustment period was brief because the city ways for no one and then you just get on board and it's been amazing.

Yeah, do you feel like you like there's an experience from when you're in high school and you're working on shows and you have accomplished have you know, you've had a various degree of success or whatever. You go to NYU, which is an actor training program, which is the same type of school that I went to. Do you feel like you were I always felt like I was sort of punched in the face very quickly about like, oh, no, son,

Yeah, we had a lot of uh that going on in those first couple of weeks we had We had people drop out in the first couple of weeks. It's it's it's stark, and it's sudden. It's like, you know, ice, cold water just being thrown on your face, right, And a lot of kids who were previously big fishes in little ponds, right and now diny minnows in the Pacific Ocean. So I knew that going in, though I wanted that. I wanted kind of to be punched in the face a little because to me, that makes it real. I

Did you want to do theater? You wanted to be an actor? You went you, you got in as an actor. Did you want to do theater? What? Where? Where was your brain? I mean you're still young, so I mean you transition pretty quickly. But were did you want to be an actor in anything? Did you have a particular view in mind for what your future held.

I think I went in like everybody else, wanting to be in movies and on a hit television show with many seasons and spin offs and reboots. And then I got to New York and I really fell in love with theater. I'd already been doing it, but to see it done at a professional level consistently everywhere I went was so inspiring, and I really wanted to do that. So my junior year I actually opted to go study abroad in London and study at RADA because I wanted

Yeah, it's funny, I I think. I think that's the difference between NYU and most other actor conservatory training programs. I think because you said you entered of course wanting TV series like that was never in my consciousness early on, Like I just wanted to be an actor in the theater like that was like that was the only thing that I wanted and the only thing that I thought that I would ever do, And I didn't even really think about that. NYU has great actor training. How much

Yeah? They have so at ny you have to do primary training first, so when you go you get sorted into a studio. I always compare it to the Harry Potter sorting hat. It's all the same school, but different acting techniques, right, you don't get to choose, and you have to stay there for two years. And then after your two years you can go abroad, you can try a different acting studio, or you can go do your film and TV stuff, but you're not allowed to do

I know that, and I was when I started in film and television. I was much older and knew not absolutely nothing. And that's what I always say, like, in some ways the hardest part of the job is like figuring out how it actually works. Like if it's just about saying your lines in character to another person, I'm good with that. Like wait, why is this? Why is this person under me? Why am I rattling this person right now? I'm saying everyone close, everyone, so in my

So I immediately I've been working as like hearing their jobs through college Marista nannying, And then when I graduated, I started working at a gym because I wanted to have my days free to go sit around for hours at Actors Equity and like hope to get seen for an audition. So I would start my work day at like four point thirty in the morning so that I could be done by noon and then I could go to Actors Equity and wait for six hours and then

Okay, that's what I thought, Madam Secretary.

She wasn't that one. One wasn't actually that court roomy, but it was. It's, you know, very New York type show.

Media Costello, Media Costello in Madam Secretary. So how was that experience? Like being on a set for the first.

Time is incredible, I am. I mean every time I step on a set, it's amazing. But I don't think anything can really top the first time that you get to go and you're sitting in the hair and makeup chair and you're handed your scene for the day, and you know, you get to talk to the director, you get to talk to the actor who you've been watching on television, Like there's just something so exciting about that.

But you were you were nervous, Yeah, I was.

I was nervous. I was really nervous.

How many days did you have that first time?

I was there for five hours? It was not days. A scene where we were sitting at a table, so they did one over the shoulder, another over the shoulder, wid at a medium. They called it okay.

You end up working on some other shows there in New York, Bull for one, The Good Fight. Do you do you feel like you start gaining confidence with these guest stars, you start feeling more comfortable, or is every time you still get nervous.

I mean, honestly, I find new reasons to get nervous

Yeah, I know you did a lot. I mean I have seven here listed in front of me. I won't go through all the titles, but a lot of short films gaining experience. Now is this are these projects that you're doing with some of your NYU cohorts. You guys are putting stuff together, just trying to work there.

Yeah. Some of them were NYU friends that we were, you know, working with. Some were casting calls that I answered in college just for other universities looking for actors. One of my teachers had a friend who was making a production who needed somebody and recommended me. And oh I also spent a summer at Williamstown Theater Festival.

Oh yeah, me.

Eighteen and I was an apprentice there, and I'd say second to NYU, if not even on par with NYU as far as networking and meeting people, that was really great. So a lot of those short films came out of collaboration with people from there. You know, you just pick up people along the way, and especially with social media now you can just get connected so easily. Right, So people are always looking for somebody to be in their short film, and if you have the patience to do it, they'll let you do it.

Right. At this point, you're auditioning, trying to find work, working some in the theater. As you mentioned before, how do you meet the folks on the other Black Girl?

So, yes, I was coming out of When was that so twenty twenty one? Is that twenty twenty one? Yes, twenty twenty one, the top of twenty to twenty one. I'm coming off of like a year nothing. I had signed with my agent in February twenty twenty, and then we all know what happens two weeks.

Later, right right, was just there was great timing.

Great timing. I yeah, fresh out of school. I was like, I'm gonna take this by the whole, nothing, nothing, silence. So top of between twenty one, I think one of my first auditions is I get something in my inbox says like untitled Insidious project, and I didn't know what that meant, so I was like, I'm just gonna submit. I get a call back, and then I find out it's the Insidious franchise, like the horror movies, and I'm like,

How many times did you read for them?

Yes?

How many times?

I don't know. I want to say. I did my Nella, I did my Hazel. I think I did one more Nella after that, and then I did kind of like a bracket style chemistry read which took three hours, and then I did two chemistry reads with Ashley, who ended up playing Hazel. And then once I got the role, I did chemistry reads with all the Owens, all the Malaikahs. So I was on the phone with these people a lot.

Okay, I don't.

Even remember point I had the job. I was just like, I hope there's a job at the end of this.

Wow. I had no idea.

It was quite the process. Yes, So also different countries. I was traveling. I was on vacation, so I was on a road trip on in a van in Iceland when I had my first chemistry read and they said we want to see you tomorrow. So I had to get on my phone and find the nearest hotel on the Icelandic like country side where the whole country's population is like two hundred and fifty thousand people found one room with the strongest WiFi in Iceland. I still think about that hotel.

Oh my god.

And I did. I did my my reads in there. My friend sat in the van. Wow, it was chaos.

That's incredible. Did you when you when you were when you were sleeping under the bookshelf and you turned around and you picked up the book. Did you respond to the book? I mean, I know you wanted a job and spoiler alert, it's the lead, But did you respond did you respond to the to the to the book? Was there? Yes? Yeah?

I mean when I picked up the book, I read the back or the inside cover wherever the synopsis was, and I said, this sounds really, really good. And then I read the first couple of chapters. And then they had also sent me the pilot, so I read the pilot script and between I did all of that at the same time. So between all of that, I was already pretty hooked. I really felt like I knew who Nella was and I identified with a lot of the

That's very That's very interesting and astute of you. I think. By the way, the other black Girl New York Times best selling book, Rave Book made into a series. Now, did you have any connection with Rashida Jones.

Besides being a lifelong fan. Nope. I saw her name and I was I called my dad had Jones. That's what it says. Unless there's another one.

Yeah, I had no idea. They put you guys through the ringer.

Yeah, it was you know, and we all got there and I was talking to everybody else, and Ashley had a similar experience. I think they wanted to get it right that those two relationship, I understand, you know, it was you could find one but maybe didn't have great chemistry with the other. And they made Ashley and I. I think Ashley and I tested together two or three times and it took hours, but nobody was trying to be

Yeah, that's awesome. You get this job, your first obviously central leading role of a big series. Now, is there nerves from you in beginning to work on the show.

Yeah, there's nerves. It's a whole new thing to be nervous about.

Yeah.

I I don't even know how to tell you the nerves I was experiencing. But yes, lead of a show that was a very well liked book, that's going to be on a very popular streaming platform. And everyone kept reminding me that, like, this is so cool. You're going to be the lead of a hula show. You've never done that before.

Yes, I know, yeah, I know that.

So you know, I was really happy that we got to go down a few weeks before we started shooting, so we got to talk to everybody, We got to do a few rehearsals, which I think is pretty rare in the space, and had got to have a relationship with the people we'd be spending the next four months with ahead of time. And because the show moved so quickly, we shot ten episodes in under four months, and we were block shooting, so we were shooting multiple episodes at

Yeah, you know, it's interesting because you know, there are you and Ashley and a lot of the other actors who well, primarily one young with less experience, and then you know you have people coming in like Eric McCormick and Bellamy Young. Well, I was there. I was there for a little bit, but I really enjoyed my work with you. I thought you were fantastic to work with and so open and receptive to Shenanigans that I would try to.

I appreciate it with you. I appreciated it because that was still kind of early on in our process. So every curveball took me out of my own head a little bit. And I remember specifically that that that we were doing where you know, Nella's fighting tooth and nail through an apology and we got really I don't I don't know what you and Dodd talked about, but every take was different and I appreciated it. It was It was great. But yes, being the youngest, the greenest on

Yeah, well, I mean it certainly helps that you're really good. No, I mean, let's be honest about it, because if I mean, if you were bad, yeah, there would have there would have been tons of whisky. Yeah, yeah, there would have been, especially from that McCormick guy. He is yeah, he is evil. Love he can be he can be so evil. So the show out in September.

We're in the middle of sixty days, six days ago.

Today, sixty days ago today.

Well, maybe not six days, two months.

Months, yeah, September, that's right, September thirteenth. We how did let me tell you something. I felt horribly for you and for Ashley, because I I just felt like this was not fair to the two of you. Obviously, spoiler alert for those of you listening. The show comes out and we're in the middle of the first actor strike in over fifty years. That's right, the last actor strike. Ronald Reagan was president of the Union, not of the United States. So it's over fifty years ago since the

Yeah, I would be lying if I said it wasn't difficult.

Don't lie.

Yeah. No, it was such a conplex amalgamation of conflicting emotions. It was just, you know, highs and lows every day. I think that the actor strike was announced on June twelfth or July twelfth, and our show, the Hollywood Reporter announced our show's release date, so we were almost exactly in line with the actors strike. So we had been told in advance, you know, keep your summer open. We

Good for you. That's uh, it's it's very mature. And look, let me be let me, let me be honest with you. That stuff isn't fun. It's really not it's really not funk. It sounds it sounds it's way it sounds way better than it is. But that being said, I was really upset for particularly for the two of you now, because you deserved to get that attention and I wanted. I mean, look, the point of all of that promotion, fun or not,

Yeah, so it got traction.

That got subtraction. Now I don't know if people watch the show or not, but I hope to God that they did. Now for those of you who haven't seen the other Black Girl one, do because I mean, jesus, I'm in it. But too more importantly, Sinclair is in it. I was there through I think episode five. So we're not going to give spoilers away here because I really

I wish people would include me in those conversations. I have to imagine, you know, like, what's the plan? I was.

No, I it's no, it's more from me watching it. It ends differently it had than what had been when I was there. It ended differently than what it was explained to how it was explained to me.

We were ending You really see, I didn't. I did not ask for the ending. I did not want to know what the ending was, similar to like reading the book, so I didn't figure out how they were going to end it until I read the episode ten script. But it does feel because it's different than the book.

So it's different than the book. It's different and that's what I mean. No one was filling me. I wasn't in high level meetings. It was more conversations about it and then when I watched it, because I didn't know really what had happened after, you know, I didn't know the end of the story from the serious perspective I had read the book, and I went, oh, oh, well, yeah, oh.

Okay, Well I felt I felt like, you know, if they're taking an extra couple of weeks to go and rewrite the ending of a story that already has an end, right, then that probably means that they want to do something with the story as a whole, I would think, because I mean, there's literally a book that could tell you how to end it right, But to make a different choice,

And well, yeah, well I hope so too. Maybe Colin will come back and melt down in some other horrific way as well. Hope. I so enjoyed your work, and I enjoyed one. I enjoyed working with you, and two to see your journey played out, the complex of your performance, the depth of your performance, and the reality of your performance was stunning to watch, and you know what I told you is true the within I'm gonna be real.

They've reached out, like the same day.

Because I wanted to have you on. I wanted to talk to you about you and your experience and and the show because it's a show that deserves to be seen, and I just I wish it all of the best, and I hope we get to do it again sometimes.

Well, thank you, I do too. It was truly the most fun I've ever had on a job and exactly why I do this and really affirming, and to do that again would be such a blessing.

Awesome. Congratulations. I'm I'm happy to hear you just went back and did something in the theater as well. One of these one of these days, one of these days, I'll follow you and Eric back. Did you see his show?

Yeah? We had three the other Black Girl members on Broadway this fall, and I went to opening night of all of them. Cheered my pants off. It was amazing.

Wow.

Yeah, the theater was calling, you know. Yeah, returning it was fun. I did see Eric. He's hilarious. I didn't expect anything less like truly just drove the whole show with his comedic timing. It was phenomenal.

He's the best. Oh, such a good time. Thank you for coming on and taking the time to talk to me. Good luck and everybody out there. I'm serious, go and watch on the aforementioned Hulu The Other Black Girl starring Sinclair Daniel. I promise you this, you won't be disappointed. You won't be disappointed. Thanks Sinclair.

Thank you so much, Brian.

Sinclair. So great to have you on today. It was such a pleasure to talk to you, a pleasure to work with you. I'm so happy that I could finally talk about this show that I do, really, really love, and truly you're a big part of why I love it so much. If you haven't already, go watch The Other Black Girl streaming on Hulu. You're gonna love Sinclair. You'll get a glimpse of me as well. You probably forgot what I look like because all you do is