DEN OF GEEK: In our earlier interview, Russell T. Davies talked about the way you joined Doctor Who as a visitor screenwriter. Are you able to inform us your facet of the story?
INUA ELLAMS: I’ve been working my butt off on this tv or display trade for about 12 years, and this episode is the very first thing that’s been made. After I heard Russell T. Davies was introduced because the showrunner, I used to be actually excited. I informed my agent, ‘Nice. I’m a enormous fan of Russell’s work. This is good. Might you inform him that I’d love to put in writing for the present?’ His agent responded saying, ‘Russell is approach too busy. He can’t take any conferences, he’s centered on crafting out the massive story,’ which he was. My agent informed me that, and she or he noticed my soul go away my physique, after which she stated, ‘You realize what? Why don’t you simply slide into his DMs? Simply drop him a message on Instagram.’ I did, and inside an hour, Russell wrote again and stated, ‘Oh my God, Inua, I actually love your work. Would you write for us?’ I stated sure. That’s how the episode happened.
Once you began engaged on the episode, did Davies provide you with any parameters, or did he provide you with full artistic management?
I went to him first with one different story, which he beloved, however one other author was engaged on a related story, and we weren’t certain or not if that author would flip within the script. Finally, that author didn’t, however due to that, Russell stated, ‘Okay, why don’t you simply do one thing set in a single location at a barbershop?’ I assumed, ‘Ah, I can do this.’ I’d written a play referred to as Barbershop Chronicles, which he had beloved, and we had pals in widespread who have been within the play and have been in a earlier TV sequence of his Cucumber, which I beloved. It made good sense for me.
The barbershop performs an essential position in African and Black diaspora cultures. What ought to viewers know earlier than they watch the episode?
For me, it was essential to try to inform a story there. Ice Dice has made four films set inside the Barbershop. Additionally, there’s that famous scene in Coming to America. What it does for audiences, what it does for the Black males who beloved that present, who beloved and understood implicitly what was taking place in each films, is the identical factor that it provides African males or males of African origins. The barbershop is a secure place to be loud, boisterous, to take up house, to inform tales, to be gregarious with out the prying eyes, with out feeling like we have to dampen our loud spirits. An area with out concern of our enthusiasm being mistaken for aggression, the place we could be delicate and bigger than life and small; the place we let our guard down, the place we let different males beautify us. Once you’re cocooned within the barber’s fabric, it’s a must to sit nonetheless and be taken care of. It’s a place the place we negotiate masculinity at its most excessive and its most delicate. It’s continually evolving and altering. You’re negotiating intergenerational energy dynamics on a regular basis. If I sit within the chair and an elder walks in, do I’ve to stand up due to him? Who do I name uncle? Who do I speak to love a little boy? It’s a socially dynamic house, and continually shifting.