Jordan Reddout (left) and Gus Hickey worked in the writers rooms of Grown-ish, Mixed-ish and the Will & Grace reboot before becoming the showrunners of Hulu’s The Other Black Girl.
Adam Tyree
When Jordan Reddout and Gus Hickey heard that Hulu was developing an adaptation of The Other Black Girl, they knew they wanted in. “We called our agents and said, ‘Do whatever you have to do to get us a meeting,’ ” says Reddout, who had already read (nay, “devoured”) the best-selling novel about a book publishing company that becomes a dystopian workplace.
Hickey says they connected to one of the book’s themes in particular. “As people who have been in corporate America and worked desk jobs, we’ve felt that experience of having to sacrifice a piece of yourself to succeed,” he explains. “I think everyone who has worked in capitalism has wondered whether or not it’s worth it.”
The longtime writing partners, who previously worked on Mixed-ish and the Will & Grace reboot, scored a meeting with author Zakiya Dalila Harris and producer Rashida Jones and quickly won them over. When the final product premiered on the streaming platform in September, the entire creative team was on strike, leaving Reddout and Hickey unable to discuss their big gig publicly, and eager to do so. Here, they get their chance.
Do you remember what you pitched to Rashida and Zakiya that got you the job?
JORDAN REDDOUT The very first thing was that one of the characters, Malaika, should be gay.
GUS HICKEY We also leaned really hard on Severance in terms of our tonal references, and the shape of the show and the ending.
REDDOUT I also remember it was a finishing-each-other’s-sentences sort of meeting. And then Rashida was so collaborative through the whole process. She wrote the first episode and was around in post and helped with the music, too.
Your comments about connecting to the downside of corporate America bring to mind a viral TikTok, where a young white woman is crying about how awful it is to commute to an office, work all day, then come home and go to bed. People called her privileged, but it seems like she had a point?
HICKEY Totally. We had this interesting thing happen with the show, where it’s about the bizarre experience in American corporate offices, and then it came out after three years of people not being in those environments. If you’re 26 or younger, you’ve probably never worked in an office.
REDDOUT She’s not wrong, that TikTok girl!
HICKEY No, she’s not. People who are going into offices for the first time are like, “This is what you guys wanted to get back to?” We had this one chance to reimagine what life could look like, but we all just went back to the way it was before [the pandemic].
What was it like to release this series during the strike?
REDDOUT It was painful, but also necessary. For me, the hardest part is that our lead actresses [Sinclair Daniel, Ashleigh Murray and Brittany Adebumola] are all discoveries. This is their first big thing and they’re fantastic in it, and my heart breaks for them that they weren’t able to do any press. But it’s part of us all getting paid and getting a fair deal.
HICKEY There was a sentiment from certain people that we don’t have “famous” people in it, so it isn’t as big of a sacrifice. Like, maybe the show will be OK because everything about it is new for everyone. But we wanted them to get their flowers. And hopefully the people who control the purse strings will see that it makes a difference to have a cast to promote a show.
REDDOUT We’re the showrunners, so we’re in charge. But we’re also people who were on strike all summer, so we have empathy. I’m happy to be able to speak for anyone who needs me to bang the drum about fair wages.
The ending of the show was a big departure from the way the novel ended; what sort of conversations went into that decision?
REDDOUT Zakiya [the author] was in the writers room, and on day one she said, “I want you all to know that I am not Nella [the main character], so free yourself from feeling like you’re going to insult me by changing her or criticizing her choices.”
HICKEY The ending of the book is, in a way, much scarier. We wanted to maintain that bleakness, but if we wanted audiences to come back for another season, we couldn’t give the ending that much finality. You have to leave room for hope for the future. If we get a season two, we’ll reset and make it bleak again. (Laughs.)
Brittany Adebumola (left) and Hunter Parrish.
Wilford Harwood/Hulu
I’m curious about that hopefulness — in the book, Nella essentially succumbs to the capitalist machine.
REDDOUT When Zakiya wrote the book, Nella was a millennial, but now that character feels younger and more in line with Gen Z. It goes to the story of the TikTok girl, where that generation is approaching their work and corporate America in a very different way. They put up a lot more boundaries; they’re able to say that things are fucking bullshit.
HICKEY Conversations about class and race have also changed since 2020, especially for young people. Nella has some victories in the television show that wouldn’t have been realistic during the time of the book.
Did anything about the show or the characters change once the cast came on board?
REDDOUT Yes, the entire character of Hazel. I say that somewhat facetiously, but one of the big differences is her warmth, which was all Ashleigh. I remember that something she said to us early on was, “I think Hazel really wants to be Nella’s friend.” That stuck with us, and we built out that part of their relationship.
HICKEY A lot of Bellamy Young’s personality worked its way into her character of Vera, too, especially the decision to give her a bit of a redemption, which she does not have in the book. It generated from the fact that Bellamy is the loveliest person in the world and you’re like, “Oh man, I feel bad for this woman.” We got so lucky with both her and Eric [McCormack]; they’re so talented and can do anything you ask of them.
I know that you haven’t been able to work on a deal for a potential season two during the strike, but have you had the chance to think about what might happen?
REDDOUT Oh, our brains are spinning. They’ve been spinning on season two for a year. It’s something we constantly talk about and would be very exciting to do.
HICKEY Since we changed the ending, we want the chance to show everyone what’s going to happen now. There’s a lot to explore.
This story first appeared in a November standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.