‘The Girls on the Bus’ director DeMane Davis on filming the show’s most dramatic episode so far [Exclusive Video Interview]
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When prolific director DeMane Davis (“Queen Sugar,” “How to Get Away with Murder”) stepped in to direct the seventh episode of the Max series “The Girls on the Bus,” she was immediately given a challenge.
“The show reminds me of old movies from the 1970s that I loved growing up. It’s a very funny show and so fast-paced that it just crackles,” Davis tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview. “But I was told my episode was the most dramatic of all the episodes that had come before. People were like, ‘Sorry it’s not as funny.’ And I was like, ‘No, that’s okay. I can do that.’ Because I love being in that vein. And so what I did is, in the funny moments, I leaned into them a little bit more than I would normally – just to kind of give relief and to help the ride of the story. But I was honored to get that script and to get to work with those actors who are all just spectacular.”
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Based on the book “Chasing Hillary” by journalist Amy Chozick and created for television by Chozick and Julie Plec, “The Girls on the Bus” focuses on the budding friendships between four political reporters: Sadie (Melissa Benoist), a writer for the show’s fictional take on the New York Times; Grace (Carla Gugino), a veteran reporter for the show’s version of the Washington Post; Kimberlyn (Christina Elmore), a television personality for a conservative network modeled on Fox News; and Lola (Natasha Benham), an activist and social media influencer learning the journalism ropes for the first time. All four of the characters experience emotional catharsis in DeMane’s episode – especially Benham’s Lola, whose backstory as the survivor of a mass shooting is revealed to have more nuance than previously anticipated.
SEENatasha Behnam interview: ‘The Girls on the Bus’
“With Natasha, she was a little nervous, which any actor who’s worth their salt would be for a beat like that,” DeMane says of the sequence where Lola tells Grace what really happened to her during the traumatic event. “So, we just talked about it, I got the room really, really quiet, and I did it all with just a slow push in to give her the chance to sort of like put it together. I want to make it as easy on Natasha as possible, but also on the audience since we’re kind of going inside Lola’s thoughts as she reflects on that tragic event. I was honored to get the opportunity to do it, because we had kind of heard little pieces of it, but didn’t hear about what really happened up until that episode.”
When DeMane is a guest director, as she was on “The Girls on the Bus,” she considers herself truly a guest. “I don’t put my feet on the couch,” she jokes. That means relying on the show’s writers as well, especially while on set.
“The writers are everything. They’re creating this material that we have the honor to lens, and it’s their baby,” she explains. “I know that they have certain things that they have in their head. So from the moment I get there in prep, I’m just asking question after question. And the biggest one is, what’s the intent? What’s the intent of the scene? How do you want the audience to feel? What’s coming after the scene? Is there anything that’s coming after that I’m allowed to tell the actor that might inform their performance? Or should I not tell them and then can I see it? And then once they feel good, then we can kind of march forward together.”
DeMane had a different experience on NBC’s “Found,” which she was involved with from the start as director of both the show’s pilot and second episode. The procedural stars Shanola Hampton as a former kidnapping victim who specializes as an adult in finding missing people. As director DeMane was involved with creator Nkechi Okoro Carroll in the conversations about casting and hiring department heads.
“For me, drama is drama, for sure,” Davis says when asked if her approach differs between network shows and series made for streaming platforms. “I love to inject some visual things that you might not see into a network show into a network show. And, and vice versa in streaming. Sometimes, you’ll watch a show, and it’s all about this big, beautiful wide master shot and I want that too. But I’ve got to see the faces. I feel like when you do a close-up, you’re close to that person. And it just really helps you think about what they’re thinking and where they are. So that’s a default for sure. Whether it’s network or it’s streaming.”
“The Girls on the Bus” is streaming on Max. “Found” can be seen on Peacock and will return for Season 2.
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