'Blindspotting' Director Jess Wu Calder Remembers the One Text From Daveed Diggs That Changed Everything

When it comes to Jess Wu Calder’s incredible directorial debut in Starz’s series Blindspotting, everything was like a jump into the deep end. “It was terrifying,” she tells SheKnows’ Reshma Gopaldas. “But also there’s nothing more than I love than a creative challenge.”

Blindspotting is a series inspired by the 2018 movie of the same name. The film followed lifelong friends Collin (Daveed Diggs) and Miles (Rafael Casal) as Collin did everything he could to stay out of trouble in the last few days of his parole. In the series, the focus changes a little as it follows Miles and his partner Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones) while she navigates being a mother to Sean (Atticus Woodward) during Miles’ incarceration. The television show was created by Diggs and Casal, who serve as executive producers.

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In one of the two episodes Calder directed in the show’s second season, she was presented with a monster of a task. In one scene, the script read, “Sean learns about the history of the N-word through dance.” “I thought about it for Miles and Ashley’s pointed point of view first,” Calder said. “I feel like they are trying to do everything that they can to make sure that no matter what they say that they still preserve a little bit of Sean’s innocence. And so I thought that in my head that they would try to tell this kind of story, even though it’s dealing with such difficult and traumatic issues, kind of like a bedtime story.”

Knowing the direction she was going for, Calder focused on bringing in “childlike innocence” throughout the touching dance sequence that followed the story of Black Americans from slavery to modern-day police brutality. “That’s why the walls sort of magically move up, and that’s why the backdrops are all illustrated in the style of a child of a children’s book,” Calder says. Check out the moving scene below.

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Watching that scene, you’d think she’s been doing it for a long time, right? Well, turns out you’d be totally wrong as these episodes marked her directorial debut. Previously, Calder served only as a producer on the movie and on the first season of the show.

Calder broke down how everything changed. It all started at the movie’s premiere in Sundance when an editor of the movie pulled her aside and said “I think you’re a director.” Until then, Calder hadn’t really thought about it. (After all, choosing to pursue screenwriting in her college years was already enough to throw her mom “for a loop.”) “You should not be afraid to take that step,” the editor told her. “Him saying that was the first time that I had ever really thought about it in a conscious way and sort of planted a seed,” she says.

Not long after, Calder worked on another exciting project: the movie One Night in Miami…, directed by Regina King. “Watching her pivot from being the masterful actor that she is to being the masterful director that she was on that set also gave me hope that, even though for so long, I had been in this lane, maybe I could pivot,” Calder remembers.

Most of all, in addition to inspiration, King gave her some invaluable advice. For King, she’d tell Calder her actor-to-director pipeline wasn’t as much of a pivot as people imagined. “You’ve always been a storyteller,” King would say. “This is nothing different. This is who you’ve always been.”

Then, not long after, she told her husband, executive producer Keith Calder, that she was wondering if she could direct in the show’s second season. After that, her husband told Casal, and Casal came up to her and said “You’re directing!”

Despite the great news, Calder was still hesitant to accept and asked to check in with Diggs before taking any extra steps. Right then Casal texted the Hamilton star in front of Calder, and Diggs immediately replied back, “Either she directs or I quit.” Talk about a supportive team!

“It was such a beautiful moment of friendship for all of us and to this journey that we’ve been on,” she says. “I’ve been really lucky to have such wonderful people in my corner.”

Watching the show, it’s clear that this team not only respect and care for each other and what they do but are incredibly good at it too. Blindspotting season two is available now on Starz.

Before you go, click here to see celebrity women of color share the first movie or TV character who made them feel seen.

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