Kaya Coleman stars on Beyond Black Beauty: “I have prepared my whole life to play Jolie Dumont”
Raquel Laguna/ SUCOPRESS. Actress Kaya Coleman stars on the series Beyond Black Beauty. In this interview, Kaya talks about her character, Jolie Dumont, and about her biggest challenge making this TV show. Creator, executive producer, and showrunner Pilar Golden talks about inspired her to bring this story to life and about what message does she hope viewers take away from Jolie’s journey. Beyond Black Beauty follows young equestrian Jolie Dumont whose Olympic dreams are dashed when her mother moves them from Belgium to her family's urban ranch in Baltimore. An angry Jolie wants to escape until she bonds with a spirited horse named Black Beauty. Jolie will learn to embrace her heritage while continuing toward her Olympic-hopeful future and discover the value of family and home. Beyond Black Beauty premieres all 11 episodes on Tuesday, October 15th, on Prime Video.
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00:00I feel like I prepared my whole life almost, you know, a lot of these emotions I have felt before
00:08and so it was important for me to be physically and emotionally available to share those emotions
00:13again in very specific situations and I think I had a lot of support from my cast and from Pilar
00:19to reach those moments. We were so fortunate we had such a great horse wrangler team and
00:27horse trainers. Our horses were so well behaved, well trained and I felt just very safe and
00:33supported the entire time so I was just allowing, you know, the bond to naturally develop with me
00:38and the horse and there's a lot of unscripted moments where it was just literally me and the
00:41horse bonding. It was really beautiful. I would say that probably the emotional parts were more
00:50difficult and if I'm comparing to the riding just because there's a, you know, we were shooting
00:56very quickly and though I have a scene where I'm crying and the next scene I'm laughing and then
01:00the next scene I'm crying again and it was just this like emotional gymnastics but I think as an
01:06actor, as a young actor, I was like this you don't always get an opportunity to be pushed in this way
01:11so I was like really up for the challenge honestly. I would say that I learned how to
01:19step into my power as a Black woman just as Jolie was learning her Black heritage,
01:24myself was also learning my Black heritage and it was very affirming to be around
01:29intelligent multi-dimensional Black women and having that space. It was incredibly healing
01:35and I think one of the things that I've learned both as Kaya and Jolie is that our parents are
01:40human beings and they're doing the best they can with the tools they have and I think you'll see
01:44that in the show with between Jolie and her mom she really learns that her mom is human like her
01:50and feels like her. Amazon really was looking for an updated 21st century guise of the IP
02:01and because Black Beauty the book was written in the 19th century, you know, it's sort of like well
02:06what does it look like in 2024 and it felt like what was missing was Black people truthfully
02:16highlighting Black people in the equine world, Black cowboys, Black equestrians
02:22because it's a culture that really exists and has existed for a hundred years
02:28why not take the opportunity to uplift this community? Kaya, Sajen, Gina, Lisa, the totality
02:38of the cast really showed up and delivered. Everyone did horse training. All of the scenes
02:44that you see our family on horses that's actually them. Everyone connected with the story
02:53and as a creator coming to set and seeing your words come to fruition see your world come to
02:59fruition is magical on its own but when it's coupled with a cast it is as gracious as this one
03:05as kind and thoughtful as this one. While I took care of them they took care of me as well. I hope
03:12that people understand specifically that Black women should have the space to feel every feeling.
03:24You know, I fought really hard for Jolie to be complicated in the beginning.
03:29You know, she may grate you a little bit but she's being lied to. She's thrust from her home
03:37with no real explanation and I always came from a place of what is the authentic feeling
03:46that is deserving in this space and that goes for every character in the show specifically the Black
03:52women. I want to make sure that the audience recognizes that we are a whole people,
04:01three-dimensional and so I hope that people really resonate with the characters on this show.