Nicholas Pinnock is opening up about the special attention that the cast and crew gave to the Black Lives Matter-centered episodes of For Life.
On tonight’s episode, “Say His Name,” Pinnock’s character Aaron will take on the case of an unarmed man shot by a police officer. Pinnock tells ABC Audio that everyone on set knew the importance of the story and made sure to honor it.
“It had to be dealt with very, very carefully and I believe everybody from the writers, to the producers, to the cast, the crew — really stopped, listened, and then took it carefully,” he says. “Because there were some, very challenging moments throughout the story that caused tears, that caused gasps and reactions, that caused a lot of hurt. That involved triggering memories for some of us.”
Pinnock says because of the subject matter, producers made sure to have “a counselor on set to deal with certain things.”
“It [was] just so raw,” he explains. “And not just for Black people in the Black community… [because] we’re not the only community in this fight.”
Indira Varma, who plays Safiya, Aaron’s ally in justice, says tonight’s episode will also show some real-life “dilemmas” that people face when supporting BLM.
“So I went on one of the Black Lives Matter protests in London, but I didn’t bring my daughter because of COVID,” Varma reveals. “So it was these difficult dilemmas… you will see… within the storyline as well.”
“Because what does one do?” she asks. “You know, we feel very strongly about something [but] — how far are we prepared to go?”
For Life airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET. on ABC.
By Candice Williams
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