Star of The Underground Railroad Thuso Mbedu said the highly anticipated series about runaway slaves in the 19th century US is not “trauma porn”.
Amazon’s big-budget prestige drama, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins, arrives amid a debate over if and how black trauma should be shown on screen.
Jenkins himself said he wrestled with the unflinching portrayals of violence in the series.
Cora’s journey begins on the tracks. ❤️ this tweet to follow her story in #TheUndergroundRailroad, a new limited series directed by Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins—premiering May 14 on @PrimeVideo. pic.twitter.com/3gPtCGmmuR
— The Underground Railroad (@TheUGRailroadTV) April 23, 2021
Other shows, including Amazon’s Them, have been accused of exploiting black trauma.
South African actress Mbedu, star of The Underground Railroad as Cora Randall, said it is important to show the horrors of slavery.
She told the PA news agency: “I think we’re already seeing it on social media after the trailer was released – people were saying that they’re tired of seeing what they call ‘trauma porn’.
“But, having experienced it, having gone through the show, I think I can say it’s not that type of story. We’re not indulging in the brutalisation of the black body.
“It’s a case where – and Barry has said this time and time again – pretending that it didn’t happen does a great disservice to the history of our ancestors. It did happen – and again, we’re not swimming around and doing the backstroke on the pain of our ancestors.
“We’re saying it happened, but it happened under the umbrella of a lot more.”
Mbedu, a 29-year-old whose previous roles include appearing on a South African soap opera, added The Underground Railroad does not “romanticise” slavery.
Due to the heavy content of the series – which is based on the 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name – the cast and crew were given access to an on-set mental health counsellor.
Mbedu’s co-stars include Australian actor Joel Edgerton, The Good Place’s William Jackson Harper and Britain’s Aaron Pierre.
Edgerton plays Ridgeway, the bounty hunter pursuing Cora. The Great Gatsby star said it was reassuring to be offered support on set.
He said: “It’s like they really cared about everybody, they cared about everybody’s wellbeing.
“They understood that as much as there were pleasurable aspects to Cora’s journey and her seeking for love and various other things, that there were triggering aspects to some of the things we were asked to do.”
The Underground Railroad will be released on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, May 14.