[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Queenie.]

The Big Picture

‘Queenie,’ based on the bestselling novel by Candice Carty-Williams, explores a Jamaican British woman’s journey of self-discovery post-breakup.
The show emphasizes self-healing and addresses themes of identity and mental health.
Dionne Brown found comfort working with showrunner Carty-Williams in such an impactful role, learning it’s okay to be messy.

Based on the best-selling novel by Candice Carty-Williams, who is also the showrunner, the Onyx Collective series Queenie (streaming on Hulu) follows a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in south London who is trying to figure out what’s next after her long-term boyfriend breaks up with her. Queenie Jenkins’ (Dionne Brown) quest to use men as a distraction from heartbreak quickly stops being fun, and she turns to therapy to start processing her childhood trauma in the hopes of leading herself down a new path. But she won’t be able to take steps toward her future until she heals herself first, and that’s never as straightforward as we want it to be.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Brown talked about the comfort she found in having Carty-Williams there during the shoot, how she learned from playing Queenie that it’s okay to be messy, her audition process, what she was most nervous about with the series, shooting scenes in a bathtub, whether she wants to do a second season, and figuring out what she’d like to do next.

Queenie (2024) Queenie Jenkins, a Jamaican-British woman in her twenties, juggles her professional life as a journalist with the chaos of her personal life in London. Amidst career pressures and troubled relationships, she grapples with issues of identity, cultural belonging, and mental health. As she navigates the ups and downs of her experiences, Queenie’s story unfolds as a poignant exploration of self-discovery, resilience, and the search for stability in an often overwhelming world.Release Date June 7, 2024 Cast Dionne Brown , Samuel Adewunmi , Bellah , Melissa John , Harrison Daniels , Tilly Keeper Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 Creator(s) Candice Carty-Williams

Collider: Candice Carty-Williams, who wrote this book, got to be the creator, executive producer and showrunner of this series, which seems like something that was really important to her. What was it like to work and collaborate and share this whole experience with her?

DIONNE BROWN: It was definitely a comfort, as a new actor. I only recently graduated, and it’s such a big part that it was definitely a comfort to have her there. She’s very approachable. She had open arms, and she was always available for myself and the rest of the cast to lean on. I would say it was definitely a comfort to have her close by whilst we shot this project.

‘Queenie’ Taught Dionne Brown to Embrace Being Messy
Image via Onyx Collective

This seems like the type of role and project that’s a dream, but that you’d also learn something from the experience, especially if you draw from yourself and your own life to play characters. What did embodying and playing Queenie teach you?

BROWN: That’s it’s okay to be messy and to lean into that a little bit to get the answers you need for your development. It’s all developmental. It’s painful, but it’s necessary.

What was the audition process like for this? Did you go into this convinced you would getthis role, or did you go into this with self-doubt thinking you’d never get this role, so you had nothing to lose? How do you even get in the headspace for that?

BROWN: I went up for it thinking that the fact that I was up for it meant that I had a chance, but I didn’t assume that I would get it just because I wanted it. I’m a big proponent of the fact that there’s no substitute for hard work. Every time I went into the room, I just worked as hard as I could and when I left, I didn’t think about it again. It came to me whilst I was shooting my last project for Apple TV (Criminal Record). I’d met Candice the same year because I auditioned for her last television project, Champion, so she and I already had that rapport. And then, at the end of that year, when the casting call for Queenie came out, I was asked to tape, which I did. And then, the following year, which would have been the start of 2023, I was called into the room and I chemistry read. And then, I got the call. That’s how it came to me.

When It Came to Making ‘Queenie,’ Dionne Brown Was Most Nervous About All the Sex Scenes
Image via Onyx Collective

What were you most nervous about when it came to taking on this character and this project?

BROWN: Probably all the sex.

How did you get around that on the days you had to shoot those scenes?

BROWN: I don’t know. Conversations with the intimacy coordinator, Adelaide Waldrop, helped. She was just such a force, and she was so nurturing. I literally love her to death because she’s just so thoughtful and so professional. There was a lot that she really just put my mind at ease about. There were definitely logistics around shooting intimacy scenes that I didn’t understand, and she was like, “This is what we do to get it to look like this. For this, this is what you’re doing. What are you comfortable with? What are you not comfortable with?” Everything was quite meticulously planned out, and she asked me to make sure that my limits and my boundaries weren’t being tested or violated. And then, there were conversations with my co-stars at the time, my scene partners. And then, you’ve gotta just jump in and do it.

Related ‘Queenie’ Is Facing a Quarter-Life Crisis in First Trailer for Hulu Comedy Series Dionne Brown stars in the new series, out on June 7.

She isn’t really having relationships through most of that. They’re more like encounters. So, it seems like you wouldn’t necessarily get to know your co-stars before filming those scenes with them. At the same time, there is a lot of story being told in those moments. They’re not just throwaway scenes, which seems like a very different experience than sex scenes might be.

BROWN: Yeah, one hundred and ten percent. That’s a really good point you just made about them not being throwaway scenes. As much as some of them were super lustful, we had to bear in mind that they were intrinsic to how she perceives herself, and how she’s perceiving intimacy and love, at that time, and it all has a through road to one thing.

You also have more than one scene in a bathtub in this. What were those scenes like to shoot? Are there challenges that come along with shooting something like that?

BROWN: Yeah, sometimes. There were times when the bath was really, really small, or the locations were quite small, and we were trying to capture things at certain angles that weren’t necessarily working. There was a bit of troubleshooting there, but that was less of my concern and more of the camera crew’s concern, to try and encapsulate whatever it is they needed to for the show or the shot.

It just doesn’t seem like it would be terribly comfortable to have to be in a bathtub for any length of time.

BROWN: It was all right. The water was always warm, and the set was closed for those scenes.

How Does Queenie Decide to Free Her Inhibitions?
Image via Onyx Collective

One of my favorite moments in the season is when we see that Queenie has an alarm set to take a dance break. Is that something that you ever do?

BROWN: No. I dance, but I don’t take dance breaks. It was a bit of a challenge trying to encapsulate something that doesn’t come naturally to her. Not to say she can’t dance, but she’s not a big mover. She doesn’t express in that way. We were trying to encapsulate the fact that she can’t dance, but she’s trying to make herself happy. There’s a lot of joy in those scenes. We had a choreographer who was fantastic and really helped with that. It was like, okay she’s dancing, but it’s not something she normally does, so we had to make it like she was freeing her inhibitions.

You’re doing layers of acting in this because you’re in the scene in the moment and there’s also the voiceover that you’re reacting to. Did it take a moment to figure out exactly how you wanted to handle that, so that you weren’t too locked into any one thing? Was somebody reading lines off camera?

BROWN: Yeah, someone was reading lines off camera for the voiceover. Whilst breaking down the dialogue, I found not that I paid attention more to the voiceover than the dialogue that she’s saying out loud to whoever she’s speaking to, but the voiceover definitely was a lot more indicative of what she was truly feeling, under the layer of how she was presenting. I loved it.

I watched and really dug Criminal Record, but that was pretty straight drama. After doing a lead role like this, where you’re doing comedy, drama, and romance, has it changed the types of roles you want to do? Have you thought about what you want to do next? Do you know what you’re going to be doing next?

BROWN: Yeah, I’m gonna be doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but I can’t say just now. What would I like to do next? I don’t know. I’m open to suggestions, for sure. I wouldn’t consider myself a comedic actress. I don’t think that was a focal point for me when trying to hit this character. I don’t think she’s funny on purpose. I don’t know if she’s funny, but if she is, I don’t think she’s funny on purpose. So, moving forward, we’ll have to see what else piques my interest.

Dionne Brown Feels Like Queenie Jenkins Still Has More of Her Story to Tell

Would you like to do another season of Queenie? When you leave a character in a good place, you sometimes might not want to risk messing them up again. Would you want to return for more episodes and keep exploring her and her life?

BROWN: Yes, I would love to do another season of Queenie, but I’ve gotta leave that up to the powers that be. I feel like we left her on a cliffhanger. I feel like we left the door open. Nothing is solid. Nothing is really answered there. She’s doing better, for sure. But who knows? I don’t know if she’s gonna be okay. I hope she is, but I don’t know.

Hearing her say that she loves herself feels like a revelation, after everything she’s gone through.

BROWN: Yeah, but we know that healing isn’t linear. Her saying she loves herself and starting to lean into what self-love means is definitely the most beautiful thing about her journey when it comes to the end, but [that isn’t the end].

Queenie is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Hulu