Two families combat racism and supernatural forces on HBO’s 1950s-set horror drama (premiering Aug. 16).
That was crystal clear," says Williams, 52.
It is so sad that in this day and age we’re still dealing with the same issues."
Michael K. Williams on HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’.Eli Joshua Ade/HBO
Lovecraft Countrycomes from showrunner Misha Green reuniting her withUndergroundstar Smollett who executive-produces alongsideJ.J.
“I was like, ‘Okay, this is something fresh.
This is something crazy we can do,'” says Green.
And so it was about going in and unpacking all that stuff and not being afraid to."
In fact, that trend is what kept Smollett away from the genre until now.
“It’s this radical imagining of our story.
“The story is so ancestral.
“You see a cop car, it could be a hearse.
So that sequence was extremely frightening.”
But because of the comforting atmosphere on set, he felt safe venturing to these dark places.
“You want the tension.
But when it all came down, when it was all over, we had each other.
Moreover, the pain was worth it.
“That’s the true joy of life, being used for a purpose,” says Smollett.
“We have the ghost story.
We have the adventure, theIndiana Jonesstory.
We have the mystery story.
We have the sci-fi story,” says Green.
The showrunner is especially proud of the visual-effects team’s work on the series’ many beasts.
And that’s the thing, too, the idea that there’s not just one monster.
I didn’t want to wait till the end of the season to see some big effects.
I wanted to start in episode 1 and keep building from that.”
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