An Interview with Marsha Stephanie Blake & Omar Benson Miller from ‘The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey’

Marsha Stephanie Blake and Omar Benson Miller are two accomplished and talented veterans of the acting community that have graced the silver and small screen often and their project is the incredible new Apple TV+ series, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, wherein they play Niecie and Reggie respectively, and we here at NTG were able to speak with both of them about their new shows and their characters.
 
John Betancourt: What was it that attracted you to both of your respective characters?
 
Marsha Stephanie Blake: Oh, man. I love Niecie… the size of her. Um, I don't often get to play characters who are a little bit selfish. Or maybe not with not as much virtue or outwardly not as much virtue. So, it was nice to explore this other side of this human being who, for all intents and purposes, thinks she's doing the right things, but sometimes makes the wrong decisions. But she's not the kind of person to admit that. It's just fun. I think it's just; it adds a level to my experience as an actor that I was really happy to explore and then getting to be in scenes with not just Samuel L. Jackson. But this roster of actors that… I’ve watched a lot of them. I've watched them over the years and admired them and been like, “Oh my god, this guy's so great.” Like Walton Goggins, I watched him and looked him up. You know I saw him in something small. I did one of those things where you see somebody in a small part, and you're like, “Who is that? Oh, my gosh, I can't unsee him.” And I went and looked him up. And then I went and watched everything else he had been in. Um, but you know, it's, it's just so many things that attracted me to the character. And then the story that Walter (Mosely) is telling. This beautiful in depth, familiar family story of generations, and legacy and how you treat people at the ends of their lives and how you're treated at the beginning of your life and what you're passing down to your children. Everything. There are so many aspects of this character that I love.
 
Omar Benson Miller: I just really was drawn to the relationship and the bond that a younger person has with this older person that he becomes a caretaker for, I thought that the kindness and the sensitivity and the selflessness of the character was really intriguing. Something we don't get to see often, especially in communities of color. And when you pair that with, you know, an absolute icon like Samuel Jackson, and Walter Mosley, and I just watched The White Tiger on Netflix, I was excited to work with Ramin Bharani. So, it was all good for me.
 
John Betancourt: Now I noticed that this series really does come off like a play and that both of your characters, have an incredible impact in a very quick timeframe. What did you do from a preparation standpoint as actors to get across such powerful themes with such minimal exposition?
 
Omar Benson Miller: Wow, that's a great question. For me, it was on the page already. They made it easy on me because I didn't have to do so much. Because the writing was fantastic, then we had a short rehearsal period where I got to work with Sam. So, he and I got to really get our chemistry together and build those layers, that bond, so that the viewer would see and feel that these men mean a lot to each other. That was the big prep, and then come in to work ready to play because Sam is a professional, he's not messing around. So, when the camera rolls, it's time to get busy. And it was great to be challenged, to be in scenes with someone who I've admired over the decades.
 
Marsha Stephanie Blake: You know, for me, it was about committing. Like you said, if you have less time on screen, you have to fully commit to the moment and be invested in the moment because at the end of the day, you're telling, I don't think of myself as someone who you know, has a small piece of the story. I'm a part of a whole I'm helping to tell this entire story. So, I'm a part of the whole, the entire thing… as all of us are. And as we were reminded by our cast members and directors and Sam and you know, scene partners… that you're serving something bigger than your yourself or you're just your characters. So, you come in you commit to whatever that moment is, you commit fully. You look to your scene partners if you get lost. You talked about it feeling like a play, it definitely felt like a play for me, you know, because we get six episodes, we get more time also to explore this person than you would on a normal TV show or a film. So, we just have more time with this person and exploring these relationships. And then you just trust your scene partners. And, you know, be ready to work, like Omar said, because you're working with the best, so just be ready to do it.
 
John Betancourt: And of course, I mean no disrespect there. You are both crucial to the story and without you two, there isn’t one. Now this is a series that is mired heavily in commentary and messages and rightfully so. What was the theme or message that stuck out the most for you?
 
Marsha Stephanie Blake: Probably this idea of family. Um, for me, my children always get confused, because they have a lot of aunts, and uncles and cousins who aren't blood relatives. And what I loved about this story is the idea of bringing people into your home and taking care of people, showing unconditional, unconditional love for people who aren't blood relatives. We do it all the time. I think culturally, definitely. You know, my family, immigrant background, we do it all the time. There's always someone in our house, it's not necessarily blood related. But we don't make a separation with that. There is no you know, well, he's family, but he's not family family, we don't do that. We don't even do half, half-brother and sister from where I'm from. You don't say someone is your half-brother or your half-sister. You say someone’s your brother, your sister. And that's it. So, I love that we're seeing that side of this big, extended black family. And then we're seeing it throughout history, because we're seeing the end of Ptolemy’s life. So, we're seeing 90 years of this legacy.
 
Omar Benson Miller: Humanity. You know, there's a, you see a range of man's inhumanity to man and man's humanity to man… in this story. And you see it from a variety of perspectives. The most being from Ptolemy through his memories and his current state, but you see everything, we got murder mystery, we have societal racism, we have all sorts of stuff going on. And it comes down to how we treat one another. And I don't think that this there's been a more important time to examine that component of society.
 
John Betancourt: What would you say, you are most proud of when it comes to your time on this series?
 
Omar Benson Miller: You know, what I was most proud of… my efficiency in being able to impact the story. So like you're saying, tjis character is not involved for a long time, but it's an important time, and to be able to be trusted to go one on one with the scenes with Sam, because all of my scenes are with him… to be able to go… for him to trust me and for the director and the writer to trust me to carry that catalyst to start the story is something I'm really proud of.
 
Marsha Stephanie Blake: Oh, my gosh, what I am most proud of being able to step outside of any kind of judgment of Niecie and embrace her, in all her humanity. I think it's… actually it's more difficult for me, I won't speak for every actor, but it's more difficult for me to play someone who I don't necessarily agree with all her decisions. But I had to figure out what it was about her, that made me attracted to the role, but also what made me scared of the role. And the fact that I was able, I think, to embody all the complexity and messiness that is, you know, that kind of a character. We kept saying, “Yeah, Niecy…” I can't remember which director was maybe it was Hanelle, kept saying, you know, “She's messy.” -laughs- She's just messy, which you know, so many of us are… it’s just reality.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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