Cynthia Addai-Robinson – Texas Rising

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) The most recent project is Texas Rising, which is a five part mini-series for the History Channel. It premieres on Memorial Day and we spent five months of last year filming that in Mexico. We’re all really excited to have it see the light of day. Then, I wrapped filming for Warner Brothers on the movie called The Accountant. It has Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons and Anna Kendrick. They just announced the release date for it as January 2016.

Q) Please tell us the premise for Texas Rising and about your character.

A) The premise of the mini-series is a look at Texas after the fall of The Alamo. It is sort of the period from the fall of The Alamo to the six weeks that follow. It really covers Texas’ fight for independence from Mexico. Because it is on the History Channel, you have that historical basis for the story. My character doesn’t have a whole lot of information about her in the history books. It is more of a dramatization for her. Her name is Emily West and as the story progresses we come to find out she is the woman that inspires the story behind The Yellow Rose of Texas. You’ll get to see how that legend develops over the course of the story.

Q) How did you prepare for this role?

A) We were filming down in Durango, Mexico and as challenging as it was, it was also helpful. Once you are wearing the period costume, you have the wagons and when you are out on the plain you are in it. There is definitely a feeling of immediacy and it is very visceral to have all of those things going on. There is not much pretending there. For my filming, I didn’t have to do as much as some of the men did who were riding horseback, but before I left for Mexico I did get to go horseback riding. I do get on horseback a couple of times in the film, but nothing extreme. I hadn’t really ridden before so for me it was an opportunity to not only do that, but the nice thing about getting these types of roles sometimes is you almost have your choice of going to school for things that you don’t always consider for your life. For me, it was like, “Free horse lessons? Sure.” Going to ride on the horse ranch a couple times a week was really lovely for me. Acting on horseback is no small thing and there is a lot of stuff going on, but for many of my scenes I am primarily working with Bill Paxton who plays Sam Houston and Olivier Martinez who plays General Santa Anna. They are both portraying the leaders of their corresponding armies and I am sort of caught in the middle. It’s a nice set up for me because it is not quite a love triangle, but there is a dynamic that plays out between those two characters. It was great working with both of those guys and we have a lot of dramatic stuff for the three of us.

Q) What did you find challenging about portraying Emily West?

A) Before this, people might know me from “Spartacus,” which was really my first major role. That was another extreme period piece with going to battle and being part of an army. In a way, that was a really great primer for a project like this. Oddly enough, I am used to the extreme, high stakes life or death battle environment. That’s, oddly enough, not new to me. The added aspect of filming in Mexico definitely had its challenges. At the same time, it informs a lot of the performance. You don’t have to pretend to be hot and miserable if you are hot and miserable. It was kind of a weird summer camp in some ways. We all got along and all of the actors were kind of staying in the same area. When we weren’t filming, we were just getting to know Durango and drinking a lot of Mescal. That part of it was actually a lot of fun. The pluses definitely outweigh the minuses (if you can say there were even minuses).

Q) What did you add to your role that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) The interesting thing about my character was that there was a lot compared to what is historically on the record. There was a lot that was subject to interpretation, not only by myself, but the producers and the writers. There is a certain freedom in that. You are not, kind of, beholden to the facts in certain ways. I think we have a lot of fun with it. There are a lot of colors to play for this character and she is almost essentially like a spy. She’s a seductress, she’s a spy, she’s intelligent. We see her at the very beginning of the story very broken down. She is at The Alamo, which is where we meet her within the first ten minutes of the story. You see her just as a very broken down version of herself. What is nice is that she has a full journey, a full arc, where you kind of see her come through the other side of that. All of that was really great to play. I think when you get a role you want to be able to show all the different sides of the character, not just have this one note situation. You want a real journey there.

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming?

A) I think it was mostly just the people I got to work with. All the actors, I can’t say enough good things about them. We had a lot of fun and on the really hard days. Our incredible director, Roland Joffe…For me, to get to work with a director of that caliber was amazing. He’s a two-time Oscar nominee. Most of the actors would say the same thing that working with him was kind of a very rare experience. You don’t always get to work with masters of their craft. Really, it was just kind of taking it all in and meeting these wonderful people. We all just watched the entire mini-series together last weekend. It was the first time we were all seeing it and it was just really nice. It was like watching it with your new TV family. We’re hoping that the mini-series does really well and that there is a great response to it because we put a lot of work into it.

Q) Why will people want to take their time to tune in and see the movie?

A) I think for anybody that has an appreciation for cinema and especially for the Western genre, it’s a beautifully shot piece. It’s really a movie, but we’re calling it a mini-series because we are dividing it up into five nights. The same director and crew were there for the film. We shot it like a 300+ paged film and when we watched it over the weekend I was really shocked at how beautiful it looked. We have this beautiful backdrop in Mexico, but we filmed in cinema scope, which means you can just see everything. It just looks like a big painting on the screen. I think even for a TV set, it is still going to look impressive. I just think it is the quality of it. TV has come so far with content and this is just a high quality cinematic piece with a lot of amazing characters. The nice thing about having more than two hours to tell a story is that you can kind of invest in these characters and take the time to see what these characters are doing and where they end up. I know I am biased, but I think all across the board people are going to have a really positive response to it.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you will be receiving?

A) That is a double-edged sword. I am on social media. I am on Twitter and I just joined Instagram a couple weeks ago. It’s a potential trap though to pay too much attention to how people are receiving your performance. Of course, when you are getting praise it is a nice feeling, but this is definitely a piece that people are going to have varied opinions about because when it comes to portraying history you are going to have a lot of opinions since this is a version of events. Sometimes it can really be a bit of a distraction to kind of hear every single opinion coming from all corners. For me, as a performer, you don’t want to let that get into your head too much – both the positive and the negative. I try to kind of be aware of it, but keep a healthy distance. I think there is something to be said about not needing to know every single opinion, not only about yourself, but things in general. I just try to keep a healthy balance for myself because there are moments (especially when I’m working on something else) where I kind of have to step away for my own sanity and for the sake of my own work. You have to be able to step away from that kind of stuff. My level of engagement is in a place that is comfortable for me.

Q) Is there anything you want to be sure fans know about Texas Rising?

A) I think they should really make sure they stay with it. We have the first two nights that air are Memorial Day and then the day after on Tuesday. From that point on, we air the consecutive following Mondays. I know with television it is easy to start with something and then you get distracted with something else, but it really is worth seeing all five nights. There is so much more to the story than people know. I think from beginning to end not only is it a really strong piece, but after we watched it it felt like you wanted more. It left you wanting more. You wanted to know what else beyond this story was happening. I hope people tune in and stick with it. I’m just really excited. It’s easily been a year in the making so I am really excited that people get to check it out.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) I would thank them. I’ve met some really lovely people. Again, the benefit of social media is you meet people who are really into your work and are willing to follow you from project to project. You start getting a sense of who they are and where they are from. In a way, the way television works now is on a global scale so I’ve noticed that I have fans from all these far off places, which to me is a really big deal. I love the fact your work can have that kind of a reach. And the fact that people are excited to see me do other projects, I’m very appreciative. I am very appreciative that people are tracking my progress and are interested in the variety of things that I want to try. So, I’m very grateful to them.