Interview with Cush Jumbo who plays Lucca Quinn in The Good Fight

1 February 2017

How would you describe The Good Fight?

If you liked The Good Wife, you're going to love The Good Fight because it's almost a development, like an extension, a kind of explosion of where we were before. And if you were enjoying it for that seven years we're now like moving into a new phase, so it's – yeah, it's like an explosive development of The Good Wife.

How does The Good Fight continue Lucca’s story?

It's very cool because we're starting a year on from where we left off. And it was so interesting getting to know Lucca and her mechanics and watching her friendship with Alicia develop. But now being able to start her as someone who's kind of lost Alicia, doesn't have that friendship kind of safety net anymore. She's kind of withdrawn into herself a little bit, and become a bit of an island, and slightly tougher because of that, so it's going to be really interesting to see how this new Lucca, who’s a year later, lets in all these new people or doesn't. I'm not sure, but especially with Maia, with Rose's character Maia. That'll be really interesting.

Where do we find Lucca at the start of series 1, The Good Fight?

She's taken a job working at Reddick, Boseman and Kolstad, which is primarily, like, majority African-American firm. And that was never really Lucca's thing. She was always more the Switzerland of lawyers.

She'll defend you whether you're black, white, yellow, or green. She just wants to know she can kind of win a case. And she's biracial herself, so she always didn't want to be labeled as one thing. Being at this firm has meant that they're asking her to play a specific part, and she's kind of unhappy with that. So, I think it's clear when we begin that she's going through the motions but she's not really happy with where she's at.

What is Lucca’s relationship with Diane like at the start of series 1?

I mean, obviously it's amazing to still have Diane Lockhart there, especially as the two of them really haven't spoken for this year that's past, because of what happened with them at the end of Season 7. So, they're having to rebuild or not rebuild their relationship. Will they become friends again? We don't know. Will there always be something hostile there? And Diane is going through her own struggles with losing everything that she worked for so many years.

 

How would you describe the dynamic between Lucca and Maia?

Rose [Leslie]'s character, Maia, is kind of starting out afresh and has a huge scandal behind her that she has to kind of go up against, having come from this privileged background, which is completely different to Lucca's. So, it's going to be really interesting to see how that new dysfunctional family comes together to have oldies and newies together.

 

What are Lucca’s strengths?

She's kind of an animal of the courtroom, whether that's like bond court, or federal court, or civil court, or a deposition. She can kind of – she reacts very quickly. So, it's going to be interesting to see some of her life outside of that as we go along. But what I really relish being – pretending to be a lawyer is the bit I like.

What will be Lucca’s good fight?

I'm foreseeing that being at this African-American firm and possibly questioning who she is as a lawyer and a person, and her personal life is going to be the fight that she has to fight. Is it okay to be an island and keep everybody out if that's what gets the job done? Is that sometimes damaging if you don't just let people in, even if you're going to get hurt when you do let people in? What does it mean to live in a world that is so – I mean, even at the moment, like so racialised, so much in your face every day, who we are, what we look like, where we're from, and try to keep telling yourself that you're just a person? I think that's going to be something that she questions as we go along.

Will we learn more about Lucca’s backstory?

Up until this point at least we don't really know anything about her family. She's said quite clearly that she doesn't have any friends apart from Alicia, who is now gone. So, it's like, where does she keep going from? Where does her motor come from if she has no support network? And that's kind of an interesting thing that I'm trying to figure out. And then with someone like Christine [Baranski]’s character, Diane, losing everything that she thought was herself, how does a person rebuild after that when they lose everything that they thought was their core? So, it's really interesting.

Why do you enjoy playing a lawyer?

I guess possibly because a lawyer is – the kind of lawyer that Lucca is anyway that is up in court is a weird crossover between actually what an actor is and what the person is. You have to have this public face and this private face. And you can be a kind of person that in a lot of parts of your life would be considered too powerful, too strong, too straight down the line. There's something in the attack of lawyering that I like. I like the language. I like looking up everything that I'm doing. I've actually learned a lot about the law, actually. Yeah, The Good Wife and Judge Judy, I've learned a lot about the law, I'll say.

Why is it important to accurately represent the lives of women?

These shows reach out internationally and they reach out to people that are sometimes a lot younger than we even realize, because children and young women are experiencing things a lot younger. So, everything we do is absorbed, just like we absorbed it when we were young. And so, it's always going to be important to accurately represent the world. And it hasn't been accurately represented enough that there are professional women who also are funny, and can get mad, and can be real people on television. And I'm proud to be on a show like that.

What are the advantages of making a show built for a mature audience?

It's exciting to be able to push it in a direction where we can, a, pull in maybe even a new audience, people that weren't following The Good Wife, or only joined towards the end watching it, and knowing that you have that freedom to be able to sometimes go a little bit further with what you're saying. In this day and age, we sometimes do things fortuitously, and we show things for the sake of showing it rather than because we're trying to tell a story really well, and there are ways to be sexy, and there are ways to say what you need to say without just lazily using things. So, I'd like to think that when we push things in that direction we're going to do it because it really matters, and because it's going to make the story clearer. But you can depend upon them to push that in the right way. It's like it's what they're known for, and it's what the actors in the show expect, because it's the way we think as well.

What do Creators and Executive Producers Robert and Michelle King bring to the show?

I was only in Season 7, but I've been a big fan of the show since the first season. And what I didn't realize until I joined the show was that shooting 22 episodes means that by the time the first episode goes out a lot time has passed. And it used to be amazing to see how something would be going on in the news that week that would be to do with the episode, and how is that possible when we shot it so far behind? Either Robert [King] and Michelle [King] work for the CIA or they are just really in touch with all walks of life, all kinds of people. What I love about them is that nothing is ever black or white. There aren't goodies and baddies in the world. There's a whole bunch of grey people who do good and bad things. And that's what I like about what they write.

Will the strong sense of fashion carry over from The Good Wife?

I did a five-hour fitting the other day, and that was just I think for the first three episodes. So, yeah, you can't – [Costume Designer] Dan Lawson won't let you down on the fashion stakes. I was very excited about some of the stuff that I got to put on. So, yeah, it's one of the best things about the show. You can rely upon us for that.

 

Do the costumes help you get into character?

You feel like Lucca or you feel like Diane when you are in your outfit. Or some of them are shapes that you don't usually wear in your everyday life, so you always feel different. But also it's a heightened reality. We know sometimes that we wear things that you think to yourself, I could never do a 12-hour day in this outfit with these shoes, but they're real good fun to wear. And I actually discover new things, like I discover colours that I would never pick up off the rail. So, it's of course like having a personal shopper, but just not being able to take any of the clothes home, unless you steal them, which I never do.

Why will fans of The Good Wife enjoy The Good Fight?

Awesome outfits, obviously. I'm sure we're going to get some returning judges that we love. I'm sure you're going to have some recurring characters popping up that you love coming back. It's exciting because we are 10 episodes rather than 22. So, you should think about it as a kind of bullet rollercoaster rather than an up-and-down rollercoaster because we don't really have any time for slack or fat. So, I think that you're going to move on quite quickly every episode. But I also think you're really going to love the new people that we have as well. So, yeah, it's exciting.

The Good Fight airs on More4 this March.