Sterlin Harjo opens up about how the ripples of his FX series ‘Reservation Dogs’ will be felt for years to come
I’d actually talked about doing a whole season of that. It was always in my mind, this idea that everything’s connected and has lessons in it that can be used in the future. My mom went to the school that it’s based on, a school called Sequoyah Indian Boarding School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. I just heard memories of that place, growing up with my mom talking about it.
Oh, yeah. That was part of it. I once had a project with Alexander Payne that was picked up by Showtime. This was back in the old days, and he was an executive producer on it. And he left the project because he decided that there weren’t enough Native actors to do a show. I disagreed with him, obviously. And I proved him wrong. We can make five different shows, right now, with just the actors I saw who auditioned. We have just amazing talent.
‘Reservation Dogs’ series finale: Paulina Alexis as Willie Jack, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear, Devery Jacobs as Elora Danan, Lane Factor as Cheese.If you look at Willie Jack, Paulina [Alexis], she is Native humor. She is the magic that we tried to capture, and I was afraid I couldn’t capture, as a filmmaker. Because I could not tell you the definition of Native humor, but I know when it’s hitting me, and I hear it whenever I’m with my family. And Paulina, effortlessly, is Native humor.
And then you have D’Pharaoh. I was so proud of D’Pharaoh. He’s great in all the seasons, but Season Three, he had a lot to carry, and a lot of vulnerability to show. And he has no ego. He took it very seriously. He was always kind of hard on himself, but this season, I saw him grow into this actor who is very comfortable with his craft, and he knows how to turn it on, and he knows where to go. He has one of the harder roles to play.
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