Image via Amazon Studios
Dominique Fishback’s role as Andrea “Dre” Greene in Swarm is about to cement her as one of the most promising actors in the business.
While she was first offered the role of Dre’s sister Marissa, which ended up going to Chloë Bailey, Fishback asked the show’s creators Donald Glover and Janine Nabers for the lead instead. And she got it.
Dre is a young woman who is obsessed with a fictional pop star named Ni’Jah, and it’s a love Dre has shared with her sister since they were kids. The singer was a connective tissue for them both, but as they got older, Marissa moved away from running fan pages on Twitter and obsessing about Ni’Jah’s every move. Dre didn’t. Aside from the Swarm—Ni’Jah’s fandom—that she connects with online, Dre is a loner whose only real friend is her sister. Marissa is the one person Dre feels accepted and loved by, and the two share a beautiful sisterhood that also has toxic and codependent tendencies.
Eventually, the level of deep-rooted attachment she feels to Ni’Jah and her sister becomes exacerbated, and it leads Dre down a dark and twisted path, converting her from die-hard stan to a killer bee. She takes the hate Marissa and Ni’Jah receive online as a motive to get revenge, and she goes on a rampage of anger, violence, and murder in order to get her way and fulfill her dream of meeting Ni’Jah.
The show is extremely graphic at times, not only for the viewer but also for the people in front of the camera and behind the scenes. (Bailey previously told Complex that she and Fishback cried for 40 minutes together after filming an emotionally charged scene.) The show covers heavy topics like self-harm and murder, so Fishback made sure people had access to proper care while filming.
“I asked them that they have therapists on set for people to be able to talk to, because although it’s acting, it could be triggering,” Fishback tells Complex. “We don’t know what people are going through in their lives. So I wanted to be conscious and aware of that to make sure people could go home in one piece and feel at peace as much as possible.”
Nothing can prepare you for the world the writers and creators built within this new psychological thriller. In its seven episodes, Swarm follows Dre throughout the course of two years as she evolves into a terrifying, skilled, and ruthless serial killer. Fishback delivers a groundbreaking and chilling performance, and the role shows the depth of her talent as an actor.
Complex caught up with the show’s star ahead of the release, and she shared all about working with Glover on building Dre, the famous friend she had on set to keep her grounded, and what she thinks of social media fandoms and the bullying they can sometimes encourage. Check out our conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.
All seven episodes of Swarm are now available to stream on Prime Video.
I read somewhere that you initially were brought in to play Marissa, but then you asked to play Dre. What about this character caught your attention?
It’s literally my inner child and the version of myself that watched other actors do character work and think that I want to be able to do that. I love all the characters that I’ve played in the past, and also, I wanted to challenge myself as an actor. I watched Monster with Charlize Theron, and Boys Don’t Cry with Hilary Swank, and Heath Ledger as the Joker, and I wanted to get the opportunity as an actor to do that.
So when they told me about this role, they told me to watch a movie called The Piano Teacher. And I watched it and I was like, “I thought I was a brave actor. I don’t know if I could do what Isabelle [Huppert] did.” But it really made me question, “OK, how brave do you want to be? How much of your artistry do you want to experience this lifetime?” So I asked, and Donald said, “If that’s the role you want, that’s the role you get.” Because essentially, I just didn’t want to catch up to myself as an actor. I didn’t want to even know what I was going to do next.
I also saw that you got a standing ovation after finishing the last scene of the first episode, which was mind-boggling to me. What was that like to receive but also to perform those heavier scenes that are on the show?
The standing ovation thing was really nice because I’m from theater, I started in theater, and you get the immediate reaction and gratification of a job considered well done. You get that. And with TV and film, you don’t really get that. You might get the director to come up to you, and say, “Good job.” But it is never like that in theater—that feeling of home. So that was nice, especially because I had to be brave to take this role, and I am going to commit myself to doing the story justice. So to feel like my peers and the people around me felt it and felt proud was a really good moment for me. And also, just made sure in doing that part that I had the right support system around.
I asked them that they have therapists on set for people to be able to talk to, because although it’s acting, it could be triggering. We don’t know what people are going through in their lives. So I wanted to be conscious and aware of that to make sure people could go home in one piece and feel at peace as much as possible. And then I had my friend Monique Coleman, who’s an actor. I’ve known her for 12 years, and she came to set to be with me that day. She really gave her time and energy over to just being a grounding person for me to look to like, “OK, you’re good. You’re acting. You’re good. You’re good.” So that was nice.
As soon as we meet Dre, she’s relatable. We’ve all been on Ticketmaster trying to get tickets for a show to see our favorite artists. Can you talk about that aspect of the show and portraying it in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s making fun of these fandoms?
Yeah. Honestly, I think I consider this a parallel world. There’s a parallel world where this woman named Ni’Jah exists, and there’s a fandom that we’ve experienced in our world where people go hard for the people that they love. And then this one girl who just takes it to another level.
It’s a psychological thriller. We’ve seen things, we’ve experienced the films and shows all over, and you think, “Well, people are getting tired of remakes all the time.” So then you get this original idea that’s taking something that’s so prominent in our society right now and making this sci-fi, horror, thriller, anti-hero story. And I appreciate Donald and Janine for having the wherewithal and creativity to do that and say, “Hey, I want to try this thing.” And I’m thankful that I got to do it.
One of my favorite aspects of the show is the sisterhood between Marissa and Dre. I saw somewhere that we all need at least one person in the world to be tethered to and be unconditionally loved by and when we lose that person sometimes, we don’t know where to go. And I feel like that’s the experience for Dre.
And now she doesn’t have any of that. She doesn’t have a grounding anchor anymore. Yeah. That’s a good point.
Can you talk about exploring that with Chloë? You both have such great chemistry together, but also exploring that with your character?
Yeah. So I think Chloë is, I just think she’s sensational. She’s very kind. She’s very sensitive. And I think her sensitivity allows her to be a wonderful Marissa because she’s not judgmental of Dre. So we can actually see why Dre would love this person so much in a world where she’s constantly made fun of. Or on the outside, there’s this one person that never made her feel bad, even though she calls her weird. Or they’re acknowledging like, “You’re weird, but I love you for it.” Or, “I love you anyway.” And that’s something that Dre never had, so I appreciated that. For me, I am one of 19 grandkids. I have a big family.
Oh. Well, that’s beautiful.
Yes. And I am the oldest of a couple of kids. I have little sisters, and I love them. I do. And I remember even growing up, one friend I’ve been friends with since I was 10 years old, she’s like my sister now. Her name is Tiana, and even to this day, sometimes when I’m sad and I remember that I could pick up the phone and FaceTime her, and I go, “Oh yeah, things are good.”
Or having Monique on set.
Having Monique on set, absolutely. I call Monique all the time, every day about every little thing.
As you said, there are so many reboots and so many remakes, and Swarm is so original, so rich, so unique—
There’s nothing wrong with reboots and remakes, because it’s the nostalgia that we love and we’re just looking for that again. And also, can we have that and make room for the original ideas that we’ve been asking for?
For sure. Especially from creators of color and Black creators who can tell these stories that are new and fresh, and don’t feel stereotypical. Can you talk about working with Donald in bringing the show to life and you being the vessel for their vision?
Yeah. It’s so funny because the show is so specific, and I remember we did a table read and Donald was like, “Honestly, we just want to have the opportunity to—if it fails, it fails—but just to get to make art and try something. Can we get to try something?” And I thought that that was a good thing to say.
The way that he and Janine approached it, although specific, they weren’t really meticulous about things. They weren’t picking and plotting and being like, “Oh, move your hand.” They didn’t try to make a robot out of me. I was kind of being like, “Wait, is [Dre] like this? Is she like that?” And like, “No, she’s neither of those things.” And I’m like, “OK. So I’m just going to go to set and figure it out.”
I just remember one of the things that I enjoyed the most when Donald directed the pilot was that I would do strange things and see if I got a response out of him. All the other characters, they’re not like that. They’re usually considered normal. So you don’t get to stretch yourself and see how, where, what you can do with your body, how you can walk, how you can make your head turn, all of these things, and I was able to do that.
There were things that I enjoyed that they didn’t keep in the show. There is one point, which could’ve been too funny for the moment, but it was a moment in the pilot when Dre is sitting on the couch and she’s crying and they’re removing all of the furniture. And at one point when they come to take the couch, I just roll myself off the couch. And [Donald] was like, “Oh, OK. Strange.” But the freedom to be able to play as an actor was nice.
Image via Amazon Studios
Dre takes a bit of a darker turn as the show evolves, but what do you hope viewers learn from her?
Honestly, I think that one of the biggest things and the scariest things right now is the fact that social media connects us to people, but it also can hurt because there is cyberbullying. We experience that throughout the show, a commentary on that, whereas in society we’re so mean to each other when everybody’s just human and we’re just trying to figure it out.
We’re not making a lot of room for grace these days. So it could be very scary to try to be yourself or try to do something that hasn’t been done before. And we’re using social media to have our opinions, forgetting that there are other people on the other side of those opinions. I just call Dre “the pull-up queen.” When you talked smack in school it was like, “See you at 3 o’clock in the parking lot.” And now they say people are hiding behind social media, but she says, “You don’t get to hide.” She goes, and she pulls up.