{"id":27807,"date":"2021-06-28T16:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=27807"},"modified":"2021-06-28T16:29:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T16:29:59","slug":"false-positive-zainab-jah","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/false-positive-zainab-jah\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018False Positive,\u2019 Zainab Jah Isn\u2019t Who You Think She Is"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zainab
Zainab Jah in False Positive<\/i> (Photo by: Emily Aragones\/Hulu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spoiler alert: If you haven\u2019t seen False Positive<\/em><\/a> yet, you\u2019re probably better off doing so before <\/em>you read this interview. Because the truth is, it\u2019s kind of pointless to talk to Zainab Jah about her character without revealing a pretty significant plot twist. The wry horror-satire is the latest in a long tradition of films that explore our collective anxieties about pregnancy and birth. In a 21st century twist on Rosemary\u2019s Baby<\/em>, Ilana Glazer plays Lucy, a successful Manhattan woman who is trying to get pregnant. After she and her husband Adrian (Justin Theroux<\/a>) finally manage to conceive with the help of a renowned specialist (Pierce Brosnan), she begins to suspect something sinister is going on.<\/p>\n

Lucy\u2019s paranoia leads her to seek out a more \u201cnatural\u201d approach to childbirth. She becomes fixated on Jah\u2019s character, Grace, a doula who Lucy sees as more spiritual, more connected to the earth, more\u2026exotic. If you’re starting to get uncomfortable with that description of a Black woman, that’s the point. It turns out\u2014and here comes the spoiler\u2014that version of Grace is all in Lucy\u2019s head. The film presents us with a stereotypical \u201cmagical negro\u201d before puncturing the trope by showing us the real Grace, without Lucy\u2019s projections and expectations.<\/p>\n

Recently, GRAZIA got a on the phone with Jah to talk about her character, how white women see Black women, and what the audience\u2019s reaction to Grace says about them<\/em>.<\/p>\n

False Positive<\/em> is the latest in the pregnancy horror subgenre. Why do you think pregnancy is so rich in potential for horror stories? <\/strong>
\nWow, I\u2019ve never really thought about that. I think the whole idea of pregnancy and birth, I think, essentially for us as humans is still so mysterious, you know? The whole thing that happens to a woman\u2019s body and the mystery of nature and biology. Even though we have science that tells us what happens, still, there\u2019s something very mystical and mysterious about it. I think that\u2019s probably why it\u2019s so rich for horror stories as well as fantasy stories. It\u2019s just the mystery of birth, I think. It\u2019s so magical.<\/p>\n

I wonder if there\u2019s an element of misogyny in creating horror stories around pregnancy. Not so much in this film\u2014though I think it\u2019s in conversation with that idea. <\/strong>
\nI mean, there\u2019s certainly a lot of misogyny in the world of obstetrics, especially within the movie. We allude to the fact that most fertility doctors happen to be male, which is so strange. It\u2019s very patriarchal and male dominated. But as someone who\u2019s never given birth, I\u2019ve never really thought about it in terms of the misogynistic nature of those films. Certainly, the way the guys are portrayed in those films\u2014especially in Rosemary\u2019s Baby<\/em>\u2014there\u2019s definitely a huge underpinning of misogyny in that film. Not only from her husband, but from the male figures in her life, and it\u2019s kind of similar to False Positive <\/em>as well.<\/p>\n

What kind of anxieties about pregnancy and reproduction do you think the film is highlighting? I\u2019m thinking of the term \u201cmommy brain\u201d that comes up a lot in the film. <\/strong>
\nYeah. I think the anxiety specifically in this film is that it\u2019s something she\u2019s really, really wanted. She really wants this thing so badly that she\u2019s blinded to everything else around her. She\u2019s just so focused on this one thing, and there\u2019s certainly anxiety attached to that in terms of wanting this one thing and hoping you\u2019ll be good at this thing that you think your life cannot go on without it. Certainly, I have friends who have been through that situation where they\u2019re trying to have a child and the whole thing of a clock ticking for a woman\u2019s body. That brings its own level of societal anxiety. And then the reality of it too, when that baby does come: Can you do this? Are you having buyer\u2019s remorse? I often wonder when I see friends who\u2019ve just had a child and they look so exhausted, I just think, Hmm. Are you experiencing any sort of buyer\u2019s remorse?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Zainab
Zainab Jah in False Positive<\/i> (Photo by: Emily Aragones\/Hulu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Lee and Ilana Glazer wrote the film together. I\u2019m curious what kinds of discussions you had with them about Grace? <\/strong>
\nInteresting conversations\u2026 I loved the fact that it was a very collaborative process. They were very open to listening to ideas. Ilana reached out to me before we even started shooting. We actually went on lunch dates a couple of times, so we developed a real relationship as women. That certainly opened the door for me to feel that I could contribute to how I see the character. Specifically in terms of her wardrobe, what she wore. That was very important to me in that they were very specific about how she was dressed. So, it\u2019s a fine line between what is real and what is not, certainly from Lucy\u2019s point of view. There\u2019s always the danger of going too far on the side of being so stereotypical to the point where not only will it make Lucy look delusional, but it was also make the filmmakers look delusional. Like, is this Lucy\u2019s point of view or is this actually your real-life point of view? As an African woman myself, I have very strong ideas, grounded in my culture, about how someone like that would dress. So, it\u2019s not looking like what Hollywood thinks that kind of person would do or wear. You\u2019re not going to be putting her in big muumuus\u2014at which point you might as well give me an African drum to beat!<\/p>\n

What did you think of Grace the first time you encountered her on the page? <\/strong>
\nMy first take of her was, Wow, she\u2019s really grounded. She sounds very grounded and down-to-earth and straight talking and straight forward.<\/em> Certainly, that\u2019s not what\u2019s projected onto her by the people around her. But from her point of view, she\u2019s just the most grounded thing in Ilana\u2019s character\u2019s world. Of course, that\u2019s not how she\u2019s being seen; people are projecting all sorts of things onto her. I loved that about her. I mean, at first when I read it, I kind of balked at the idea of playing, I sort of felt, more like a nurse. And as a Black actor, I\u2019m always getting asked to play nurses. I\u2019m like, Ugh, no. I\u2019m tired of this! I don\u2019t want to play a nurse!<\/em> But then, when I saw that she\u2019s not a nurse, she\u2019s a doula and the things that she says and what she stands for and how people see her made her so interesting to me. I thought, Ok, I might break my rule here and play this character because I really am fascinated by her.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, the first time you read the script, did you know there was going to be that twist where we find out that she\u2019s not the person that Lucy is seeing? Or were you reading it thinking, Oh boy, this is a stereotype.<\/em><\/strong>
\nYeah. Basically, I was reading it thinking, Oh God.<\/em> But then when it got to that point I thought, Oh, ok\u2026<\/em> Specifically, a particular line that she says in the film that sealed the whole deal for me, where she says \u201cI am not your mystical\u2026\u201d And I went, Ok.<\/em> That one line encapsulates everything about Grace that I love. That is the line that made me say, \u201cYes, I will do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

It says a lot about Lucy too, for sure. <\/strong>
\nAbsolutely. I mean, it\u2019s so grounded in reality, in terms of how you\u2019re seen and what people project onto you. I live in a neighborhood in Brooklyn where it\u2019s populated by a world of Lucys. Sometimes, the reactions that I get from those women\u2026I wouldn\u2019t be remiss in saying exactly what Grace says in the film to them in real life. God help me if I see a beautiful baby in a stroller, suddenly I\u2019m being asked if I want a job as a nanny! It\u2019s very brave the way [Grace] was written, the honesty that went into that character. Because it is something that a lot of white women do project onto Black women.<\/p>\n

\"Zainab
Zainab Jah in False Positive<\/i> (Photo: Emily Aragones\/Hulu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think the character reveals something about the people who see it as well. For me, watching it\u2014and even just watching the trailer\u2014I was a little uncomfortable. I was like, Are they really doing this in 2021?<\/em> And I wonder if there will be people who see the film and don\u2019t<\/em> have that initial reaction of discomfort with the way Grace is portrayed at first. <\/strong>
\nYeah, isn\u2019t it interesting. It would be fascinating to see the reactions of people who don\u2019t actually see that at the start. And it\u2019s amazing that you say you were watching it thinking, Are they really doing this in 2021?<\/em> And it\u2019s like, it happens, still. I can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ll be talking to, specifically, a white woman, and I have a British accent, and we\u2019ll be in the middle of a conversation and then suddenly they\u2019ll start saying, \u201cYou go girl!\u201d I\u2019m like, Why are you talking to me like that? I don\u2019t speak like that! You can hear I\u2019m not from that world.<\/em> But they\u2019re projecting this thing onto me because it\u2019s what they believe, rightly or wrongly, you know they\u2019ve decided, This is what I need you to be. I don\u2019t care where you\u2019re from or how you sound, this is what I\u2019ve decided, in my mind, is who you are.<\/em> Grace and Lucy\u2019s conversation is very much like that. Lucy has projected this idea of who Grace is onto Grace and she doesn\u2019t want to hear anything otherwise.<\/p>\n

The monologue Grace gives also had me really confused about what the film was trying to say about science vs. this kind of Goop<\/a>-y earth mother perspective. How much of that do you think is her actual philosophy and how much is Lucy\u2019s projection? <\/strong>
\nI\u2019m trying to remember what I said, but it\u2019s probably to do with the fact that the world of childbirth is so populated by men. And I could understand Lucy wanting to find something else, because she\u2019s feeling she\u2019s not being heard, which to me was fascinating. Again, I\u2019m not a mother, but the fact that when a woman\u2014in terms of fertility and all that, more often than not, she goes to a male doctor. And it\u2019s fascinating to me that that\u2019s your first encounter of someone telling you how your body works. It\u2019s like, You don\u2019t have my plumbing. Why are you the only ones who are the experts on the female body? What about my agency?<\/em> I remember, that was a thing that was very important to Grace: that women have agency over their bodies, and choose their own path where their bodies are concerned. And that\u2019s certainly why Lucy would be attracted to the idea of going to a doula and taking a more natural path.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve thought a lot about that monologue since watching the film. On the one hand, yes, so much of it is Lucy\u2019s projections. But there are real reasons why she\u2019s looking for that, and I\u2019ve been trying to disentangle Lucy\u2019s projection from Grace\u2019s actual philosophy. Like, real science vs. misogynist science vs. pseudo-science\u2026<\/strong>
\nBut the interesting thing is, my family\u2019s from West Africa and there\u2019s a happy marriage there. You can have a happy marriage of real science and the Goop stuff. Where I\u2019m from in Sierra Leone, people would go to a naturalist type of doctor like Grace and then they would also go to a science-based person, like what we call conventional Western medicine. It\u2019s always blended. They don\u2019t separate the two. It\u2019s only when you\u2019re outside of that culture that it becomes either this or the other thing. People find it very strange that you could have the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":27810,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,3324,16],"yoast_head":"\nIn \u2018False Positive\u2019 Zainab Jah Isn\u2019t Who You Think She Is<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you haven\u2019t seen False Positive yet, you\u2019re probably better off doing so before you read this interview. 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