Exclusive: Sterling K. Brown and Ernest Kingsley Junior on globe-trotting adventure Washington Black
Sterling K. Brown and Ernest Kingsley Junior on leading the way in adventure series Washington Black.

The globe-trotting adventures of a gifted young boy born on a Barbados sugar plantation are the subject of Hulu/Disney Plus’ lavish, time-jumping period drama Washington Black.
Based on Esi Edugyan’s novel of the same, the vibrant 19th century-set piece follows titular character George Washington ‘Wash’ Black, played by Ernest Kingsley Junior (Grace, The Sandman), as he battles persecution and pursues liberty against the odds.
When we first meet Wash in the eight-episode series it’s 1837 and the 19-year-old is living incognito in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as Jack Crawford where he’s developing a revolutionary flying machine, which he plans to exhibit at the Royal Science League in London. However, the arrival of bounty hunters brandishing a wanted poster with an image of his younger self brings him face-to-face with his brutal childhood.
Here, the stars of Washington Black, which in addition to Kingsley Junior includes Emmy-winning actor Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, Paradise) as a mentor to the main character, joined WTW for an interview to learn more.
Hello both! To get started, could you set the scene for the series and introduce your characters please?
Ernest Kingsley Junior: “Hello, yes, of course! Washington Black is a story about a curious and intelligent young boy born on a plantation in Barbados. After a series of things that happen, he manages to escape and goes on this epic, larger than life adventure, filled with dreams and love, and overcoming, and perseverance. Along the way he meets many characters that help him on his journey and spur him forward in his pursuit of living a life filled with freedom."
One of Wash’s protectors in Halifax is community leader Medwin Harris (Brown), who does everything in his power to protect the teen prodigy when his cover is blown by an unexpected betrayal.
How would you describe Medwin, Sterling?
Sterling K. Brown: “My character Medwin is the de facto mayor of the Black folks in Halifax and he takes young Wash under his wing after he winds up fleeing from Barbados, through the United States, and up North to Canada and he wants to protect him.
“Medwin has a small mention in the book but we extrapolated, heightened and explored him for the purpose of the show [laughing] so I’d have something to do!”
It's exciting that your character was developed specially. Did you have any input into the creation of the role?
Brown: “Yeah, I had a little bit of input, but basically, everything our showrunner Selwyn Seyfu Hinds wanted to write, I thought ‘Oh, that's good!’ and I left him to it.”
What drives Medwin’s protective paternal nature when it comes to Wash?
Brown: “He wants to see him live a safe life, but not necessarily the fullest version of his life and so there’s a friction between the two of them — of Medwin wanting to take care of him, but Wash, while appreciating being taken care of, also knowing that there's more to life than just surviving. There is a thriving that he’s hungry for, that he knows is possible and can't let go of until he fulfils the promise of all of who he is. So it's really, ultimately, I think I'm saving him, and I think he winds up saving me.”
Ernest, how did it feel to be first on the call sheet during filming, and did that bring a sense of pressure with it?
Kingsley: “Do you know what? I wasn’t aware of the notion about the numbers and the culture! I’d done a few jobs before, and seen those numbers, but I didn’t attribute them to anything. When I was on set, I came to understand what it meant, and it was great to be able to be such a large service to the story. Obviously it was a responsibility, but it was also a joy and an honor.
“What's more, being surrounded by such talented crew and cast members, who poured so much passion into this project, sometimes I didn't feel the pressure that much because I was supported so heavily — similar to Washington Black; there are so many pressures he feels, but he has a large community around him.”
Who would you say are his main allies?
Kingsley: “Medwin, Miss Angie [played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster], Tanna [played by Iola Evans], who kind of pour into him and just push him towards his dreams and over hurdles. So I feel like me and Wash are synonymous, in that sense.”
Sterling, how was it working closely with Ernest on the series?
Brown: “He’s incredibly generous, warm, respectful and wanted to make sure that everybody was enjoying themselves throughout the process. Ernest is the kind of guy that takes the time to look you in the eye and lets you know that you have his attention. And then when it's time for somebody else, he gives them their attention. He's present and is in the here and now all the time. He's a great number one on the call sheet.”
During the opening episode, events flash back to eight years earlier, and it emerges Wash was born into slavery on a sugar plantation owned by absentee patriarch James Wilde (Charles Dance) and run by his ruthless eldest son Erasmus (Julian Rhind-Tutt).
Aged 11 Wash (played by The Sandman’s Eddie Karanja) attracts the attention of Erasmus’s eccentric brother, Titch (Tom Ellis). Recognizing his artistic talent and scientific mind the inventor enlists Wash as his apprentice, until a harrowing twist of fate forces them to flee and propels Wash on a worldwide voyage of discovery.
How many filming locations were you on, given the number of places Wash visits while on the run for his life?
Brown: “We were in several locations and in several countries. We shot in Iceland, we shot in Nova Scotia, in Halifax itself, and two other towns in Nova Scotia, Louisbourg and Lunenburg, and then we shot in Mexico as well, so we bounced around the globe to get this one done.”
That sounds terrific, but was it slightly exhausting as well?
Kingsley: “You know, I think bouncing between all these different locations and new experiences takes any exhaustion out, because you're constantly being exposed to all these great communities and great people, especially in Nova Scotia, where we met up with African Nova Scotians, their community and the large history there. In Iceland, there was the terrain and the Northern Lights. And then Mexico, the culture and the heat was beautiful. So there's constantly different kinds of things you're exposed to so it’s very rarely exhausting.”
Brown: “I would say the energy of being on location also is that you become each other's family very quickly because you don't have a chance to go home to your own place, so you are each other's family in this new place together. I think that that's an energizing and pretty cool thing, just getting to know these new people, not just as actors, but as human beings as well.”
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Speaking about the other actors, Lord of the Rings star Billy Boyd is a revelation as Willard, the cold-blooded bounty hunter driven by racial hatred and on Wash’s tail throughout the series. He’s a long way from Pippin!
Brown: “Yeah, when he says, ‘Mr. Washington’…!
“Billy is fantastic, and one of the nicest, sweetest, most warm and wonderful people — and then he puts on the black coat and the black hat and he goes hunting for a Black man and he is not playing around at all.”
Kingsley: Yes, his character is so menacing. It’s funny [during filming] when we’d cut, he’d smile and be like, ‘Oh, that was good, wasn’t it?’”
That’s quite the juxtaposition — and great casting. Although this is based on fiction, it’s rooted in a real historical period, do you think there’s an educational element to the series?
Brown: “Yeah, you know, it's a globe trotting adventure, but it's based in historical fiction. There is a township where freed Blacks would flee the United States in order to make it North of the border to Canada to make sure that their freedom was cemented. So it's a real thing that existed. When you listen to the accent of the Afro Nova Scotians, it sounds a lot like people that I know in Charleston, S.C., which is where over 50% of enslaved people from Africa came into the United States. So it's interesting to see this through-line of Charleston, the South in the United States, to Halifax in Nova Scotia, sounding exactly the same, like you can see the pipeline and you can hear where people fled to based upon their accent. I found it absolutely fascinating.
“For a lot of people of African descent, we get our histories told by people other than ourselves and so, being able to tell our own stories is of the highest importance I think.”
Kingsley: “Just to add, our story isn’t solely about the painful aspects of our history. It shows that, but also it shows the triumph over that, and the possibility and the potential to actualize a dream and a vision you have beyond those, those those painful circumstances.”
Washington Black is now available to watch on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.

With over twenty years of experience as an entertainment journalist, Elaine writes for What’s on TV, TV Times, TV & Satellite Week and www.whattowatch.com covering a variety of programs from gardening and wildlife to documentaries and drama.
As well as active involvement in the WTW family’s social media accounts, she has been known to get chatty on the red carpet and wander into the odd podcast.
After a day of previewing TV, writing about TV and interviewing TV stars, Elaine likes nothing than to relax… by watching TV.
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