Naomie Harris talks Miami Vice

While promoting her upcoming role as the witch Tia Dalma in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”, British actress Naomie Harris also spoke to blackfilm.com about playing the role of Trudy, a Bronx-born intel analyst, in the film version of Miami Vice, which stars Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx. Can you talk about playing the role of Trudy? Naomie Harris: Playing Trudy was a main challenge and in getting the Bronx accent. Thankfully when you are working with a director like Michael Mann, who is so winning to give actors whatever they need and it’s really great because he said “you gotta learn this Bronx accent, so let me fly you into the Bronx and you can sit in the Bronx for a couple of days and interview people”; and that’s what I did. Then I met this amazing girl, Joya, and she was fantastic. She was like, “if you really want to know what it’s like living and growing up in the Bronx, then I’ll take you around”. She would show me different areas and we would shopping and hang out and she wanted me to talk in a Bronx accent the whole time. She was really strict with me. She became like my voice coach and I flew back to Miami and I told Michael about her and he said to bring her in cause she sounds fantastic. That is what happened. She ended up being flown over and working on the movie. Had you any of the episodes from the TV series to get a sense of what her character is like? Naomie Harris: Yes. I hadn’t really grown up watching the series, but obviously when I realized that I got the role and even before I started shooting for it, I did go and see as many episodes as I could. How was working with Elizabeth Rodriguez as Gina? Naomie Harris: I love Elizabeth. She is great. She was like my buddy. We really spent a lot of time together. She really helped me get through the movie because she was the other woman that I could rely on and confide in. She’s great. And working with Colin (Farrell) and Jamie (Foxx) as Crockett and Tubbs? Naomie Harris: They’re amazing and really fantastic actors and at the top of their game, which is great because they challenge you to get better at your craft. It was great working with Jamie cause he has such a sense of humor and always tries to keep things light and funny and he has a great ability to be able to really humorous and playful off-camera and as soon as the camera comes back on, he can be incredibly intense and serious. It was a real lesson as to how to approach acting; that it’s possible to combine work and play at the same time even when you are doing something serious. Do you think you had more to do on-screen than Olivia Williams did in any episode from the TV series? Naomie Harris: I don’t so because I think what happens on the episodes as far as I can see was that witheach episode a different character will be focused on each week and it will be explored, so you got to see much more of their history. Whereas in the movie is kind of like one episode, one story which is explored as a whole movie, but it’s really focusing on the guys’ story.