Exclusive:babirye bukilwa on Dreaming Whilst Black: ‘It’s a late - right on time, but late - showcase for so many people’

Dreaming Whilst Black follows Kwabena (Adjani Salmon), an aspiring filmmaker in a dead-end job struggling to find the financing to turn his first script into his debut feature; bukilwa plays Vanessa, a woman Kwabena meets on the bus and begins dating as he’s working on his film.

bukilwa recently joined NationalWorld’s Alex Moreland to discuss the Dreaming Whilst Black, explaining how they first became aware of the series and talking about how it’s evolved from the webseries to the award-winning pilot to the BBC Three series. They also went on to discuss their creative influences and how those influences shaped their approach Dreaming Whilst Black.

Just to set the scene a little bit, could you tell us a little bit about how you first got involved with the show, and your journey with it from then through to now?

My first introduction to Dreaming Whilst Black was meeting Adjani at a house party of a mutual friend, and him being like “I watched this show, and you were in it, Ackee and Saltfish, I really liked it, I’m working on this thing, it’s a webseries” - it was this era when it was Black webseries, Black webseries, Black webseries, and we just had all this amazing content. That era, there was a good three, four years maybe when we were just making stuff, and it was on the internet, and it was a really great platform for so many artists, so many creatives.

[A few years later], I auditioned for the pilot. And in my opinion, I auditioned quite a few too many times [laughs]. But I think with those things, like you know, it's just all about chemistry, you have to get it right - people have to look right, feel right, smell right, just look good on camera. Like, you can be the best actor and the person you're opposite is the crappest, but if they're taller than you, and they look better in the show with someone else, who knows how that will go…! I understand that these things can be complicated, but yeah man, they were they were lucky, because that final audition, the recall, I was this close - like, this close - to not going. [Laughs]

Dreaming Whilst Black has evolved a lot since the webseries - is there anything about it you think has stayed the same across that time, any kind of essence that’s been consistent throughout? 

What I’ve observed - as someone who watched the webseries and joined it at the television stage - is the beautiful relationship, and it's a very key thing, between Amy and Kwabena. I think that's really poignant, a really beautiful part of the piece that's held it together for me.

How are you feeling about the show reaching a wider audience now, with this BBC Three iteration? 

Yeah, I think everybody's deserving [of the wider audience]. I'm quite excited. I think the show should have been made years ago. I think Dani [Moseley, who plays Amy] is a superstar, I think Adjani [Salmon, who plays Kwabena] is an amazing artist, and I think everybody that was involved in that show should be working, non-stop! I think it's great, I think it's wonderful. It’s a late - late, but, fine, right on time - but late - showcase for a lot of individuals, I think it's way overdue for a lot of the people involved.

What would you say are your big creative influences? I know, for example, you’ve said debbie tucker green shaped the way you think about your creative practice - how do those influences manifest in Dreaming Whilst Black? 

Mostly to be fearless, because Vanessa is. I bring that on set - in general, but on set definitely - in the sense of, you know what, even if this take was really good, if there’s time can we do it again? Or can I do it differently? I very rarely get embarrassed whilst working; I think acting is the one of the only places where I can feel extremely free, and brave, and beautiful, because I know it's something I need to be doing. I do bring in my mom, my birth mom, into the room, that seems like a creative practice to me. I think about debbie quite often, and how I think it's quite unjust that she's still working as hard as she’s working. I think about Althea Jones and Audre Lorde. Yeah, and then I'm like, do it, just do one more, go to the extreme. 

Because Vanessa is [Kwabena’s] dream girl. I wanted to make her have as much autonomy as possible - to not have the romance done to her, but to be actively a part of the romance, and it be a consensual thing where she has just as much agency over what’s happened to her.  I remember asking why a lot and being like, ‘nah, I don't think that’ or ‘I wouldn't do that’. Why should Vanessa be held around the waist when they’re kissing? Why should it be this way, just because it's a traditional heteronormative set up? Why do they have to, why can't we try something else?

Dreaming Whilst Black is currently available on BBC iPlayer as a boxset, with the series reaching the end of its BBC Three broadcast run tonight. You can read our interview with Adjani Salmon here and our interview with Dani Moseley here. 

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