Uzo Aduba Found ‘The Residence’ Detective Cordelia Cupp in the Show’s ‘Complex’ Writing, Which Helped Her Transform

“The Residence” is about a complicated and twist-heavy murder mystery, but it’s the detective at the center of the investigation who steals the Netflix show.

Cordelia Cupp, a consulting detective for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department comes into the White House to investigate the murder of its chief usher. Comedy standouts like Jason Lee and Ken Marino, and TV character actors like Susan Kelechi Watson and Giancarlo Esposito also impress in various roles as the staffers and guests at a state dinner for Australia, where Kylie Minogue and (kinda) Hugh Jackman were in attendance.

But Uzo Aduba’s Cordelia captures everyone’s attention the second we first see her taking a moment to do some birding in the South Lawn of the White House before diving into her latest mystery — as the men upstairs, all leading various security organizations of the government, muse about her being the “best detective in the world.”

“[Cordelia] was unlike anyone I had ever seen before. Very quirky but very precise, intentional, using lots of metaphors, which I can relate to,” Aduba told TheWrap in a recent interview. “Her speed in a room is 10 clips faster than anyone else’s. Maybe those people would have figured it out 20 years from now, but she’s going to figure it out today. That was exciting.”

Aduba has experience impressing audiences with her performances. She won two Emmys (and earned another nomination) for her role as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren in Netflix’s hit “Orange Is the New Black,” and another for playing Shirley Chisholm — the first Black woman to be elected to Congress — in Hulu’s “Mrs. America.” She was also nominated for her excellent turn as therapist Dr. Brooke Taylor in the fourth season of HBO’s “In Treatment.” But Cordelia gives her the opportunity to lead the cast of a unique and intricate series, something she did not think would be possible for her as a working actress in Hollywood.

In a conversation with TheWrap before the series premiered and the killer was revealed, Aduba talked about finding Cordelia through the writing of Paul William Davies, and if she would be up for another mystery in the future.

TheWrap: It’s incredible to watch your transformation into Cordelia Cupp. The detective at the center of “The Residence,” and she’s such a fascinating character. What drew you to bringing this person to life for your next project?

Of course, there’s the Shondaland of it. I have been a fan of Shondaland since the beginning. I love her stories. I love her approach to a story. I love the versatility and the breadth of the stories that she tells and that [the company] tell. So that was a huge, huge draw for me.

[Cordelia] was unlike anyone I had ever seen before. Very quirky but very precise, intentional, using lots of metaphors, which I can relate to. Our showrunner, Paul William Davies, there was this really incredible thing that he’d done where I would read the scripts and the lines, and there were these really long, compound phrases — complex sentences. It could be 100 years before you would see a comma. It helped me realize there’s a real cadence to how this woman speaks. It made me understand that she speaks at a really quick clip, which then brought the question, why? Oh, because she processes information really quickly. Then that made me ask another question, why? It was the why that brought me to it. Oh, because she processes information really quickly. Because she’s really smart. What then does that say about her? That says that she really is the world’s greatest detective. Her speed in a room is 10 clips faster than anyone else’s. Maybe those people would have figured it out 20 years from now, but she’s going to figure it out today. That was exciting, that you could get that from that writing, that language.

It baked into me an understanding of how to attack this character. I start to hear the voice and the register. I talk with a wide mouth. She talks maybe a little more closed. That means that she has a bit of a veil there. She’s not going to show anything. Everything is a little bit more still. I thought, “this is going to be an exercise in stillness.”

It feels so deserved to see you leading a Netflix show of this caliber, and watching you shine with it. How does it feel to get a project like this at this time in your career?

It feels amazing. Like I said, I’m a fan of everybody in the room. From producing side to cast side, and obviously I’ve been part of the Netflix family before, and have an incredible experience with them there, to now being here. I was a massive geeked out fan of Shondaland, to now be part of that world really means a lot to me. And then the deep bench we have in cast members, we just have such a great group. I feel incredibly thankful, blessed and happy to be leading a show of this type. Still sounds weird to say, but I say that I’m really thankful that on September 14, 2012, that I didn’t leave this business like I planned to — because I certainly did not imagine this 13 years later. It’s wild.

I spoke to Paul, and he said there was a lot of Cordelia that was already written — she pretty much took over the show because he loved writing for the character — but he talked about leaning into writing for her after you were cast in the role. How was it collaborating to develop her trajectory and finding her during filming?

Paul William Davies is an amazing man. I loved him from minute one. I fell in love with him as a writer. He’s an attorney, so you can feel that precision and expertise of legalese in his writing, which I think I leaned on as an asset. He had done so much good work before I came into the role. I could hear the voice aloud, and I find for me as an artist, in whatever medium and whatever discipline, where I find the most satisfaction is when you can hear it almost like a record playing in the background when it’s really singing. And his scripts sing. You can feel it, you can hear it. You can hear the rhythm of the material. That helped to inspire and inform how I wanted to approach [Cordelia]. It’s a little bit of chicken and the egg, where he’s responding to what I’m doing, but I’m actually responding to what he’s written.

It’s like a symbiotic relationship.

That’s exactly it. He did such a great job. I can not underline enough about that writing, the complexity of the sentences. The way he had her discover information, just gave me a lot of information for playing her.

We have that episode with her and her sister in a flashback. That was such a welcome clue to who she is. Not only the tactics she uses, but why she uses them. That gave a great deal of information into how she can come into a room with a motionless body and just get to the bottom of her job, and why she is such an advocate for justice and for people’s sense of peace and comfort. Why she can hold that straight face and sterilize her emotions like that.

As I watched, I could not help but think of “The Residence” as a launching pad for all kinds of elaborate mysteries for Cordelia Cupp to solve. Would you be open to more mystery-solving with this character?

I would do anything that Paul William Davies and the world of Shondaland want to invite me into that they see fit for me. I hope she made it to Papua New Guinea. I hope she continues to live her life with that same enthusiasm for birds and solving crimes as she has in this story. I hope she never takes that cape off. That’s what I was calling the fabulous jacket from our costume designer Lyn Paolo. Wasn’t it fabulous? I hope Cordelia never takes that cape off.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

“The Residence” is now streaming on Netflix.

The post Uzo Aduba Found ‘The Residence’ Detective Cordelia Cupp in the Show’s ‘Complex’ Writing, Which Helped Her Transform appeared first on TheWrap.