'#FreeRayshawn' creator Marc Maurino says Laurence Fishburne's Poincy, defined by integrity, is show's lead
Quibi’s crime drama series ‘#FreeRayshawn’ tells the story of an African-American army veteran who is allegedly framed by cops in a drug deal. As the titular character (Stephan James) attempts to escape, a cop gets run over in the process. As Rayshawn is chased by law enforcement, he finds cover inside his own home. But there’s a problem. He’s there with his wife and son.
For the cops, the chase suddenly turns into a hostage situation. A local cop Steven Poincy (Laurence Fishburne) then finds himself as the unlikely confidant of Rayshawn, as he’s tasked with negotiating a safe passage for Rayshawn’s family. Before the release of the show, ‘#FreeRayshawn’ was billed as a modern-day take on the 1975 American neo-noir crime drama ‘Dog Day Afternoon’.
Speaking to MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), Marc Maurino, the creator, executive producer, and writer for the series shrugged that comparison off. He said, “I think [the comparison] was more, to be honest, speculative. I think it's a great shorthand, right? You've got a situation where somebody is trapped inside, cops outside, and then there's communications.”
Maurino added, however, “There could be no higher compliment. And just to be compared to Sidney Lumet and Al Pacino and John Cazale, right? No higher compliment! So, it makes sense from a broadly narrative perspective. And I will take a broadly narrative perspective comparison to Sydney Lumet all day long.”
“With that said,” Maurino mentioned, “it was not the point of inspiration and it was not something that I was consciously trying to pay homage to or anything like that. In a certain way, I'm not sure whether it still comes through.”
‘#FreeRayshawn’ is a fast-paced drama that takes place in the span of one day. Providing more insight in the story, Maurino said, “In my mind -- I don't know that it's clear, you know -- So, in the series, this was supposed to be the hottest day of the summer, you know. The hottest day of the summer theme that runs throughout was something that I consciously was like -- what would it be like, you know, the hottest day of the summer where you've got a cast of a bunch of different people from different worlds and different perspectives.”
While the show title points to a direction, Maurino said, “Steven is the lead character. And he is in many ways caught in just as a dire predicament between, you know, two worlds.”
Poincy is indeed a man caught between two worlds. On the one hand, he's honor-bound to side with his fellow cops. On the other hand, as the show progresses, it becomes apparent that he becomes more sympathetic towards Rayshawn. He sees the injustice that had been meted out to him.
Talking further about Fishburne’s character, Maurino said, “I drew inspiration for Steven from a friend of mine, named Steven, who is African American. And who is -- the best way to describe him, and the way that I think of Steven is just an incredibly decent, an honest man of integrity. And so as a writer, I built a world full of narrative and socio-cultural elements. The way that I wrote and sought to write the Steven character was how would a man of integrity behave at every turn?”
“That was kind of my guiding North Star,” continued Maurino. “So when he was asked to do things, he would be a man who responded from what he believed was right. A place of decency and a place of integrity, and it was also important to me. But Steven was a man who had experienced hardship, a man who had had things in his life fall apart because I knew that would give him the compassion and empathy to be able to connect in a really deep way.”
“Steven is a man who is sober, right?” he further said. “He's hit rock bottom, and he's had to claw his way back to sobriety. We know that his marriage fell apart. We know that he was involved in an officer-involved shooting, of which he was cleared, but which has left him with terrible guilt and difficulty. Steven, for me, is a man who has been in many ways, humbled. And has pulled himself off to a place of integrity and decency, and those are the guiding principles for me in writing that character and how he would behave and how he would operate throughout the story.”
New episodes of '#FreeRayshawn' air on Quibi every weekday.
