EXCLUSIVE | 'The Good Fight': Nyambi Nyambi says Jay Dipersia is the moral compass of the firm
'The Good Fight' has returned for its third season, and with it comes new challenges for the offices of Reddick, Boseman & Lockheart. Nyambi Nyambi, who plays Jay Dipersia on the show, talked with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) about his character's role in the new season, how Jay Dipersia sees himself as the moral compass of the firm, what to keep an eye out for this season, and how the show has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
How was shooting this season of 'The Good Fight' for you?
So far it's been a lot of fun shooting this new season, Season Four of 'The Good Fight.' You know we're dealing a lot this season with conspiracies, with being challenged by a company that our firm has now been swallowed up by, and sort of navigating the politics of that. But it's been fun facing new challenges this season.
What can you tell us about what Jay Dipersia is going through in Season 4?
Well for Jay Dipersia, it's more of the same in terms of what the character stands for. I believe that he's the moral compass of the law firm and does what he can to uphold the status quo. So, whenever the company deviates from that, Jay challenges that. And we're really going to see that in the episodes that are coming up, yeah. There's some strong stuff that's happening later on in the season that will be fascinating between Marissa and Jay terms of the cases that they investigate.
Tell us a little bit more about the way Jay's gonna be challenging the firm. Is that something we're going to be seeing more of this season?
Yeah, you'll see more of it this season. The third episode will be an episode where you'll see that. Jay does everything he can to protect those in the firm. He treats the firm as a family. So I think - without giving too much away because I want people to be surprised - but the third episode is one where you'll see where we talk about a challenging issue, and then in talking about a challenging issue, another one comes up and it's Jay trying to rally everyone together to figure out 'How do we face this head-on?'"
You mentioned Jay Dipersia's relationship with Marissa Gold, what is that like this season? Does this acquisition of the firm pit Marissa and Jay against each other or does it make them more of a team?
"It certainly does challenge the relationship. We've had that before in earlier seasons. But I think this season, it actually brings us together and, you know, you'll see us working together to do what's best for the firm. That happens in the latter part of the season...I love working with Sarah Steele. It's really fun to be out and about solving cases and gathering information with Sarah. She's just an awesome actor and the character Marissa Gold is just a great a character to be in the room with."
Were there any particularly memorable moments on set, shooting this year?
Great question. I mean, look, you know, you always have a great time shooting and of course filming a on set. But then it's the times in the hair and makeup room where we're all sitting around getting ready. Where we're transitioning, if you will, from who we are to these characters, you know? Seeing Cush Jumbo, who now is blonde and has very short hair, seeing that transition, the transformation into Lucca [Quinn] is really cool. But then really just the laughs....it's really fun being on set.
The most memorable moment, of course, is coming back from a lunch and us sitting down in the conference room and our leaders for the show getting ahead of this plight that we're in right now. Getting ahead of it and just saying, 'Hey look, we're going to be as safe as possible and we're going to stop filming right now and pick up at a later date while we figure out what this COVID-19 is. And we're doing this for the safety of the company.
That was a strong moment because one could very easily have just continued but they were really, truly thinking about the safety of not only us but our families. All of us being in the room together there to share in that, in terms of 'Let's take care of each other, let's take care of our families, do we have to do to come back ready and stronger than ever.
So I think that was, by far, a huge moment for us on set.
The show's always sort of prided itself on being very current with the issues that we're going through today. Are you looking forward to them covering this - the corona virus lockdown and the quarantines and what life is like under that?
You know it's funny because normally they're on the pulse of it. But this is one thing that has rushed us like an avalanche. So I don't know if they'll be able to tackle it this season. They very easily could change the latter part, the stuff that we haven't shot yet. It could change that and it could be part of it. Definitely it's something that, if not this season and if we're blessed with having a fifth season then it would be something that I think is not a bad thing. I'm not gonna say I know - but I think that would be something that we would tackle.
We're living the very interesting times. I think about pre-Covid now, when I watch films, when I watch movies and how we interact with each other. Just sort of how that affects the stories we tell moving forward. I feel like the time that, when we've moved past this, will be forever changed and it's just in what ways will that manifest itself.
Stay tuned for part 2 of our interview, in which Nyambi Nyambi talks about the first episode of 'The Good Fight,' how he's been handling the quarantine, and just what the good fight is for Jay Dipersia in Season 4.
The next episode of 'The Good Fight' airs April 16, on CBS All-Access.