#’Lovecraft Country’s Jurnee Smollett Talks Racism’s Place in Our History (VIDEO)

In the new HBO horror drama, Lovecraft Country, based on the novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, childhood friends Letitia “Leti” Lewis (Jurnee Smollett) and Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors) team up — with the help of Atticus’s uncle, George (Courtney B. Vance) — to find Atticus’s missing father, Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams). But during their road trip across America in the 1950s, they find themselves facing not only monstrous creatures but an even more frightening monster, racism.

The ten episode series is from executive producer Misha Green (reuniting with Smollett, who starred in her gone-too-soon WGN drama, Underground) as well as Jordan Peele (Get Out) and J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). It’s a hybrid of sorts between the rollercoaster ride of the horror genre and a very grounded social commentary that, as Smollett told our Jim Halterman, is not a new thing in the U.S but something that has been a part of this country since 1619, when slavery began here.

Smollett also talks about whether she’s a horror fan and which classic film freaks her out, why we haven’t yet seen her in a horror series, as well as her on-screen chemistry with Majors and the fun they had on set.

Watch the video interview above.

Lovecraft Country, Series Premiere, Sunday, August 16, 9/10c, HBO and HBO Max.