From co-creators Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, the “Decolonativization” episode of the FX series Reservation Dogs (available to stream at Hulu) follows what happens when two influencers are brought in for the Native American Reclamation and Decolonization Symposium (NARDS) Youth Summit in an attempt to bring the younger generation together. But while things don’t go quite as planned and Miss M8triarch (played by guest star Amber Midthunder) isn’t exactly who she portrays herself to be, that doesn’t mean Elora (Devery Jacobs), Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), Jackie (Elva Guerra) and their friends can’t still learn something from the experience and each other.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Midthunder talked about getting to be a part of a show that she was already a fan of, playing a character with such a big essence, how the wardrobe defined who Miss M8triarch is, the cool atmosphere on this set, how she felt about the new experience with doing comedy, and her favorite moment making the episode. She also talked about the overwhelmingly positive reaction to her movie Prey and what the experience means to her, Roswell, New Mexico coming to an end, and what it’s like for her to say goodbye to her characters.

Collider: I had so much fun watching this episode, and I would imagine it must have been so much fun to do this episode. How did this come about? Have you been a fan of this show? Had you been trying to find a way to work on this show? How did all this happen?

AMBER MIDTHUNDER: Yeah, I’ve been a fan of the show, with everybody else. I was so excited for it to come out. I was in Canada at the time, when it first got released, and I was using a VPN to watch it on Hulu as it came out because I was so pumped for it. And it was so good. So, yeah, I was like, “Anytime there’s something that I could audition for, I absolutely want to, and I absolutely would do it.” And then, I got this self-tape.

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Image via FX Networks

When this came your way, did they have a script to show you? What did they tell you about this character, especially when she’s definitely very specific?

MIDTHUNDER: Yeah. The character description was pretty great. The sides were not exactly what you end up seeing in the episode. They were wackier. I remember the biggest thing was like, “She’s in full mismatched regalia.” And I was like, “Amazing. That’s great. Wonderful. That is all I need to know.” I just had so much fun with that. Even just doing the self-tape, it was so much fun to think about a character like that, and how to dress for her. I did it with my boyfriend, who’s First Nation, and we just had so much fun adding things and thinking of funny ideas that would just make us laugh. It was just so much fun. And then, (co-creator) Sterlin [Harjo] called me and told me that they wanted me to come. It was so fun and so exciting. It didn’t feel like work. It just felt amazing.

Was there anything specific that you wanted to bring to this character to help you really get into who she is? Did a lot of that come from putting on the wardrobe?

MIDTHUNDER: I think Miss M8triarch just so fully exists as what she is. A character who is that big of an essence was so easy to just step into. She exists, and it feels like she’s her own entity. The character work just flowed, with everything that was on the page and how she was dressed and the environment. You wear a ribbon skirt and that’s normal, or you wear quilled earrings and that’s normal, but it’s not until you’re in that situation, where I walked onto the IHS (Indian Health Service) set and was like, “Oh, this looks like the IHS that I always went to growing up.” I was dressed like that, and then I wanted onto the set, and nobody else was dressed like that, so you’re like, “I feel ridiculous. This is crazy.” I was like, “Yeah, we’re here. Miss M8triarch has arrived.”

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Image via FX Networks

When it came to the wardrobe, did you try a bunch of different things before settling on the look that we see in the episode? When you’re only doing one episode of a show, and all of your work in that work is pretty much at one location, do the clothes become more important because they really represent so much of who she is?

MIDTHUNDER: Yeah. There were a lot of different options, honestly. The fitting was really fun. I was like, “I really like this urban skirt." I don’t know what happened to it, but I was like, “I’m gonna take it home. I wanna take it home.” All those clothes, I genuinely liked, which was really funny. The fitting was so much fun, for that reason. I was looking at the jewelry, asking who made them. I was like, “What artist did this? What jewelry maker? What designers did the clothes come from?” They were all indigenous. On other shows, people aren’t always as aware of those things, so that was cool on its own. It was such a fun fitting. I went through so many options. When I came in, we didn’t land on anything. I had more or less the idea of what it might be, but it was fun to walk in my trailer that morning and be like, “Okay, this is what we’re doing.” That was really a part of Miss M8triarch coming together. I was like, “Okay, she’s choosing to wear this to an IHS. I know exactly who she is.”

What was the mood and atmosphere like on the set? Some of the younger actors have talked about how they’re pretty much just playing themselves on this show, so what was it like to walk onto the set and work with them, especially knowing that they had been there together for a bit?

MIDTHUNDER: It was so cool. It was so comfortable and comforting, in a way that I’ve never experienced before, on that level. There are so many Native filmmakers and Native actors, and in so many different departments. In all the departments, there are Native people making this story that everybody loves and is proud of, and they’re so comfortable together and so real. That’s the thing. I think that’s why the show is so great. The Rez Dogs talk about how they’re so comfortable in their characters because they feel like they’re playing themselves. Everybody is just very real. Everybody is there for the show and to do the work. All those relationships are real. Seeing everybody be so comfortable together was really comforting, as a guest. As somebody who had not been there before and would not be there for long, that really eliminated all those scary, first day of school feelings. Those just really melted away. There’s always a feeling the first day, when you’re waiting, or you’re between things, where I’m like, “I don’t know where to sit. I don’t know where to stand. Who do I sit by?” And I had no question, ever, of where to sit down because it was so easy and so comfortable. Everyone was so chill that it was definitely an amazing experience, in that regard.

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Image via Hulu

You’ve proven that you can do drama, with Legion and Roswell, New Mexico, and that you can be this badass action hero, with Prey. How did you take to the comedy of Reservation Dogs? Did that feel comfortable for you? How do you feel about living in that kind of comedy world?

MIDTHUNDER: I’d never really done comedy before, and I was really excited to. I have always felt really drawn to drama, in different regards, but more recently, personally, I’ve been really open to comedy. And specifically for this, it didn’t matter what it was, I just wanted to be there, but it really made me feel very open to it and very excited. There was a time when I just was not about improv, at all. I was like, “Give me anything else.” But in this environment, when they’d be like, “Oh, just keep talking about this, or riff on this,” it was not intimidating. It was really fun because the environment was comfortable. And then, on top of that, the content is stuff that you’re comfortable with. The talking about our ancestors and the people to come, how many times have I heard that in my life? That’s an easy thing to talk about, even when you’re making it silly or ridiculous. It’s an easy thing to riff about. It just felt like a really comfortable way to break that seal.

I loved that moment when she says, “My body grew up in the Bay Area, but my spirit lives with my ancestors.” I feel like that says so much about who the character is, and even just how people try to live in daily life, intertwining the modern with the traditional.

MIDTHUNDER: Yeah. She did not grow up on the Rez, and she’s trying to hide that and be down with the people, even though it’s just so clear that she’s not. When she sits down with Willie Jack for that conversation, and she’s like, “I actually grew up in the Bay Area,” Willie Jack is like, “Oh, cool.” There’s nothing crazy about that, and whatever she was afraid of, didn’t happen, so there’s no reason not to be honest with whatever her background is or wherever she grew up. But it’s like she just very clearly has this image of herself and what she wants to be, and what she’s accomplishing and how, that it’s funny to see her go through all this stuff that she’s doing to herself and that she’s doing to other people, and then just sit down and feel like, “Oh, this is actually who I am.”

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Prey felt like it was very risky because nobody knew how another Predator movie would be received, and this particular Predator movie took a lot of chances. What was it like to see the reaction to that and to hear just overwhelmingly positive feedback that both the film and you received?

MIDTHUNDER: There are no words for how that has felt. Really, the thing that I was thinking about the most, in making the movie, and then releasing the movie, was how Native people would feel about it. Indian country’s response to the movie was really what I felt the most anxious about. That was the biggest thing that was weighing on me, what the response for that would be. I feel like that’s who the movie was for and that’s what the movie was about, so to have it come out in that way, and to have Comanche people respond well, and to have Native people, in general, respond well, was a huge sigh of relief. And then, to have some of the interactions I’ve had with people, which have been really meaningful and really beautiful, and really, really moving, there’s nothing that could top that. There’s no amount of chart breaking or anything that could top what that means to me. But then, you step back and look at all those other things, like the number one release and the high numbers on Rotten Tomatoes, and it literally feels like we’re living in a dream. I don’t think I thought about what would happen after the movie came out, but I know that I wasn’t expecting this at all, and I’m so grateful.

It also feels like Prey must have been a really challenging and demanding shoot. What did you learn about your own strength, from shooting something like that? Did you find yourself really having to dig deep, even just to make it through the shoot?

MIDTHUNDER: Yes, 100%. In a lot of ways, I had never experienced anything like that. Life outside doesn’t stop either. Whatever things happen in your life, as a person, you have to deal with that while having this workload that is the biggest responsibility I’ve ever had. On top of that, it was such a physical movie. There were so many times where I felt like, “I’m never gonna leave this movie. It’s never gonna end. I don’t know how I’m gonna get through tomorrow, let alone today.” But the movie is about a young woman who is very determined and strong, and I felt like there was no option other than to just connect to that, as much as I possibly could. You can’t wimp out, and then play a character like that. It doesn’t really work. So, I had to be Naru, as much as I could, facing my challenges, so that I could play her facing her real challenges.

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Image via Hulu

I also love that before Roswell, New Mexico has come to an end, your character has really had the opportunity to find her voice, find her inner strength, and find her purpose. How do you feel about where that has ended up? What is it like to play a character for that length of time, and then to say goodbye?

MIDTHUNDER: I’m really happy with Rosa’s life, and with everything that happened for her. Her journey, to me, was mainly about sobriety. That’s a difficult journey, and it’s not linear, at all. Watching her go through all of these different experiences, struggles, and ups and downs, and show that in as honest of a way as we could on a network TV show, and then to have her end up where she did, I think my greatest hope is that people will look at it and feel like she’s a character that people can relate to, and also feel hopeful. She’s a story of hope. She found something that called to her, and she had a lot of difficulty getting there, but had all the important things, like a support system and coping mechanisms. To see her be in New York, doing art and being sober, I’m so happy for her, as a character and as a viewer of the show. I’m very satisfied with her story.

What’s it like to have to say goodbye to characters? Whether it’s a character you’ve played for a long time on a TV show, or something that is physically exhausting for a movie, or where you do one episode, what’s it like to have to say goodbye and leave them behind?

MIDTHUNDER: I’m a very sentimental person, so I get very sentimental, every time, about a goodbye. It’s also so much fun. It hits differently, every time. Sometimes you enjoy it, and you don’t even realize it’s over, but sometimes you really felt the weight of it. It almost feels like people that I’ve gotten to meet. With the characters that I’ve played, it feels like I’ve met so many cool people. I’ve gotten to play so many different, interesting people that it’s so much cooler to look at that and be like, “Wow, look at what I got to experience.” And then, the goodbye process is as different as each character is and how I connect with them.

Did you have a favorite moment in this episode? You get to do so much fun stuff in this, but did you have a moment that most stood out for you?

MIDTHUNDER: There was a rehearsal moment when I’m calling forward Willie Jack and Jackie. I had read the sides funny or something, and we were in the blocking rehearsal, and I was like, “Okay, you’re gonna step forward, and you’re gonna call them up, and they’re not gonna wanna go, and you’re trying to encourage them, and then you lele.” So, I was doing the scene and I looked in their eyes, and I just full leled, making eye contact. It was so absurd. I was like, “I can’t believe this is happening.” I burst out laughing. Everybody started laughing. It was the most ridiculous thing. We did a couple things like that. Just being in an environment where that stuff could happen, to me, was like Disneyland, it was so much fun.

This is such an awesome character, I feel like you’re probably already coming up with reasons they should bring her back, at some point.

MIDTHUNDER: Yeah. I’m calling Sterlin, just pitching him ideas, every day. Like how Vogue does the 73 questions, or whatever, there should be one for Miss M8triarch. “Follow me through my house . . .”

I would totally watch that.

Reservation Dogs is available to stream on Hulu.