From show creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, and based on the New York Magazine article “The Haunting of a Dream House,” the Netflix original series The Watcher follows the Brannock family as they move into a dream home in an idyllic suburb in New Jersey. Having put everything on the line to be a part of this new neighborhood, Dean (Bobby Cannavale) and Nora (Naomi Watts), along with their two kids, realize that they may bee in over their heads with their rather unusual new neighbors, and all of that is before the ominous letters start arriving, telling them that their every move is being tracked by “The Watcher.”

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Noma Dumezweni (who plays Theodora Birch, a private investigator dedicated to solving this wild mystery) talked about how this character compares to her stand-out role in The Undoing, incorporating how a character looks and speaks into who she is, what it was like to get the phone call from Murphy asking her to do this series, the joy of working with this cast, how she might react if she ever found herself in a similar situation to this one, and what it’s like to also be a part of the Disney family, with Mary Poppins Returns and the upcoming live-action The Little Mermaid.

Collider: We spoke for The Undoing, and I named your character, in that series, the character that I would most love to see get her own spin-off, when I did my Best of TV for that year. And I feel like this character might be the same way. How would you say this woman compares to your character from The Undoing?

NOMA DUMEZWENI: They’re absolutely different worlds. You’re going to properly meet Theodora when she meets Dean, which is quite the introduction for him. She states who she is, quite early on, and her need to be a part of this case. With Haley Fitzgerald from The Undoing and Theodora Birch from The Watcher, I love that I get to play characters that are really very different. The thing that ties them together is wardrobe. On any gig – TV, film or theater – the costume department is my favorite department, in terms of collaboration. On The Watcher, I worked with the costume designers, as well as Ryan, who said, “This is what I’d like Theodora to look like. These are signifiers for the character.” At the very least, she looks magnificent. She may not have the money. Haley had the money. But she looks magnificent too. It was a pleasure.

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Image via Netflix

With those two characters, do you think Haley would be more likely to need the services of Theodora first, or do you think Theodora would be more likely to need the services of Haley first?

DUMEZWENI: I have to say, I think Theodora would need the services of Haley first, most likely. I love this. This is great.

How well-defined was this character, on the page, from the beginning?

DUMEZWENI: A lot. Reading the original article was extraordinary, in itself. That has happened in real life, to real people, and that is the basis, the spark, for the story that we tell. We are part of the telling of this story, which Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy have created together, and in that creation, you have fictional characters like Theodora coming in. As a storyteller, you can make characters appear to serve the narrative, which I’m very grateful for. The script arrived and, literally, her first speech, when she meets Dean, there was a lot of information, which tells a whole backstory. You understand how she looks and how she speaks, but the anomaly is that this British woman, who’s been in America for a very long time, is a private detective, which I loved. I didn’t do any outside work with any private detectives because this story with Theodora was in the script. They kept arriving, and I’d go, “There’s that, and there’s that.” A couple of things shifted because not all the scripts arrived at the same time. But it was lovely to create Theodora.

One of the things that Ryan Murphy is known for, is putting great actors into incredible ensembles, and then still managing to bring things out of them that they don’t necessarily know they were capable of. How did you find the experience of working on a Ryan Murphy production? What was that process like?

DUMEZWENI: To start with, the fact that I was on a Ryan Murphy production, I couldn’t believe it. It was a lovely phone call from my manager going, “Ryan Murphy would like to talk to you. We’ve got to set up a phone call.” I was like, “ What?! What do you mean that he would like to talk to me? Oh, my God!” And then, the day and the time arrived, and I was like, “Hello, Mr. Murphy.” He said, “Hello, Miss Noma.” And I was like, “Shut up, I’m speaking to Ryan Murphy.” He said, “I’d love you to be involved in this project, which is going to be a fictional character in a real-life story. This is the possibility of who she could be.” It changed slightly, when the script arrived, but it was amazing. And then, when I found out who the other actors would be, it was literally a WTF moment. I was like, “What do you mean, Mia Farrow? What do you mean, Jennifer Coolidge? What do you mean, Margo Martindale, Richard Kind, Bobby Cannavale and Naomi Watts?” That’s what it felt like.

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Image via Netflix

It’s delightful to watch this cast work together, so I can’t imagine how much fun that is to actually be a part of.

DUMEZWENI: It’s absolutely a joy. And I only got to work with some of them. I didn’t work with all of them. But to meet them and see them getting ready in the makeup chair, in the mornings, was amazing. I got to see Mia Farrow in the corridors, and then she’d just be brilliant. And Margo Martindale, for me, is one of the great character actors. This ensemble is amazing, but she was my gateway drug. I had heard about Margo Martindale being involved, before anyone else, and I just freaked out.

If you personally found yourself in a situation like this, where you moved into a dream house that then turned into a nightmare, how would you react? Would you refuse to believe it? Would you immediately leave and figure it all out later?

DUMEZWENI: I think I would be in denial. At first, you’d think that it’s got to be some kind of joke. And then, as letters keep coming, you’d realize it was not a joke. Then, I would start getting pretty terrified. I’m one of those people who would be out of that house as soon as I could. In the moment that you realize that this is not a joke and that someone can see you living your life in your own home, and you have no idea where they are, that’s terrifying. And this is a real story. You just go, “I have no idea how they dealt with that.” It’s extraordinary. That must have been horrific.

I love that you’re also part of the Disney family with Mary Poppins Returns and now The Little Mermaid. What’s it like to be a part of fantastical worlds like that?

DUMEZWENI: I’m very, very lucky, my darling. I’m very blessed. I’m saying this as someone who is really enjoying getting older, and really enjoying getting older in the business. The majority of my work has been in the theater, for the last 20 years. It’s in the last five years that there’s been an absolute shift. Harry Potter [and the Cursed Child] was the beginning of that shift for me, to other outside possibilities. That’s literally why we are sitting here now. That job shifted things, and then The Undoing happened, and now I’m here. That shift is extraordinary. To be an actor, to be doing that work, and to be sitting here, you go, “I can’t believe this is happening to me.” It is one’s dreams being fulfilled. I love getting older and that it is still happening to me. There is a narrative that’s unfinished, that feels as if it’s begun, a few seasons ago. The narrative before that was going in one direction with theater, and then, all of a sudden, it shifted. To work with Rob Marshall twice was amazing. I did Mary Poppins Returns, and then went back for The Little Mermaid.” Rob was like, “We want you to come back because we enjoyed you.” For me, that’s the ensemble thing, and that goes back to theater. If you get to work with the same people, over and over again, that says you love ensemble work and you love creating stuff. To be asked to work with people, again and again, is a great gift. There are so many things going on in my head that I can’t quite feel it, but I’m so excited about being in the Disney world, as well. I can’t wait until everyone can see the bigness of [The Little Mermaid]. From the tiny bit that I’ve seen, it’s beautiful. It was just a gift to film.

The Watcher is available to stream on Netflix.