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Marsha Stephanie Blake has accomplished quite a bit over the years. She’s got a significant number of stage productions to her name, she’s worked with an incredible line-up of directors including Ava DuVernay and Steven Soderbergh, and she also scored an Emmy nomination for her performance in When They See Us. Even with all of those accomplishments and all of that experience under her belt, was she prepared to shoot an episode of television all on her own? Somewhat!

Social Distance is a new Netflix anthology series shot entirely in lockdown. Each episode features a different group of characters and shows how the COVID-19 pandemic rattled their day-to-day. In Blake’s episode, “And we could all together/Go out on the ocean,” Danielle Brooks plays Imani, a caregiver who continues to look after her client during the pandemic while also trying to care for her young daughter back at home. Meanwhile, her client’s daughter, Marion (Blake), is busy trying to juggle calls from Imani and adjust to teaching her college courses over Zoom.

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Image via Netflix

How exactly did they manage to film all of this while in lockdown with no official crew members on hand? Blake broke it down on her episode of Collider Ladies Night:

“You know who my crew was? Okay, I’m gonna tell you who my crew was - my husband, Gregory, and my two children who are 10 and six, and one of them was an actor in it so she could barely be crew because she had to act! So my 10-year-old who wants to be a director she says, was very excited. My husband a little less so, but again, we’re all quarantined, we’re in the house all day long and when this project came and I told him about it, he was like, ‘Well, we’re inside all day long. We might as well do something fun together.’ I will say, in hindsight, it was fun, but while I was going through it, I was like, ‘This is insane!’”

Something that really wound up working in Blake’s favor during this process? Her husband is a professional photographer!

“They had to drop everything at the bottom of the steps. So they delivered computers and camera equipment and phones. We were doing iPhones plus real cameras. The wonderful thing is my husband’s a professional photographer. I don’t know how other people did it! My set was easier for me because I had a husband who knew all the lingo.”

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Image via Netflix

But even with her husband’s knowhow, that only covers a limited amount of the work required. Blake continued:

“Everyone was on Zoom consulting with us, like the DP, the director, hair and make-up and everyone, but we were the only people physically on set, right? We were on site. So I’d do my hair and make-up, my daughter’s hair and make-up - she didn’t really wear make-up - I had to do wardrobe, I had to keep track of things … so I had to do continuity. And then, at the end of the day, we’d finish and I would be exhausted beyond words because when I wasn’t on camera, that meant my kid probably was and I had to be her assistant director, mommy, catering, child wrangler, person who got her out of the tantrum she was currently throwing, all of those things! And then the day would end and I’d take a deep breath like, ‘Oh, I’m so glad to be done.’ And then I’d realize, ‘You’re not done! First of all, you have another kid that you need to pay some attention to, but also, you have to prep your lines, your acting, your whatever for tomorrow, and you have to prep the child.’ You’re tired from me just talking about it!”

Blake wasn’t wrong! I get exhausted after just a couple of hours entertaining my young niece. But in the end, all of the hard work paid off for Blake and her family, and now they’ve got quite the episode of TV to show for it. Check out Blake’s full Collider Ladies Night interview at the top of this article to hear more about her experience working on Social Distance, going to college with David Harbour, doing Othello with Daniel Craig, why Blake is in awe of Ava DuVernay, and so much more!

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Image via Netflix

Marsha Stephanie Blake:

  • 01:12 - Blake made the decision to become an actor in college; the specific play that wound up being a game-changer.
  • 03:50 - Blake was in an undergraduate program with David Harbour.
  • 04:24 - Blake’s journey from being pre med in undergrad to getting an MFA.
  • 06:00 - Why getting an MFA felt important to Blake; becoming a Broadway understudy right after graduating.
  • 10:32 - The teacher who made an indelible impression on Blake; how Blake can apply some of the lessons learned from that teacher to the work she does now.
  • 17:38 - Blake explains why she’s “uncredited” in Django Unchained; the whirlwind audition process she experienced for that film.
  • 22:03 - What it’s like preparing for an audition and then not booking a role?
  • 24:30 - Working with Daniel Craig on Othello.
  • 29:04 - Rachel Brosnahan played a part in scoring a role for Blake in I’m Your Woman.
  • 31:40 - Did getting an Emmy nomination change things for Blake; why Luce is a movie she can watch herself in.
  • 34:24 - Blake fields a question from Ladies Night guest, Geraldine Viswanathan - what’s the very first thing Blake does when she gets a new script?
  • 37:50 - Where does Blake find the motivation to stay so busy and be such a positivity influence during the pandemic?
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    Image via Netflix
  • 39:42 - Reevaluating how we tell stories involving the legal system in film and television.
  • 43:25 - Why Blake is in awe of Ava DuVernay
  • 45:30 - How Blake got involved in Social Distance.
  • 46:30 - The process of filming an episode of Social Distance while in lockdown.
  • 50:10 - Even with all of her prior experience, what did Social Distance teach Blake about the filmmaking process that she didn’t realize before?
  • 53:05 - Does Blake’s daughter still want to be a director after making Social Distance?
  • 54:11 - Making a show that everyone can relate to; the great value of telling stories and entertaining right now.