My superpower is discipline, he declares.
Having an indomitable will comes in handy, too.
For starters, he began the process in 2020, the year the pandemic hit everything.
(L-R) Rapman, and Tosin Cole in ‘Supacell’Baz Bamigboye/Deadline; Netflix
Netflix rejected them, leaving Rapman feeling dejected and demoralized.
The Netflix executives, Rapman tells me, felt that it wasnt the show Id originally pitched.
Rapman held his arms out.
Nadine Mills in ‘Supacell’Netflix
You see me, Im very straightforward.
If Im happy, Im happy.
And if Im pissed, Im pissed.
If Im hurt, Im hurt.
Im just not fake.
One of the Netflix executives informed him they could redevelop the show, starting from scratch.
It could take five years, they reckoned.
I told them, I need a week.
It wasBreaking Badthat provided the breakthrough he was after.
Whats clear aboutBreaking Bad?
We know its about a guy who becomes a massive drug dealer to save the family.
But if you actually watch Season 1, it actually ends with him getting his first customer.
And it just made me think, you know what?
I need to take this [Supacell] all the way back.
He realized that the first season needed to be a prequel.
Deep down hed known all along that the Netflix execs were right about those first drafts.
Earlier hed shown a version of those scripts to two teenagers he often ran ideas by.
And it stuck with me, like, Bro, why are they not excited?
I wasnt as excited either, he admits.
Those wordsmiths in the writers room were talented for sure.
There were some great writers, dont want to take that away from them.
He felt uncomfortable in the writers room, thats clear.
People have been writing for so many years longer than me.
So who am I to say I dont like that idea?
A small part of him wanted to up sticks and pack it in.
Hed shot the celebratedShiros Storytrilogy in his old neighborhood and its where he madeBlue Story.
Hed spent months structuringSupacellon his own before taking it to Netflix.
Did he want to throw that all away and go off on a Nigerian huff?
Believe me, you dont want to be caught in the middle when a Nigerians off having a huff.
They say thats very rare for someone to write every episode.
And then yeah, after that rejection, it took me another nine months.
So, you saved the day, I suggest?
They didnt carry the child for nine months, it wasnt their baby, he adds.
Sometimes it comes and sometimes it goes.
But Rapman says he felt I cant lose this one as well.
That wouldve been two, he says.
Not that it was his fault that the pandemic came and blew the film away.
But that wouldve been two losses back to back.
I couldnt accept that.
He concedes that projects in this industry get put through a wringer all the time.
And I said, it does make me feel better, but that doesnt make me feel good.
Rapman wonders whether the Duffer brothers had to ever over-compromise because theyre not Black.
We all have to compromise, I tell him.
And he accepts that sometimes, but not always, I did the compromise.
I have worked my ass off to be here.
Ive earned my place, he protests.
He doesnt often wallow in that kinda stuff, but it crosses his mind now and again.
InSupacell, Some of those feelings are reflected in the psychological makeup of a nurse played by Nadine Mills.
Shes beloved by her patients and outperforms her colleagues at the hospital.
Shes never promoted, and as Rapman puts it, we know why.
But slowly her bosses do recognize her talent.
Her powers, though, once she gains them, do not aid her progress at work.
Then these powers come in to mess up everything.
Its just that she doesnt understand it.
She thinks shes suffering with mental health.
Its so much more than power.
Rapman got Netflix to rent him a tiny office a 10-minute drive away from his home in tennis-mad Wimbledon.
I wrote till my fingers bled, he says.
He wrote two or three full episodes and a show bible that charted every single twist and turn.
Netflix read it and greenlit it within days.
He allows that the experience, as painful as it sometimes was, has made him a better writer.
And better able to understand his way around the streaming world.
For instance, he says that he never took notice of every single note Netflix sent his way.
And the notes that I thought was sh*t, were never going to hear about them.
But it made me a much better writer and it gave me thick skin, man, he says.
Cole plays Michael, a courier whos dating social worker Dionne, played by Adelayo Adedayo.
They have terrific chemistry, by the way.
Literally, he goes through hell and back and tries everything he can, Rapman says.
But Michaels a fish out of water.
When hes forced to confront darker forces on a public housing estate he has no understanding of drug-gang culture.
Hes a stranger to how it works.
The street thugs, the drugs, the knives and the guns, are alien to him.
Tazer has a complex psyche.
On the street with his gang, hes ruthless and bloodthirsty.
Hadnt thought about it for 50 years.
So that tells you so much about the character of Tazer.
They [Netflix] didnt understand it until I explained.
I had to fight to keep it in because until then they [Netflix] didnt understand its relevancy.
Tazers like an alter boy at home where theres West African discipline.
I ask Rapman about the scenes of violence.
Theyre superbly choreographed, performed and filmed, but I gulped a few times.
These were kids, our children, being wounded, punished and killed.
Were those scenes glorifying violent bloodshed, I asked?
Its dog eat dog, isnt it?
Oh, yeah, the violence is there.
So it was important that Im going to show Tazer as authentic as he would be.
And I just have to make it real, man.
Ive got a long story that I want to take Tazer on throughout the seasons, he explains.
So it was important that you believe him.
I want you to watch it and see how you feel about it, he adds.
As of this writing, I havent yet seen the episode in question.
Such kids are not careful, he says.
Theyre not careful and they end up with a bullet in their back, he cautions.
I hope all my friends and neighbors watch it too, because we live in a Supacell world.
A world of love and violence.
And we all possess the power to help extinguish the latter.
