Renée Elise Goldsberry on her Girls5eva character: "I think Wickie gave me an excuse to let it all out"

Vulture

"You know, it was just right there waiting to come out from within me," Goldsberry tells Vulture. "I think, and maybe I’m not alone in this, I’ve spent a lifetime of suppressing all of those urges and tendencies just so that people will like me. I think Wickie gave me an excuse to let it all out. It was not in any way hard to work for attention, sing a little louder, and sing a little more obnoxious to get somebody to look at me. Or to try to wear the biggest and most ostentatious clothes, anything to get noticed. I don’t know if that’s something behind everybody who comes up in this career, but I’ve been swallowing those urges for such a long time. I didn’t know how desperately I needed it. The greatest calling card for Wickie is how she develops in the first episode. You get to see the façade and the lie, and then you get to see 100 percent transparency and vulnerability. I remember reading the scripts and having a very clear aha moment by the time I finished reading the scene where she’s in the hotel room with Dawn. I think we can all relate to someone who feels like life owes them something and is aware of how impossible it is to correct mistakes that they’ve made. No matter how ridiculous Wickie is, there’s something we can hold onto. ALSO: Girls5eva creator Meredith Scardino does a deep dive on the Y2K-era girl groups that inspired her.