When “Rutherford Falls” premieres its first season on NBC’s new streaming service Peacock, the warm-hearted half-hour sitcom will have already succeeded in raising the bar for Native representation in comedy television.
Starring opposite Ed Helms in the series are Jana Schmieding (Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux) and Michael Greyeyes (Nêhiyaw from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation), both delivering incisive, achingly funny performances they agree would have been impossible without the series’ commitment to authenticity behind the scenes. With five Native writers staffed – including Schmieding and co-creator Sierra Teller Ornelas (Navajo), also showrunner and executive producer – “Rutherford Falls” employs one of the largest Indigenous writers’ rooms on TV.
Initially, the series – from co-creators Helms (“The Office”) and Michael Schur (“Parks & Recreation,” “The Good Place”) as well as Ornelas (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Superstore”) – focuses on the bond between two residents of one northeast burg. Nathan Rutherford (Helms), descended from a colonial settler who first founded the town through a treaty with the local Minishonka Nation, has dedicated his life to preserving his family’s legacy – sometimes by giving tours of a palatial heritage museum, other times by serving as the town’s mascot. Reagan Wells (Schmieding), his best friend and a Minishonka tribe member, spends her days running a more modest cultural center inside the tribe-owned Running Thunder Casino.
When Nathan digs in his heels to protest the planned relocation of a statue commemorating his ancestor, he finds himself at odds with his community – and “Rutherford Falls,” refreshingly, broadens its focus to foreground other community members, whose lives intersect with Nathan’s without ever seeming to revolve around him. Most central to the first four episodes – all those sent to press, though all 10 episodes stream Thursday – is Terry Thomas (Greyeyes, best known for HBO’s “I Know This Much Is True” and “True Detective”), charismatic CEO of the Running Thunder Casino. As Nathan blunders through efforts to defend his own ancestry, Terry senses an opportunity to aid his historically oppressed people and soon seizes it.
From the series’ debate over public monuments to its equally probing discussion of cultural appropriation and the erasure of Native peoples, “Rutherford Falls” makes no secret of its narrative ambitions. But it’s also an endearing, character-focused comedy that fits snugly into the “Schur-verse.” Both elements of “Rutherford Falls” come into play during scenes like the one in which Nathan and Reagan damage a government building, Nathan suggests they leave their information, and Reagan retorts, “Vandalize public property and leave a note — ah, to live that white dude life.”
“It’s funny,” Greyeyes recalls Schmieding telling him a few days into filming. “But because Indian humor works the way it works, there are things sitting underneath it, too, that are present.” In the first episodes of “Rutherford Falls,” it’s the complexity of all that sits underneath the laughs that most distinguishes the series. Schmieding and Greyeyes spoke via Zoom with The Playlist to discuss their experiences working on the show and the “freeing” impact of better Native representation.
Let’s go back to the beginning. How did you both become involved with this project?
Schmieding: I’ll start by saying I spent 2016 through 2019, three years after having moved from New York to Los Angeles, trying to get staffed on a TV show. That was my goal, my mission. All of my writing samples featured a Native female lead, but they didn’t seem to be going anywhere. I wasn’t making any headway. And it just didn’t seem like the industry was interested in the kinds of stories I was telling.
I was ready to throw in the towel on writing when I met Sierra Teller Ornelas, our showrunner, and became involved with the Native screenwriting community here in Los Angeles. Everyone was very supportive, specifically other Native women in screenwriting; they kept pushing me to continue and persevere. When I met Sierra, she asked if I had any writing samples, because she was showrunning a series. I said, “Yes, absolutely, here are my samples,” and I was staffed on [“Rutherford Falls”] by the end of 2019. I got a staff writer job, and I was so happy! I was so relieved I didn’t have to move in with my parents at the age of 37 – thank God!
So I had the experience of writing for the show, originally. But my first love is performing. I’ve been performing live comedy in New York City for over 10 years. Before that, I was a theater arts major interested in being an actor. But to be a good writer, I knew I had to put those dreams on hold and really focus on this one goal. I didn’t have any intention of being cast on this show. But when I got sent some sides to audition for a character role – which I was extraordinarily pleased about – Sierra included the sides for Reagan. It felt like a mistake. There had been no talk about me being cast on the show, no one planting seeds, no discussion. So, that was very surprising. I went through the whole audition process and, the same week we got shut down because of COVID-19, I found out that I had gotten the role of Reagan. That was huge. It was major in my own career but also, as a writer on the show who’d been writing Reagan for a long time, I couldn’t believe I got to play her.
And for you, Michael?
Greyeyes: How can I follow that? [laughs] It’s so good. When I heard that and would tell people, I’d be like, “No, no – she was a writer. And she was killing it in the room, and people were like, ‘Maybe she should audition for the lead.’ And she got it!”
Schmieding: Well, Michael Greyeyes is an iconic Native actor. The story Sierra tells about casting him is absolutely incredible. She talks about his audition, how he read for Terry; as Native writers, we had [influence over] the casting process and design elements of the show. And knowing that Michael Greyeyes was potentially auditioning for our show was like, “Yes!” We needed him. We needed this powerhouse, Shakespearean-level actor to step into this role. Also, Michael’s extraordinarily funny. He can deliver jokes, because of course he can! He’s an amazing actor. But when [people] think of Michael as an actor, some think he’s like a Sitting Bull in his real life. They see Michael on screen and think he’s this stoic Indian man living amongst us. But he’s not.
Greyeyes: Jana’s going to do all my interviews going forward. I will say, my knees were knocking together in that audition. I knew this was Mike Schur and Ed Helms. I didn’t even know Sierra at that point, as much, but I knew this was the big leagues. Allison Jones was casting it – legendary casting director. I hoped they could hear my lines over the fact my knees were knocking and my teeth were chattering. But they laughed in the audition.
Jana, though it has a light touch, “Rutherford Falls” dives into weighty questions of historical erasure, cultural appropriation, and white privilege. How did you strike that balance between laugh-out-loud comedy and authentic drama?
Schmieding: First and foremost, it’s a sitcom. As a writer and a performer, that’s a very comfortable world for me to live in. Because we didn’t focus on the issues in developing this story, we focused instead on the characters. And we knew we’d see the issues manifest in their lives. The show is not about a monument being taken down. It’s about the lives of these people and how they react. When you give that kind of narrative autonomy to anyone, you get to see the richness of their life play out. You get to see them have a lot of different experiences.
Especially for Native people, having such a diverse Native writing staff – and diverse non-Native writing staff – participate in those conversations about our experience with oppression and the decentering of Native narratives and history, we were able to bring in so much nuance. Each character could really have their own show; we have a lot to work with if we get a second or third season… It’s a show about people, about characters. With that in mind, you treat the Native characters as people, giving them equal story time with the non-Native characters. I think that’s where the show shines.
Michael, you’ve spoken before about the efforts Native storytellers are forced to make to subvert the white gaze, in order to push toward an Indigenous subjectivity. Working on “Rutherford Falls” with Native writers, what did you observe about the effect of having that space on your own work?
Greyeyes: One thing I became achingly aware of while making “Rutherford Falls” is how much time I usually spend fixing stuff, within productions or within writing, either educating or doing some other kind of advocacy work for greater dimensionality inside the characters, [providing] alternate viewpoints on a character. That was absent here. Through the writing, the characters were fully dimensionalized. For the entire season, I just focused on performance. I’m an actor. I love my craft. I revel in my craft. I love actors. When I came on set, the writing and the narratives were political, but I didn’t need to be political in my skin. I just needed to worry about being the best actor I could be. By centering our narratives, it allowed another aspect of my work as an artist – which is craft and expertise – to emerge.
It was Mahershala Ali who said that actors of color get asked a lot about our culture. That’s fifty percent of the interview. And then the other fifty percent is asking about craft. Whereas, Ethan Hawke only gets asked about his craft, for the entire interview. Therefore, the audience reads that interview as, “This is a great actor who talks all the time about how he got great, how he’d like to be better, and [displays] a devotion to craft.” No one cares about Ethan Hawke’s background, right? It was a very salient point Mahershala made, and I lived it this season. I was constantly asking, “How can I make this funnier? How can I keep up with Jana, with Ed?” That was my experience.
Schmieding: And in the writers’ room, centering our narratives just meant being writers. We center our own narratives in our own communities. I am a Native woman. That is central to who I am. I walk through the world with my identity. Being around other Native people in the room validated that experience quite a bit. We didn’t have to engage in the 101 of identity with our colleagues, and there were moments where we were explaining, “This is why the joke should be this way” – to Mike Schur! We didn’t have to work to get to the center. We were already there. And that was made possible through having Sierra running the room, with a Native person having built our staff. We went into the project knowing we were already centered, so there was no struggle to tell our jokes or reframe our language in any way. As Native people, we are the center of our universe. We always have been. It’s non-Native people who decenter, objectify, and oppress us. Once we have storytelling autonomy and narrative sovereignty, this is what we get: a beautiful, complex piece of art.
This is a great segue into discussing Reagan Wells and Terry Thomas. The show weaves together your characters with other residents of Rutherford Falls while foregrounding them in their own stories. What did you both discover about your roles while balancing scenes with co-stars?
Greyeyes: Dana L. Wilson plays Mayor Deirdre Chisenhall, and she’s absolutely awesome in our season. One storyline later in the season brings Terry and the mayor into conflict, and it’s a delightful thread because Dana, as a Black actress, and me, as a Native actor, could lean into the feud, like Hatfields and McCoys, guns ablazing. But what made it awesome is that it had nothing to do with our political identity, those constructs. It was simply about a whirlpool and an Airbnb. We’re just like Godzilla and King Kong battling it out over this ridiculous issue, but at the end the truth of the humor was that it was teenagers back in high school having their rivalry replayed as adults. There was no residual racial tension in those moments, and what I realized is that you couldn’t have done it if I was white or if Dana wasn’t Black. It was an amazing example of how the truth of who these characters are pushed the writing in freeing directions. There’s freedom at that end of the spectrum, instead of finding increasingly that you can’t say this or that. By embracing the DNA of diversity, the show became wide-open to explore these narratives and storylines.
Schmieding: Playing with Ed and playing with Michael on screen was fun but also a real education. I took a masterclass in performing from these two men I’ve watched my entire life. I just savored every moment. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a creative project where I felt so present. I wish that I was recording myself and what I was thinking as I was doing it, because it felt so special. I was really able to elevate to their degree of presence on screen, to play with them and have rich scenes together. The fun parts about acting opposite Michael were doing comedy with this king of drama. It was really fun to get in there and needle or tease him. The back-and-forth we have, that was such a joy.
And to contrast that, scenes later in the season find Nathan and Reagan’s friendship really starting to experience the effects of him clinging to his history. And she has this moment where she confronts him, and he seems to be losing grasp on his identity, having this meltdown. She needs his help for once, and she asks him directly to center her in his life for once. She says, “Why is your history more important than mine?” It’s a big thesis moment in the season, but in the moment I got to do this dramatic scene with Ed. I’m a drama nerd through-and-through, and as a person who’s done a ton of comedy, it’s a joy to do drama once in a while. Ed at his core is a very talented actor. When we give comedic actors the opportunity to get in touch with drama in their performance, you get something really fiery and exciting. Reagan as a character has so many highs and lows. She’s really jumping hurdles at all times. Sierra describes her as this ambitious, nerdy, sweaty woman. [laughs] And I don’t know. I’m always down to sweat on screen. That’s my M.O..
Greyeyes: Well, we’ve got good skin.
I want to specifically compliment the show’s fourth installment, “Terry Thomas,” which explores the complexity of Michael’s character and delves into his lived experiences. It’s marvelously written and powerfully acted. For both of you, what was it like to work on that episode?
Greyeyes: I’m grateful to hear that it impacted you. It’s a high water mark. It’s an achievement in television writing. We have not seen Indigenous characters written with this level of nuance in either dramatic or comedic work. This is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. I remember on the day I went home really unhappy. I was incredibly dissatisfied with my work that day, because I knew what that piece of writing meant. I got great direction from Sydney Freeland, Sierra was there as well, and my scene partner, Dustin Milligan, was incredible. But I knew TV had never seen this kind of writing for an Indigenous character, and I knew I had to hit it out of the park.
What amazed me about the writing, and I think my performance did ultimately address it, is that Indigenous people have points of entry into all the issues Americans deal with on a daily basis. But there’s a mask, a kind of double consciousness, that we’re asked to live. Terry’s obviously the boss of a casino, a businessman, the face of one organization and in a way the face of the Minishonka Nation. But he really wants to speak truth to power. Dustin’s character is a reporter and a young guy, but he’s still representative of this dominant culture against which we have been pitted for over 500 years. What I thought was beautiful about that writing is that there’s this veneer of civility that people who have double consciousness have to deal with. But there is burning, gut-churning truth that we’d love to speak but can’t – can’t for a lot of reasons. What the writing of this episode did is that it allowed him to speak it.
It was so fine, the line between being angry and being freaked out by an angry person, which would hide their truth. And that was such a fine line for me to balance, between speaking truth to power and still playing this man who’s actually quite gracious, funny, and compassionate. It was a tremendous acting challenge. I think that’s why I felt so shitty on the day, because I had to match that writing. And when I saw the episode, I was so blown away by everything about it. That’s my dad and my mom, my relatives speaking from behind that mask. I think this production nailed it.
Schmieding: Michael hit it on the head. That’s what we were going for, showing the life of this man and the “why” behind his personality. I’ll just add that when you see a Native casino owner on television, one written by non-Native people, there are a lot of tropes and stereotypes that are easy to let that character fall into. They’re usually corrupt, cruel, out of touch with their community. They’re capitalists out on their own. We wanted to flip that on its head, to show that Michael has an immense amount of love for his community, so much that he’s willing to dedicate his life to helping his community thrive.
All episodes of “Rutherford Falls” are available now on Peacock.