Diarra Kilpatrick and Shannon Wallace on Representing the Motor City in ‘Diarra From Detroit’ [Exclusive]

BET+ continues to put out edgy and thought-provoking content, and its latest series, Diarra From Detroit, is no different. Describes as “a smart, edgy, dramedy created by and starring Diarra Kilpatrick, alongside Morris Chestnut, Phylicia Rashad, DomiNque Perry, Claudia Logan, Bryan Terrell Clark, Shannon Wallace, and Jon Chaffin,  the series follows a divorcing schoolteacher who refuses to believe she’s been ghosted by her rebound Tinder date that leads Diarra down a dangerous rabbit hole.” Viewers are taken to the underground world of the city, far from the Motown hits we put on a pedestal, and many things are uncovered. Popculture.com spoke with Kilpatrick and Wallace, who star as a divorcee and their Tinder date that leave them dry, respectively. While Detroit serves as a backdrop, it’s also a main character. The series is available to stream beginning March 21 on the streamer. 

Diarra, you mentioned in a previous interview that you got inspiration for the 

show from your friends complaining about their dating woes. How was it stepping into their world on screen? And would you say that they believe you got it right?

DK: I hope so. I mean, I am inspired by real life. My motto is always: “If one person tells me that this happened to them or something like this happened to them, then I feel free to run with it.” It’s not a documentary. I still want to save room for the crazy things that pop into my head, so I get to make it my own. They are proud of me, but I’m in no way trying to make a documentary of anyone’s life or experiences.

Your husband is a producer on the project. Even though you’re married and not in the streets daring, how have your own experiences as a couple contributed to certain storylines? Because I’m sure if your friends have been complaining about ghosting, that some of his friends have probably been guilty of the ghosting. So why do you feel like he contributed to the project?

DK: I feel like we all have great female friends who are single. Shannon is single, but I wouldn’t hook my friends up with him. It would have to be with someone ready to be married and ready to get on that domestic train. So most of my husband’s friends are married with kids. I have more single girlfriends than he has…single guy friends, that’s for sure. 

There is one moment, but this is not from our relationship. But this did happen. There’s a moment in episode six where we’re at the strip club, and, Brian Terrell Clark who plays Mr. T, and Mr. T is kind of trying to get a stripper away from him, and so he throws money at her to get her to stop. And, that did happen once we were in a strip club in Detroit. My husband paid a stripper to stop. But that’s all I can think of that really comes from our real life. That’s in the show.

Another element that I love about the show is that Diarra is an educator, and, we’re seeing a resurgence in stories about educators with shows like Abbott Elementary. And when I think about the character Janine, she’s kooky and quirky. That’s how my teachers were when I was growing up. Then when you see your character, she’s fly. My sister and I were just recently chatting about how as children, we never thought our teachers had lives of their own. So as adults now, we go to happy hour, and some of my teachers are my Facebook friends and they follow me on Instagram and I’m just like, ‘Oh, I get to see a different side of them.’ So to see that on screen and to see you showcase teachers are out here looking for love too, I think kind of humanizes them a bit. So, was there a lot of consideration that was put into this profession?

That’s a good question. It was a lot of consideration that was put into it. My mother was a teacher, and so I had that same thing where I knew a lot of people felt like, ‘Oh, teachers aren’t real people. They’re like aliens or something, and they don’t have a life that continues when you they the classroom.’ But because my mother was a teacher, a lot of her friends were a part of our lives because she was a team teacher, so they would come over. I always saw them as real people with flaws. 

I would hear them talk math sometimes about their students, and I would hear them sometimes complain about how hard it was and the challenges that they were facing, but all the while being their own little Captain extras, and giving 110% to what they were doing. And so I wanted to honor that. And I do think it’s interesting that, as you said, there’s a little bit of a teacher resurgence on television. 

Quinta Brunson’s mom is a teacher. Issa Rae’s mom is a teacher. And I just think there must be something about teachers that also raise women who feel like they should have a seat at the table or something. So there was that consideration. And then also, I think being a public school teacher is a great profession for a private investigator. Because I would watch my mother have to sort of figure things out, in order to do her job. So if a student was showing bad behavior, she would kind of have to figure out, ‘Oh, he went to go visit his dad in jail this weekend, and that’s why he’s not paying attention anymore.’ And she would have to notice those cycles and that sort of piece things together. 

Nothing scares a public school teacher. They’ve seen it all. They know a little bit about everything because they’ve had to sub different classes and so I just felt like it was actually a really great profession for an amateur detective.

That makes a lot of sense when you use that analogy. So obviously, Shannon, Diarra goes on this journey because of you. So before we get into all of that, what do you feel makes her so intrigued about your character just from one date?

SW: On her side. I see she’s a newly divorced woman. I know she’s got needs and wants, and I think Chris might be the guy. No strings attached to fulfill those needs. But on the day she finds that there’s something else there, it represents the possibility that she could move past her ex-husband. And I’m like, ‘Okay, cool.’ She sees something, and it’s not a, it’s not a me thing. She realizes, ‘There’s nothing wrong with me. I can now step out here confidently and still be wanted in this world.’ And I think Chris could fill that up a little bit.

Now he fills it up, but then he leaves her hanging. So we go on this journey because of him. And obviously, we know that there’s a whole ghosting aspect. And instead of just walking away. What would you say as a man, as an actor playing in this in this series would make women or the A continue to want to keep following up on him despite him going ghost on her?

SW: Oh oh. Well, what was the nickname that you gave him at midnight, dear?

DK: Ambien.

SW: Oh, the man who put you to sleep that good? And I think that was enough to go find this dude in the middle of the winter in Detroit. You know.

Oh, it’s just that simple?

DK: No, it wasn’t just that. I think Diarra had envisioned her life and thought, ‘This is how it’s going to be,’ and that’s what it is. And so when that ended, she’s literally grieving. She’s really grieving the way she thought the rest of her life was going to go. And then when she meets this guy, it’s like opening up a window, opening up the curtains. It’s like, ‘Oh, there’s a whole other world. Maybe this could be the thing that I’m going to do now.’ It feels like she found this soft place to land and a place to calm that grief that she was feeling. And then, he disappears. But I think it’s I think it’s more than just the sex, because as women, we are emotional creatures. So it has to be more than just a thing.

SW: It was a battle of the minds. They both saw something in each other that you rarely come across.

How is it for you stepping into this character, Shannon? Have you ghosted any women?

SW: It hasn’t it hasn’t come up yet. But, as I’ve been saying, I’m not opposed to it, but I’ve never done it to anyone personally. I will usually, either at the end of a date or at the end of the second date, let you know kind of where we stand. If it’s not working, it’s not working. If it works, then see you next time. But I’ve never ghosted on anybody.

You’ve spoken about how Detroit is a different character in the film. How exited are you to showcase another side of the city?

DK: Detroit natives, we go hard. This was really born from and inspired by the city, and ripped from the headlines. There are stories from the city, and stories that my girlfriends told me, and people that I’ve known. It is kind of close to the bone. And I love to take as much truth as I can and then mix it up into a big fictional, twisty-turny story. I know the foundation of it is that real Detroit experience.

How was it being able to bring the city that you were born and bred in to life on screen?

DK: It feels really good. And also, more specifically Detroit is something different to everybody. So it feels really good to bring my Detroit, because I have really warm feelings about it. And it’s it’s a complicated place. Some people go there and they’re like, ‘It’s hard growing up there.’ So, I’m really excited to bring my version of Detroit, which might be a little bit askew from other people’s point of view.

Detroit is getting a lot of recognition lately. There’s BMF and The Temptations musical. So I’m happy to see that it’s getting more shine.

My mother grew up on the steps of Motown because she grew up right around the corner from there. And she would go and she would sit on the steps and watch Diana Ross and all of them come and go. And it was like the coolest thing for her. And so I think I always grew up feeling like the city’s best days were behind it. And, what I’m really proud of is saying that, ‘No, the city’s best days are now as well.’ If you look around the city, there are beautiful portraits to be painted of the people in Detroit right now. And it’s not just that the best thing that ever happened to Detroit happened in 1965.