By Brinlee Edger
Photos by Tiziano Lugli
When Emayatzy Corinealdi talks, you can hear how much she’s thinking before she answers. She takes her time, not out of hesitation, but out of care. Her voice has that calm, grounded quality that makes you feel like she’s in no rush to convince anyone of anything. She doesn’t need to.
Right now, she’s calling from Los Angeles, still somewhere between filming and mom life. “I’ve been running around all day,” she laughs, “so this is actually a break.” There’s a steadiness to her energy that matches the kind of woman she’s become known for playing: controlled, layered, just below boiling.
Corinealdi is best known for her breakout performance as Ruby opposite David Oyelowo in the critically acclaimed 2012 Sundance film Middle of Nowhere, which was nominated for the “Grand Jury Prize” and won “Best Director” for Ava DuVernay. For that role, Corinealdi was named one of “Top Ten Faces to Watch for the Fall” out of the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to win “Breakthrough Actor” at the Gotham Awards, receiving a nomination for “Best Actress” at the Independent Spirit Awards.
But it’s her starring role as Jax Stewart on Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt, that has been creating all of her buzz. Jax is a sharp and complicated defense attorney who never walks a straight line. “Jax is bold,” she says. “She’s not afraid to take up space or make the wrong choice. She just moves. And I think that’s part of what I love about her. She keeps going even when it’s messy.” It’s that mess that makes the show feel honest. Jax isn’t a fantasy woman or a moral anchor — she’s powerful, imperfect, and sometimes, painfully human. “She reminds me of women I know,” Corinealdi says. “Strong, smart, emotional. Just trying to balance everything without losing themselves.”
She laughs when I mention how easy she makes it look. “Oh no,” she says. “There’s a lot of work that goes into not making it look like work.”
Before acting, Corinealdi once thought she might become a lawyer in real life. “I liked the performance of it, honestly,” she admits. “The argument, the presence. I thought, ‘That’s what I want.’ Turns out, I didn’t want the law part, I wanted the storytelling.”
That same curiosity shows up when she talks about how the show’s storylines brush up against real life. This season leans into darker material — exploitation, secrecy, the ripple effects of trauma. “We don’t sit down and say, ‘Let’s make this topical,’” she says. “It just happens. Because that’s the world we’re living in. If it doesn’t show up on screen, it’s because we’re avoiding it.”
There’s a quiet conviction when she talks about her work, like she’s aware of how stories can shift the air. “Even if one person watches something and feels seen, that’s the point,” she says. “That’s the whole reason.”
She’s been acting long enough now to notice how much the industry has changed, especially television. “TV used to be where you went in between movie jobs,” she says. “Now it’s the main event. You actually get to live with your character instead of saying goodbye after three months.”
Credits include a multi-episode arc on HBO’s Ballers opposite Dwayne Johnson and starring as the female lead opposite Don Cheadle in the Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead for Sony Pictures Classics. Corinealdi also starred in the highly rated History Channel adaptation of Alex Haley’s mini-series Roots, starring opposite Forest Whitaker and Malachi Kirby. That longevity has changed how she thinks about her career, too. “It’s made me more intentional,” she says. “I don’t just say yes to things because they sound good. I want to know who’s telling the story and why. I’ve started thinking more like a producer, like, what can I help build that lasts?”
She’s tried writing, or, as she puts it, “started a few things that will probably never see daylight.” She laughs. “I realized I write like I talk, too much. So I leave that to the writers and focus on what I do best.”
When the conversation drifts toward technology and AI, she sighs. “It’s terrifying and fascinating at the same time,” she says. “You can’t ignore it. It’s here.” Her husband works in tech, so she hears about it constantly. “We talk about it a lot, especially how it’ll shape my daughter’s world. She’s going to grow up in a completely different reality. I just want her to know how to navigate it instead of fearing it.”
Family is where her sentences slow down. “Motherhood changed me in every possible way,” she says. “Everything I do now, I think about her first. It’s like the focus sharpens. I care more about what I’m building than what I’m chasing.”
Her own parents gave her that foundation. Even her name, Emayatzy, comes with a story. “My dad’s Panamanian, and there was this princess named Emaytia, which my mom mixed with my grandmother’s name, Emma,” she says. “Teachers could never pronounce it. I could always tell when they got to me on roll call because they’d just pause.” She laughs again. “But I loved it. My parents told me it was strong and unique, and I believed them.”
When I ask about her heroes, her tone changes, warmer, lighter. “Angela Bassett. Denzel Washington. Ed Harris. I look up to them so much,” she says. “They work with such clarity. You believe every word.” She tells me about meeting Bassett once and completely losing her cool. “I just ran up to her like a fan,” she says, laughing. “And she was so gracious. Exactly who you hope she’d be.”
Her list of dream directors spills out easily, Ryan Coogler, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Daniel Day-Lewis if he ever decides to come back. “Phantom Thread is one of my comfort movies,” she says. “It’s so precise, so beautiful. I could watch it a hundred times.”
Off camera, Corinealdi is nothing like the high-powered women she plays. She drinks tea instead of coffee, keeps her trailer minimal, “just slippers, snacks, and a laptop”, and swears her karaoke song, Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Reasons,” is a make-or-break test of courage. “If you can hit those notes,” she says, “you can survive anything.”
When I ask what Jax would be if she weren’t a lawyer, she doesn’t even think. “A bounty hunter,” she says, laughing. “She thrives in chaos. She’d love that.”
As for what’s next, Corinealdi’s learned to trust timing. “There’s a project coming, but I’ve stopped rushing,” she says. “The right thing shows up when it’s supposed to.”
More than anything, she’s focused on doing work that feels true. “I’m not chasing fame,” she says. “I’m chasing freedom, the freedom to make choices that mean something.”
There’s a short silence, and then she adds, almost to herself, “You know, I think that’s it. Just to keep growing without losing myself.”
She says it so simply, like a truth she’s been circling for years. It lands the same way her performances do, steady, unforced, and real.