VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: ‘Lace’ Star Maryam Basir On Playing Vulnerable Character, Accessing Complex Emotions

Maryam Basir spoke about her character Lacey McCullough’s complexity and emotions on the ALLBLK TV series Lace in her new exclusive uInterview. 

Basir highlighted her character’s change from season one to season two. Lacey has much more on her plate this season as she has “accrued a lot of enemies and this season the enemies are closing in on her and they are after her.”

Basir told uInterview Founder Erik Meers that “the FBI is after her. Some of her, you know people she’s kind of not screwed over but when you, show favoritism and get people out of stuff, you’re gonna create a lot of enemies. So they’re coming for her this season.”

She pointed out that “you’re gonna get to see a lot of Lacey’s vulnerable side,” specifically with “more of her family life in the home.”

She went into more detail, explaining that Lacey’s soft side will be shown throughout the season. 

“Lacey is human, Lacey does have a heart, where she was so cold in the first season and so calculated with everything and it was nice to kind of just show that she has a vulnerable side too and, she’s a mom she, you know, you see her like singing to her daughter happy birthday, you see her like arguing with her husband,” she said.

Basir continued to detail how for her playing Lacey is a “dream.” Lacey starts season one off being a “powerful bad chick who can get anything done and solve everyone’s problems, except her own.”

Then in season two, it was vital that she was able “to access like painful parts of your life to be able to bring out those emotions and relate them to what’s going on with Lacey.” 

It was necessary for Basir to be able to use her own dark emotions and experiences and translate that into Lacey’s life. 

“So you have to access a lot of your own, you know we all go through ups and downs and things in our life so sometimes you have to look at those very dark places and say I know how Lacey feels because I’ve gone through something similar you know something even different, but it can help you access those same emotions. So I pull inspiration from a lot of places,” she said.

While this is key, Basir noted that it’s not always possible to do this because she and Lacey’s experiences are not the same. In order to overcome this obstacle, Basir had to “look at the script and just be creative and say you know how would I feel if I were really in the situation?”

Basir hints that in episode three, which was released Thursday, Lacey is involved in a situation where an “explosive scene” occurs.

“And episode three, which is coming on this Thursday, tomorrow, is dropping,” she said. “There’s an explosive scene where, you know I’m not gonna give it away, but just know, you’ll know it when you see it. That’s one of my favorite scenes.”

This scene is significant for Basir as she reveals that this was actually the first scene she did for season two right after she arrived in L.A. 

“And fun fact that was actually the first thing that we shot when I got there. I landed on set in L.A., and the first scene that I did was that explosive scene,” she said. “It was about three or four pages of dialogue and monologue, it was a very intense, heavy scene and you know it shows. But that was the first thing that we shot.”

Basir also recalled how much fun she had off camera, especially when dancing on set. 

“Like the hair and makeup team, all the music and dancing behind the scenes, the TikTok’s and stuff we were creating like all that stuff is just that’s the fun part, you know,” she said. “When you’re done for the day and you like, you know I come into the chair with my music jamming and dancing like the hair and makeup trailer. And we just like you know jam out and that’s the fun part to me.”

Lace is currently available for streaming with new episodes of season two coming out each week.