Dominique Fishback – ContentMode

Dominique Fishback

stars in

Amazon Prime series

Swarm

film

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Photography Lindsey Byrnes

Stylist Madison Guest

Interview Juan Marco Torres

NYC-native Dominique Fishback stars in the newest Transformer franchise film alongside Anthony Ramos and in Prime Video’s horror limited series Swarm as scary superfan Dre with performances from Billie Elish and Rickey Thompson. Although they’re both vastly different projects, Fishback’s versatility and poignancy shine in both. We sat down with the actress to talk about her time filming in Peru, the emotional rollercoaster of playing Dre, and how she stays grounded in such demanding roles.

Dress: Aliette, Heels: Staud, Earrings: Maison Miru

You’ve been traveling a lot for work. How is it being back home in New York? What do you miss about it the most?

It’s difficult to come back and try to stick to all the practices that I’ve been able to develop on my own. Especially because I’m so distracted trying to see and catch up with everyone. I also sleep in more. But there’s nothing like a New York summer. I find that I always miss home the most during the summertime.

Dress: Harbison, Heels: Charles and Keith, Earrings: stylist’s own, Socks: Wolford

I was reading that trusting your intuition has been crucial for you in your career and expanding it as an actor. How do you know when you’re following the right path?

Well, I definitely have to pray and journal about it. Then I try to go off by the basics – asking questions like, ‘how is this character going to challenge me?’, ‘Do I feel in my spirit?’ Is it imposing my spirit to say, ‘Man, I gotta do this!’ If I’m scared about it, I have to do it.

Then there’s questions like ‘who are the creatives that’s involved?’ and ‘where are we gonna shoot?’, ‘for how long?’. The answers to these questions are the result of something you have no control over. You don’t even have control over the process or how the film is going to be executed. In times when it’s hard or things don’t turn out the way you would have liked, at least you can go back and say, ‘well, I did it because the character and the creators inherently inspired me.’ So then you can’t really go wrong because at the end of the day, you follow your heart.

In that frame of mind, I also talk to my friends about it, and I write a lot. I probably do way more pros and cons. But, ultimately, I always go with what’s gonna make me sleep better at night.

Can you share a bit about your experience filming Transformers? What were some of the most challenging aspects of it? You were fiming in Machu Picchu in Peru, that’s insane!

I think the most challenging part was the amount of hours we spent in the jungle. We’d wake up really, really early and run, going into the mountains in Machu Picchu where you are eleven thousand feet above sea level and it is really cold.

It’s hard to keep going while your body regulates to these extreme conditions and you’re trying to have the energy to give your everything.

At the same time, it’s really beautiful to be able to say that Anthony and I are the only actors who have gotten a chance to act in Machu Picchu for a big film.

Top & Skirt: David Koma, Boots: Charles and Keith, Earrings: Sterling Forever, Gloves: stylist’s own

What did you like the most about your character, Elena, in Transformers Rise of the Beasts?

I love that she’s from Brooklyn and that she is extremely smart. I talk about accents because most times when you think of a scientist or an archaeologist, you don’t necessarily think of Brooklyn, you don’t think of East New York.

A lot of times, my characters are from the south in the US, so they’ve required me to eliminate my Brooklyn accent first and then sprinkle on some different sounds, and that’s always fun for me. I love accent work, but to be able to lean in fully to my authenticity is even better. I was so happy that we didn’t have to hide it or alter it for a simulation – that it could just be and that it wasn’t reflective of my character’s intelligence or anything like that.

What drew you from the Swarm script?

What drew me to the script was the journey that I was going to go on physically and emotionally. As an actor, you pray for an opportunity like that during the entirety of your career, and it was presented in one limited series, in one season, seven episodes, but six essentially for Dre and about thirty to thirty five minutes long.

I felt that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to stretch and explore those different parts of the human psyche via a character that allowed me to be unhinged and free.

Although Dre ends up being this psycho serial killer, everyone she meets throughout the show seems to actually genuinely care for her. Why do you think that is?

Ultimately, Dre marches to the beat of her own drum, which can be very hard in general, that even though she’s considered weird or whatever by a lot of people, she is unfazed by those types of labels.This is why I really love that in episode two, I got to explore her femininity, her sensual sexual femininity with the pole dancing because when you first see her, she’s watching this crazy dance being performed.

Initially, they took the second dance out of the script. I asked if they could put it back because I thought it was imperative to her character arc into the audience getting to see that she’s not being pulled so much by the world and it’s actually her controlling it more.

She’s very aware that if she does what everyone requires of her that she might get ahead, but she chooses not to. I wanted to make sure that we know it’s a choice.

At first, you kinda feel sorry for her because you thought she had no control. But once she takes control, in the second episode, you learn that she actually has the power of choice to conform and she chooses not to and I think people can recognize the off-centerness, that awareness that we all have inside. We all have a uniqueness inside of us that sometimes we hide in order to fit in. We see ourselves in Dre.

Dress: Aliette, Heels: Staud, Earrings: Maison Miru

Can you tell us about one of your favorite scenes from Swarm?

One of my favorite scenes from Swarm is actually a deleted one that happens around when Dre and Billie were talking, leading up to Dre going off on them, trying to find the keys to her car and going around the house screaming and breaking things, thinking someone had hidden them.

It was one of my favorites because I know life can get hard and often we don’t have the chance to scream around and break things because we gotta clean up after, or we might get in trouble. it’s important for us to let out that kind of rage and that we move energy and we move our bodies so that is not stored inside. Playing Dre allowed me to release, and I’m better because of it.

We don’t really get any closure at the end of the series. What do you imagine happens to Dre?

I imagine she goes to jail.

Top & Skirt: David Koma, Boots: Charles and Keith, Earrings: Sterling Forever, Gloves: stylist’s own

What kind of genre do you like to work on the most?

I don’t particularly have a favorite, I think, is more based on the character, where I am personally in my life, and what my soul needs. A lot of times, the roles kinda gravitate towards me and what I need, and then I’m able to grow throughout the character.

I definitely wanna do a lot more comedy. I love New Girl and I Love Lucy.

I was just thinking about my childhood and how my mom watched a lot of Jamie Fox and the Fresh Prince, and that’s a lot of physical commedy that these guys did, and it always excited me.

In Swarm, Dre does get to do a lot of physical comedy. Donald and Jeanine really allowed me to kind of build on my own impulses.

What are you doing when you’re not on set?

Definitely, piano lessons, guitar lessons, voice lessons, working on my poetry book, working on a feature film that I was writing about love. Also just really working on myself, reading a lot of books and healing and understanding my own feminine energy.