Teyonah Parris stepped back in time a bit for her latest role in No Good Deed. The Netflix series follows three families who will do just about anything to outbid — or outwit — the competition when their dream home finally goes on the market. That includes Parris’s character Carla Owens and her husband Dennis Sampson (O-T Fagbenle), a pregnant couple who are in a race against the clock to move into a new house before giving birth.
“I think we captured really well just how you become desperate, and who are you when you’re desperate?” Parris tells ESSENCE of the conflict at the center of the dark comedy. “These characters are desperate to show up for themselves, to provide for their family, to prove something to someone, be it themselves or those around them, and they feel they can do that with this house.”
The role marks Parris’s first since giving birth in real life. She and her husband James announced the arrival of their first child together, a daughter, in March of 2023. But just a little over one year later, she had a baby bump again — albeit a fake one — when she returned to set as a working mother.
Below, Parris chats with ESSENCE about how being a new mom affected her acting process, getting to relive pregnancy through a new lens, and the real-life birthing dilemma she (and her character) experienced before the star decided on a home birth.
ESSENCE: How did this role in No Good Deed come to you?
Teyonah Parris: I actually was on my maternity leave when I heard about the role and I got to speak with Liz [Feldman], the showrunner and creator. At this point, I had just had my baby, and I was really nervous about returning to work. Like, who am I as an artist after having a child, after trying to raise a child, and trying to keep myself sane and find my own footing again just in life, nevertheless in my art? But speaking to Liz, we talked about the character’s journey and then we also talked about being moms. Her child was actually around the same age, so we got to connect in that regard. And then I didn’t hear anything for months, so I just thought, “They probably moved on,” And then there was a strike, so I definitely didn’t hear anything. Then about 10 months afterward they said, “We really want to go on this journey with you,” and I was like, “Well, that’s awesome, me too.”
What was it like jumping into your first role as a working mother?
Oh, child. Where do I start? It was a lot, but I had the support of my mom. Me and my mom ended up going out to L.A. — my husband was also working, so he couldn’t come at that time. He would come in and visit as his work schedule allowed. But it was different. I had to find different ways to focus in on the work and decide how to tell this woman’s story more efficiently. Before I had a child, my process just looked a lot different. It was a lot more luxurious in ways that I simply didn’t have the time for anymore. So I’ve had to figure out how to be efficient with my time and my attention in the arts. I learned quickly what needed to change and what I could alter a little bit to make sure I cut through and got to the heart of the work I needed to do.
It’s interesting that your first role was playing a pregnant woman. What was it like to be in that body again so soon after giving birth?
What was beautiful about being in Carla’s shoes and her journey was that there were moments in my own pregnancy that I don’t feel like I gave myself as much grace as I needed to, so I got to relive some of those moments and do it differently. When it’s your first pregnancy, at least for me, it was very nerve-wracking. You don’t know, is this right? Is this supposed to happen? And then you’re falling into a freak-out that may not have been necessary. With Carla, yes, she’s freaking out, but my nervous system personally didn’t go into freak-out mode because I knew what it was so Teyonah is internally calming Carla. It’s her turn. So that was fun revisiting some of those moments.
You posted a video showing some of your home birthing process when you announced your daughter’s arrival. What was that experience like, particularly being able to stick to the birthing plan you’d hoped for?
It shifted a lot in me. I don’t know if I really said this before but the exercise of faith you have to have…because you can’t actually see the baby. But you believe, and you pray over it, and you nourish it, and you move forward with all the things that you think you should be doing to take care of yourself and, inevitably, this child as well that’s inside of you. But once she was here, I was in a birthing pool with my husband holding me, and I pushed her out and I was shocked that it was a human baby (laughs). Like it’s on video of me saying, “It’s a baby!” Like, it worked. This actually came together, y’all. There is this thing you nurtured and prayed for and that’s come from love. And I was able to take that and put it into other parts of my life as well, be it career, friendships, relationships just that nurturing and having that faith that you’re actually watering the thing that will grow and blossom.
As far as sticking to the birth plan, I’m blessed that I was able to. Everybody doesn’t get to. There are so many things that can happen in the moment, that you really just have to give over control, and I was ready for whatever might have come. I loved every moment of it. My midwife, Angelina, is a frickin rock star, and my doula, Jamecia, they were just heaven sent. I was so grateful to be home and not under cold lights on a cold floor. I was working through the pain, channeling my ancestors, my mother, everybody that I could to get in the mind space that I needed to bring this child earthside and it really was transcendental. But it was a switch to go to a home birth. I had always wanted to do it, but my husband was like, “No, ma’am, you can’t. Go to that hospital.” His anxiety could not handle it. He said, “I love you, babe. I know you want to, but can we please, at least the first one, do it in the hospital?” And I said, “Well, how about a birthing center?” But then the birthing centers said, “No, it’s your first baby and you’re over 35.” So I let it go. Then what happened was we found the gynecologist we were going to go with, and it was a Black woman who I researched, she was going to be gone for a couple of months and we were like, “Well, hold on now. How does that work?” Which is what happens to Carla in the show, her OBGYN ends up not being her original doctor, and I had those same thoughts that Carla did. “Well, Black women die.” “They don’t listen to us.” “They don’t believe us.” I had a whole freak-out, and [my husband] understood where I was coming from, so we went searching for a midwife fairly late in the pregnancy and Angelina was like, “Okay. I’ll take you on.” So she worked with us for the last couple of months that we needed it. And God really did allow my husband to see both sides as well. He got to be in the pool with me. He got to support me in so many ways that, talking to other friends who have done it a more traditional way, they didn’t get to. And it really allowed the partner not having the child to be a huge part of bringing the child earthside as well. He said if we ever decided to have another child, he would want it to be that way as well, so it meant a lot to him.
You don’t post a lot of photos of your daughter on social media and her face is usually covered when you do. Talk about your decision to be private in that regard.
You know, people can be a lot and harsh. Some are just plain ol’ crazy and some are just excited and don’t even realize that what they’re doing is scary. I’ve witnessed that with other children that I’ve had on my page. We deem ourselves internet aunties or uncles or whatever because you see these children and you fall in love with them on the internet and you really feel attached to how they grow, but you can’t control other people’s reactions. As much as we can, we want to allow her to have a normal, chill, regular-degular life like we had growing up without any extra judgment being put on it. We’re figuring it out as we go along and that’s just what we felt would be best for us. But absolutely no judgment to anyone who does it different.
Coming off of No Good Deed and into the just-announced Mattel film Matchbox as a mom in an industry where some still consider motherhood a career curse, what does this season mean to you?
It’s a season of grounding, doing things that I’m interested in. A season of assurance in the sense of when you’re an actor and you’re trying to figure out what kind of artist you are, what you’re going to do, how am I going to eat, how am I going to pay rent, there can be desperation in that and a sense of unsettledness. Now it’s like I have an amazing husband, a beautiful child, a career where I’ve been able to do a lot of my dreams so there’s a season of owning it, standing in it, as opposed to reaching out and trying to grab things. Visually, I think of earlier in my life, my arms were just kind of out reaching, grabbing, “I gotta get this,” “I gotta do that.” “I need, I need, I need.” And right now, it’s like “I have, I have, I have”— everything I could ever want or need.
