TNT has set the cast for its six-episode drama, One Day She’ll Darken.
Chris Pine was the only cast member previously announced.
Per Shadow & Act’s respective interests, we’re noting that on Friday, Justin Cornwell and Golden Brooks were added to the main cast.
Aside from them, India Eisley and Jefferson Mays were tapped as the series leads, and Yul Vazquez, Dylan Smith and Jay Paulson were also added to the main cast.
One Day She’ll Darken tells the incredible story of Fauna Hodel (Eisley) who was given away at birth. As Fauna begins to investigate the secrets to her past, she follows a sinister trail that swirls ever closer to an infamous Hollywood gynecologist, Dr. George Hode (Mays), a man involved in the darkest Hollywood debauchery.
Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is directing the first two episodes. Sam Sheridan (also the writer) and Pine are producing.
Here are official descriptions of their roles:
Fauna Hodel aka “Pat” (Eisley): A naive young girl growing up outside of Reno, Nevada, who embarks on a desperate quest to discover who she is, a quest that throws her identity into crisis.
George Hodel (Mays): A former child prodigy, now a brilliant doctor who entertained and inspired a Hollywood salon of the avant-garde in the 40’s until a scandal broke and sent his famous friends scurrying.
Billis (Vazquez): A freelancing LAPD sergeant and problem-solver for the brass whose fear has turned to hate. He finds himself caught in the vise of corruption and the interests he has to protect.
Terrence Shye (Cornwell): A gifted young man stuck between an engineering apprenticeship and the streets of Watts.
Sepp (Smith): A struggling artist, Sepp is twisted beyond recognition by guilt and tragedy.
Ohls (Paulson): An LAPD detective and a Korean War vet who owes his life to Jay Singletary; he and Jay share the alienation of warriors coming home.
Jimmy Lee (Brooks): Fauna’s mother, a former lounge singer, still consumed by bitterness from the injustice of Jim Crow Mississippi and a life of missed opportunities and squandered chances.
The series is based on the novel One Day She’ll Darken: The Mysterious Beginnings of Fauna Hodel by Fauna Hodel and J R Briamonte.
The novel’s official description: In 1951, Fauna Hodel, the Caucasian offspring of a prominently social California family, was given away at birth to a young Black woman who worked as a restroom attendant in a Nevada casino. The purpose was to ensure that a Black family raise the baby. In her 16 year old mother’s eyes, Blacks were the far more loving than most everyone she encountered in the white community. To ensure that the child would never return to her emotionally reclusive white family, she made sure her new baby’s birth certificate listed the father as “Negro”. The child, of course, grew up believing that she was of mixed race. She struggled before, during and after civil rights were enacted. Enduring prejudice from both races, she sought out the only person who truly knew where she belonged – her real mother. But after discovering her true identity, she uncovered a family secret even more bizarre than her own – the mysterious world of incest, murder, and powerful forces that have kept this story from being told for more than 20 years.
“One Day She’ll Darken is a mind-boggling true mystery with unpredictable twists and turns and edge-of-your-seat chills. Sam Sheridan, an expert storyteller, has delivered scripts that entertain, frighten and tell tales of redemption and a powerful search for identity,” said Sarah Aubrey, executive vice president of original programming for TNT, during the show’s first announcement.
Production begins in Los Angeles next month.
