Actress Gina Torres made sure that there was more to her character Darcy in Netflix’s “The Perfect Find” than the narcissistic label, which stemmed from Tia Williams’ novel of the same name.
Darcy offers the story’s protagonist Jenna Jones (Gabrielle Union) a job after Jenna goes through a very public breakup and firing, but she and Jenna go way back — mainly as nemeses. Once Jenna meets Darcy’s son Eric Combs (Keith Powers), the two cannot stay away from each other, and it’s only after they kiss that Jenna learns Eric is Darcy’s son.
“I loved the old villains of 90s nighttime soaps, so I would say that that kind of started there, but I also wanted people to be treated to her humanity as well,” Torres told TheWrap. “That she just wasn’t this two-dimensional villain that wanted to make Jenna’s life miserable that there was there was a beating heart under there, and that it was passionate.
Darcy forbids Jenna to engage with Eric without realizing they are already romantically involved. At the end of the film when Jenna reveals to Eric that she is pregnant with his child, Darcy visits Jenna, but not just to scold her.
“We get to know a little bit more about Darcy in that moment, when she explains her own history and her own background, and why that relationship is what it is and why it became what it what it did become,” Torres said. “It’s hard for a mother to let go of her children and to watch them grow up. It’s even harder to let them go to their rival. There’s that, but I think that that scene, in particular, serves a very, very important purpose in terms of just Darcy’s humanity.”
Torres brought her Afro-Latina background to the role, as Darcy and Eric are Guyanese. For her, “The Perfect Find” goes beyond the representation of Black love.
“It’s not just enough to have Black and brown and LGBTQIA and Asian characters on screen. It’s also important that you see them as fully-formed human beings. Not just a box you can check off and point to and say, ‘See, we were diverse. This is a diverse movie.’ We’ve had enough of that,” she said. “I’m happy to say that we are now moving into an area in filmmaking and television, where we see portrayals that are full-throated, that are thoughtful, and that is what I love about this movie. You see fleshed-out human beings that just happen to be brown and Black, and because of that, it’s that much more universal.”
