‘The Undoing’ Star Noma Dumezweni Thought She Was Going to ‘Be Fired’ (Video)

And more on-set stories from HBO supporting actors during TheWrap’s Emmy Contenders panel

Noma Dumezweni could be up for a supporting actress Emmy this fall for her performance of Haley Fitzgerald in “The Undoing,” but she had a moment where she thought she “was going to be fired” from the HBO limited series, Dumezweni told TheWrap.

“I was basically doing swan feet,” Dumezweni said of shooting her early scenes opposite Nicole Kidman. “Meaning, I’m looking as calm as I can but I am FLAPPING right underneath.”

“I was cacking it. I was stressing. All those things,” she continued during TheWrap’s panel honoring standout supporting actors from HBO programs. “There was a moment I thought I was going to be fired.”

“We’ve got to get three years of theater out of you,” Dumezweni recalled director Susanne Bier saying to her.

Well, Dumezweni didn’t get fired — and she held her own in scenes with both Kidman and Hugh Grant.

Watch the panel via the video above.

Our supporting-actor panel also included Chris Chalk from “Perry Mason,” who pointed to the reboot’s diversity as the “beauty” of what can occur when remakes are done correctly.

“The fun thing about remakes, in my opinion, is you kind of see the world around the remake,” Chalk said. “We’re still in a very misogynist, racist world but when they made [the original ‘Perry Mason’], there was only white people, period.”

“But now you get to see– it’s still the same story, same world, same book, same source material, but because the world’s point of view has opened up, it’s really nice to see all these elements that they neglected to include,” he continued. “That’s the beauty of a remake.”

Check out more from Dumezweni, Chalk, Paapa Essiedu (“I May Destroy You”), Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”), Lydia West (“It’s a Sin”) and Weruche Opia (also of “I May Destroy You”) in the video at the top of this post. And check back with TheWrap daily for more from our Emmy Contenders series.

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