Taylor Russell of Lost in Space Talks About Playing Judy Robinson, Representation

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing this young lady about her show on Netflix Lost in Space where she is part of the ensemble cast playing the Robinson family that is lost in space. Russell plays Judy Robinson. We bonded over our mutual love of Patti Smith’s book Just Kids and she revealed her all time favorite book is Great Expectations. I also really liked that book as well. I found Taylor to be a thoughtful person who seemed truly excited and grateful to be a part of this project.

In this video, supplied by Netflix, Taylor Russell discusses what it means to her to be a strong black female lead. Judy Robinson is definitely courageous and protective of her family. I have my own strong opinions about the dangers of colorism and my antennae were up when I first saw what the video is about. I think we need to be frank and about how we talk about race in the context of biracial women and the dangers of erasure of dark-skinned black women by casting only light-skinned actresses for female roles. However, I love how sincere Russell is in this video and the producers of Lost in Space also cast a dark-skinned black actress in a pretty substantial role in the series as well.

Judy Robinson is Strong and Vulnerable

In screening some of the episodes, I saw where they were going with Judy’s character and in Russell’s subsequent chat with me she did confirm that she was written as a strong character. For women of color, the “strong” female character can be a pitfall. It is often used as a copout to deny the character vulnerability, femaleness, love, and affection. I was happy to see that Judy is written as strong but also human and deserving of love and affection. She is also written as smart, another trait often denied black female characters who are often put in the position of asking questions that white men (and increasingly white women) answer.

Judy Robinson is Strong and Smart

This is even more important as television and film move increasingly into producing science fiction/fantasy. Part of the reason why people loved Shuri so much in Black Panther is that it affirmed all the black girls out there who are the ones who have the answers for their family, friends, and communities. They have answers because they spend a lot of time reading and studying. However, these black girls are rarely written and it becomes an exercise in frustration for many black women to watch certain films and TV shows. This isn’t to say that there aren’t issues with white women either being represented as possessing technical and scientific knowledge but the problem is definitely much more pronounced for black women who haven’t yet had their own Amy Farrah (Big Bang Theory), Temperance Brennan (Bones), Willow (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) or even Mac McKenzie (Veronica Mars). In Lost in Space, Judy also has a useful body of knowledge that she uses to help her family and herself out of tough situations and that is indeed refreshing.

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