Emma Lahana of Marvel’s CLOAK & DAGGER was at San Diego Comic-Con to talk about her character on the new Freeform series.
We sat down with Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger actor, New Zealand native Emma Lahana, who plays Detective Brigid O’Reilly, to talk about her awesome character on Freeform’s first, and so far only, Marvel series.
In regards to the official news from Freeform that the show was being renewed for a second season, she was as enthusiastic about it was the fans were, and gave credit where credit is due.
“We owe everything to the fans. They are the ones who we make it for,” Lahana stated. “I’m so excited about the stuff we’re going to have coming up in season two. We’re so lucky, we have such a great crew. We have such a great team of producers. We have such a great, diverse writers room, and our cast is awesome. Everyone gets on, no one’s a diva. It’s honestly a dream job.”
As far as what her character would do after helping Tyrone with is fight against a bad cop, she thinks it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go against a multi-million corporation like Roxxon.
“It’s a great conversation to have in this time of extreme capitalism. Y’know, where you’re seeing a certain company making 52 million dollars a day, where workers aren’t allowed bathroom breaks,” said Emma. “So, I think that’s a very important topic to tackle, seeing that wage gap increase. You gotta take those dodgy companies down, man!”
Emma also didn’t find it hard to choose between being Cloak or Dagger if she got to pick. Being from New Zealand, the choice was pretty easy. “I’m going Cloak, because then I feel like I can teleport home to New Zealand for the weekends to see my family.” She added that she doesn’t like flying either, so there’s that, too.
She found that working on location in New Orleans adds a unique element to the series that many other shows don’t get, especially because the city is kind of part of the story as well.
“I think it looks so amazing on camera. It’s such a unique looking city. The history there is incredible. But it’s also this kind of challenged city,” said Lahana. “They’ve been through so much. And the storyline that we have with the Mardi Gras indians. It’s such a beautiful story, the backstory to how all that came about. It’s unlike anywhere else. I think that’s the actual city that doesn’t sleep.”
In episode 8 of this season, Lahana’s character, Brigid, mentions a fellow cop friend, Misty, who is none other than Misty Knight (from Netflix’s Marvel series Luke Cage), which explains her character’s New York grittyness. She talks about what she researched to play her character, and why she had no problems believing Tyrone.
“When we first see her in episode two, she’s come from New York, and that’s kind of her first case in New Orleans. My main research that I did was in police brutality and systemic racism, because she’s seen a lot of that. And you see her form an alliance with Ty. So, I wanted to know what she’d seen, specifically and in details of where she came from,” Emma explains. “When Tyrone comes to her and is like, this cop killed my [brother], she doesn’t question him. She’s like, let me take care of it. But she’s not [saying] I doubt that happened. She knows because she’s seen it, it’s a reality. That’s something that I love about her, that she’ll do the right thing, even though it’s not the easy thing.”
Watch the video to see what she fangirled about at Comic-Con.
Cloak & Dagger is currently airing its first season on Thursdays at 8pm and has been renewed for a second season on Freeform.
