The hit Prime Video series Daisy Jones & The Six is predicted to pick up a few Emmy nods when nominations are announced next month, including for indie starlet Riley Keough, who plays the titular musician. But before the awards race gets underway, there’s already some drama brewing online surrounding the promotion of the cast and the supposed sidelining of one of the show’s few Black co-stars.
Last Thursday, Variety released its Women of Awards Season cover featuring three of Daisy Jones & The Six’s female leads: Keough, Camila Morrone, and Suki Waterhouse. In the accompanying piece, Variety’s TV features editor Emily Longeretta wrote that she selected the trio for the issue because of their refreshing portrayal in the series “as a unit,” as opposed to rivals. Despite the profile’s emphasis on Daisy Jones’ female friendships, though, the cover curiously did not include Nabiyah Be, who portrays fictional disco performer Simone Jackson. Her character, the only Black woman in a main role on the show, is Daisy’s former roommate and confidant.
Upon its publication, Twitter users immediately expressed disapproval over the cover story, as well as the headline that the three white actresses—including the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and the de facto stepdaughter of Al Pacino—were “changing the narrative in Hollywood.” (Morrone, who plays the show’s Latina character Camila Dunne, is Argentinian.)
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“Big publications declare this about a different group of nondescript white actresses every two months,” one user quote-tweeted the article.“Nabiyah Be added so much to Daisy Jones and the Six only for her to get excluded so much,” another wrote. “Now that I've finished this show. I’m shocked at how important Nabiyah is to this show. You would never know by the marketing a Black woman was integral to the story,” another person added.
The Variety cover isn’t the first time Be has been noticeably absent from some of the cast’s big press appearances. During the initial press run for the series back in March, Be did not appear on The Kelly Clarkson Show with Keough, Morrone, and Waterhouse, nor did she join the show’s larger cast on The Drew Barrymore Show.
Some social media users have argued that Simone, whose role is expanded from the Taylor Jenkins Reid novel, plays a more pivotal part in the series than some of its white characters. Specifically, Episode 7, titled “She’s Gone,” departs from the central storyline about Daisy and The Six to focus on Simone’s disco aspirations and her relationship with a female DJ named Bernie (Ayesha Harris). Later on in the episode, Simone encounters Daisy as the rocker is about to abandon her music career, and ultimately convinces her to rejoin The Six in time for their blockbuster Aurora tour. The rest of the season finds Simone struggling to navigate the music industry as a queer artist.
In addition to the Variety cover, Waterhouse, who plays keyboardist Karen Sirko, has been brought into the fray. Over the weekend, Daisy Jones fans called out the musician and model for allegedly contributing to Be’s supposed isolation from the cast after she seemingly cropped the Brazilian actress out of a photo from a Daisy Jones press event. “No bc I’m sick to my stomach what the hell is this,” Twitter user and film critic @ZoeRoseBryant tweeted alongside the photo.
Fans were quick to criticize Waterhouse for what they perceived as an intentional move to exclude Be, calling the model “racist” and a “hater.” Others acknowledged that Waterhouse had posted the uncropped version of the photo minutes after the first post with the amiable caption, “next iteration of the six is a four piece girl group you heard it here first.” One user defended the 31-year-old, claiming that the photo she originally posted of the female cast had already been cropped. Still, some are questioning why Waterhouse posted the cropped photo in the first place, or didn’t delete it once she realized it was edited. The Daily Beast has reached out to Waterhouse for comment.
By nature of the internet (and fast-working stans), this controversy has also trickled down to Morrone, who is similarly being labeled as a racist—not because of her treatment of Be, but for her alleged engagement with inflammatory Instagram posts. Twitter users gathered screenshots of Morrone liking posts, mostly from the popular meme account @thefatjewish, mocking Black women, making fun of Taylor Swift, and criticizing Blue Ivy’s appearance. The Daily Beast has reached out to Morrone for comment.
Publicists for Daisy Jones and for Variety have yet to respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Nevertheless, it’ll be interesting to see if this online support for Be will have any effect on her Emmy chances, or if this controversy will fade into the night. IndieWire has named her a possible contender for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie, while other publications seem less certain she’ll be on the ballot.
