Fringe's Jasika Nicole Says the Show's Joke About Astrid's Name Was 'Tasteless'
Jasika Nicole, one of the stars of the hit Fox series Fringe, is sharing her thoughts on a “tasteless” joke that lasted for the whole five seasons of the show.
The 40-year-old actress made her comments on Twitter back in July when she responded to a fan who said, “I loved Astrid’s relationship with Walter. How he always got her name wrong.”
Jasika played Astrid and John Noble, pictured here with her, played Walter.
“As a black woman with a name that white people seem to find incredibly difficult to pronounce, sometimes knowingly using the wrong name for me, I always thought it was a pretty tasteless joke and hated that it lasted the whole 5 seasons of the show,” Jasika replied to that tweet.
After the fan apologized and said that this never occurred to her, Jasika responded and said, “Most white people don’t do things to intentionally hurt the feelings of POC. And that’s the point. Noone ever thought to ask how it made me feel cause it was written through the lens of whiteness. Just cause someone doesn’t SEE the harm doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
John replied just this weekend and said, “I can see that now. I apologize for anything I may have done to appear disrespectful.”
Jasika responded to John and said, “It’s ok- you didn’t write it, John!”
Click inside to read the Twitter thread that Jasika wrote after the tweets went viral…
After the tweets went viral, Jasika wrote a Twitter thread about how the joke made her feel at the time.
its strange how my frustration about the name joke on fringe is suddenly getting so much traction, because I’ve been vocal about my issues with it for years, but I guess now that black lives mattering is more “popular” people want to pay attention to it now?
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
I was very clear in my tweet that I never blamed John noble for the joke- he was merely delivering the lines that were written for him. It actually took me a while to even recognize how upset the joke made me. Spending a lifetime of trying to fit in and laugh WITH the white…
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
kids instead of being laughed AT was a coping mechanism that followed me into adulthood. But once I *could* articulate how frustrating the joke was, I couldn’t do anything with it- the show was not a safe space for me, literally from my first day on set when I was told I would…
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
not be getting rides to work (customary for series regulars) even though all 6 of my other cast members were getting picked up. Producer told me I was wrong, they weren’t getting rides, even though I would watch cast exit the transpo van each morning. Thought I was losing my…
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
mind. Begged my agents to believe me, insisted I wasn’t lying, wasn’t sure why I was being singled out. I took an hour and a half subway ride to work every day for weeks, then walked ten min to the studio as the van pulled up next to me, my cast mates in tow. At some point that..
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
producer got fired and I started getting rides to work like everyone else, but it just set the stage for being treated differently than everyone else. We had directors (plural) who refused to get my name right. One insisted on referring to me as “you”, “that one” and pointing..
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
at me to give me a direction. Another one simply refused to attempt to say my name correctly and called me everything he could think of but ‘Jasika’. It was so bad that josh found a name tag, wrote the phonetic spelling of my name on it, and put it on his shirt, knowing…
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
the director would pay attention to HIM, might show me some respect that way. josh was trying to use his power/clout for good. Still didn’t work tho. 5 seasons. No, I never said anything about the joke back then cause I didn’t feel valued enough to think anyone would care.
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
Also…the initial spirit of the joke was not lost on me. I understood it as an indicator of Walters mental health, and I even laughed a couple times cause the names WERE funny. I assumed the joke would die out after the first few episodes, as walters hold on reality became…
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
less tenuous and he felt more rooted to the present and the ppl in his life. At some point the joke turned away from him being incapable of remembering astrids name to him being fully aware of who she is and just teasing her for fun. THAT part became bullying and racist.
— Jasika Nicole (@TheJasikaNicole) August 23, 2020
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