‘Rivals’: Nafessa Williams Talks Cameron’s Power, Finale Cliffhanger, & Season 2 Hopes

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers fo all of Rivals Season 1.]

“She’s at the top of her game,” Nafessa Williams says of Cameron Cook on Rivals. But there is that potentially deadly cliffhanger that has her very worried.

Cameron is torn between the two sides after the franchise: the one that has it (Corinium) and the one now competing for it (Venturer). She’s also right in the middle of the show’s central rivalry: She and Tony (David Tennant) have been having an affair, but a trip to Spain allowed her to explore another side of herself—while getting together with Rupert (Alex Hassell). To say Tony was not happy when he learned of their relationship is an understatement, but Cameron fights back—and may have killed Tony with the award she won!

Below, Williams talks about Cameron’s journey, the power she has, her feelings for Tony and Rupert, and more. (Plus, read our deep-dive into the season and the changes from the book with executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins here.)

Something I like, and I was talking to Dominic about this yesterday, is that the show completely changes that scene at the end of the book because we see Cameron fighting back against Tony—first with her words, telling him she’d marry Rupert, the worst thing—

Nafessa Williams: I know! The worst thing she could have said to him, right? He was infuriated. I was just talking to a friend about how furious he was and how much he wants to win and it eats at him whenever Rupert wins like that. It’s so deep.

Talk about reading that finale script.

Yeah, it was pretty interesting to read and it just leaves us all on a cliffhanger because she’s like, well, I’ll marry Rupert, and then you see Rupert saying that Taggie (Bella Maclean) is the one for him. You don’t know where this is going to go, right? But it was really exciting and interesting. I remember we were all like, “Oh my God, did you read [Episode] 8? Did you read 8?” We just couldn’t believe some of the stuff that we were reading and it was just so exciting and we couldn’t wait to shoot it. And then we can’t help but to think what a Season 2 would look like if that is going to happen. There’s so many places for the show to go.

Talk about filming that last scene with David. It was so intense.

That was a really intense scene to shoot. And it is just so funny how David is nothing like his character, but he can be so scary when he turns into Tony, and so menacing and the furious energy that he had to bring, it was just really cool to see. He’s such a beast. So it’s just an honor to be able to get to work with him. Yeah, it was really interesting to film. I remember we filmed that one really late at night.

Cameron is caught between the two sides, Corinium and Venturer. Do you think she knows where she wants to be for herself at the end of the season? Not factoring in who’s on either side, but there’s the matter of Corinium is where she got her award, they’re established. Venturer is just starting…

Yeah, Cameron also—everybody wants to be on top, so sometimes the grass may look a little greener. And I think there’s also this newfound affection and connection with Rupert that may be helping her steer towards that way. And I think she believes that Rupert may have the winning team and maybe Corinium, the way they run the company, is becoming old, outdated, and maybe Cameron is always looking for new exciting, and maybe that’s what Venturer has to offer seriously.

She also likes the idea—she thought about Declan [Aidan Turner], too, she started to build a really good relationship with Declan. And I think that’s something that’s enticing, to know that I think they had 12 million viewers their first episode together, and just thinking about the possibility of her continuing to work with Declan, too. She’s also offered to be a partner. It is different than just being the controller of programs and head of that department.

Does Cameron think she killed Tony?

I think she thinks there’s a huge possibility. She definitely is scared as hell hoping that he’s not dead.

Yeah, because either way—

It’s bad either way. It’s so bad. If he’s alive, it’s just as bad.

Yeah, because then it’s an angry Tony. If he’s dead, this is the ‘80s. She’s a Black woman. That’s something to be seriously concerned about.

Yeah, really. Yeah, she’s scared as hell.

Something that I liked is that you can see the differences in power for Tony and Cameron. Tony seems like he wants to have the power, but Cameron actually has it and you can see that she knows she has it.

Hell yeah!

It’s not just with Tony, though—it’s in general.

That was the fun juiciness to play, right? It’s just so cool playing a character—I mean, listen, she’s a woman who knows who she is. Corinium did not make her. Tony did not make her. She was who she was before she left New York. She’s one of those women who have always known who she was since she was a kid. She’s just got that thing about her and she’s always led with that confidence and knowing how powerful she is. I think she also knows that her sensuality and her sexuality is also very powerful. And sometimes when it’s appropriate she leads with that.

But yeah, that’s the one thing that makes her so damn interesting is that no one really scares her. I mean, that’s a true New Yorker for you, though. Not much scares people from New York. I’m from Philly, which is literally down the street, so I feel like I know a lot about that and I just brought that to her. And I lived in New York, too, so I just brought that energy of that fearlessness. And New Yorkers, even New York women, they know how to play the game and sometimes they know how to play it better than men and they’re very, very confident in it.

That’s what she needs to be because of the time that they’re in. She needs to have it.

Exactly.

She accepts that ring from Tony, but does she love him? Does she want the life he’s talking about together? He says he’ll leave Monica.

That’s the thing, too. Can she trust him? I don’t know that she knows that she can trust him. So as much as, I mean, I think that would be the ideal dream for her, it’s just like, is he selling me a dream just to keep my attention and to keep me away from other men? At the time when he offers her the ring, he doesn’t know about Rupert, but I think she’s just really smart and she’s keeping her options open. She knows that she’s not his priority, and I think she learns midway through and you can see the arc when they go to Spain that she better leave her options open. And then I think, too, what really, really triggered it for her is being away in Spain and being someone’s priority and actually going out on a date in public and not having to hide. I mean, the desire for that is something that she’s had to bury and pretend it’s not bothering her as much as it is. But with Rupert introducing that to her in this beautiful new way, she taps back into her self-worth and what she’s capable of. And even though she doesn’t want Declan’s son, she’s like, I’m desired by people and I better start acting like it and I don’t have to be someone’s second option.

I like how happy she is at that dinner in Spain.

Right? What I love about Spain is you see the arc of Cameron, and she’s not just this ruthless, savage TV producer who’s a boss. She’s also a woman who wants to be loved and wants affection. She desires softness, and you also see her vulnerability. And I was really excited to show the arc of that and a good character and good story writing is going to show the arc of a character in such a way where you see a different side of her where she can let her hair down and she smiles more. You don’t really get to see Cameron smiling a lot. And then when you get to Spain, you’re like, oh my God, I know this woman. I am this woman.

She seems happy with Rupert, but there’s the Taggie of it, which she doesn’t know about. How does she feel about Rupert? Is it more who she is with him? Is it him?

Well, I’ll say this about Rupert: Rupert is one charming of a damn man. He’s so charismatic and I mean, everyone falls over him. So I think he’s just one of those men who has that thing that’s really hard to explain. I think she likes who she is with him. I think she’s herself more with him. She can let her hair down. I don’t feel like it’s as transactional as it is with Tony. It’s very much a transactional relationship more so with Tony, and I think with Rupert, it’s something that wasn’t planned. She’s just going purely off of her feelings and he makes her feel good, and he makes her laugh and they see each other. I mean, he’s also a powerful man, and that’s one thing she’s extremely attracted to is men of power. I mean, she’s a powerful woman, so she doesn’t want anything less than herself right?

It’s also the way that she has to hold herself in different situations. With Tony and the ring, she has to be like, oh no, I’m wearing it around my neck.

Exactly.

It’s the same way she carries herself at Corinium vs. Venturer, where she can walk in and say she’s taking the offer, she’ll be partner.

Exactly. I think she’s playing the game better than them. She’s like, I’m going to keep my options open. I don’t know who to trust, and I am going to prop myself up in the best position possible.

What’d you enjoy most about Cameron’s entire journey for the season?

I loved how Cameron is able to pivot. I love how she sees an opportunity, or better yet, when she sees that one isn’t working in her favor or she’s not going to ultimately get maybe what she hoped for or desired for, she knows how to make a pivot. She’s really quick-witted, and she’s smart and she’s sharp, and I think she thinks going to Venturer is the better option. I think she also learned a lot about Tony and learned a lot about what she didn’t like. And there’s a lot of things that I used in my preparation being aware that there’s a young woman who was raped on our watch and nothing was done about that. You know what I mean? So it just speaks a lot to the people who—she’s noticing things, she’s observing a lot of things, and ultimately making, like I said, some pivots and making things work out in her favor.

I think one of my favorite parts was her winning the award.

Yeah. Thank you. That was fun. It was actually a lot longer of a monologue, and obviously, for time purposes, we had to edit it and cut it down, but that was really fun. Another really good moment where she’s celebrated and highlighted and a happy moment for her.

What was your favorite scene to film?

That’s tough. That’s tough. That’s tough. I might have to say the award speech. That was really, really fun. It almost felt like, for Cameron, this is everything she worked for, right? I don’t know if she thought—I knew she knew she had the potential, but not on her first, pretty much year of being with Corinium—that she would win an award in Spain for her work. So yeah, that speech was pretty funny. It was actually really scary, which for me, when I overcome, scary things, it feels really good. But when you got a monologue and you’ve got to say it in front of all these people, those are the most intimidating scenes. So getting through that was really nice.

What would you want to explore in a potential Season 2?

I would really like to explore where the relationship is going to go with Rupert and also see where her career is going to go. She’s got herself in some hot s**t, and I’d like to really see, I mean, first just see how we get out of this pickle with, is he dead or is he alive? And if so, I think we either see her in jail or we see her kind of dodge whatever Tony is going to throw her way.

Rivals, Season 1, Streaming now, Hulu