Queenie’s Dionne Brown Believes in a ‘No Contact’ Breakup

Would you like to be Queenie for a day? “She’s really so relatable,” says Dionne Brown, the 28-year-old actress who plays the British Jamaican protagonist in Queenie, the Hulu series based on novelist Candice Carty-Williams’s 2019 best-selling book of the same name. In the show, Brown plays an aspiring writer recovering from a breakup, wading through microaggressions at work, juggling the chaos of her family, and mending a fractured relationship with her mom. It’s not easy being Queenie, but it helps, of course, that she’s got her best friends — her corgis, as she calls them, just like the late Queen Elizabeth’s cohort of canine confidantes — to shepherd her through it. “Candice is such an eloquent writer, and when I read the book, I was like, I didn’t know other people felt like this,” Brown says.

Queenie follows Queenie Jenkins as she attempts to balance the realities of being a Black millennial in the U.K. It’s equal parts I May Destroy You, Fleabag, and Bridget Jones’s Diary, a series that fans of Richard Curtis’s other popular rom-coms — Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually — will love. Newer faces like R&B musician Bellah and You’s Tilly Keeper play the besties in Queenie’s life, alongside appearances from familiar faces of British television, including Michelle Greenidge, Laura Whitmore, and Sally Phillips. Since Hulu’s recent partnership with Onyx Collective, there has been a big push at the platform to adapt books like Queenie for the screen. This one is ripe with references to British Jamaican culture, the experiences of members of the Windrush generation (like Queenie’s grandparents, played by Llewella Gideon and Joseph Marcell), and spots you’ll recognize from colorful series and films set in the Brixton and Peckham neighborhoods (think Rye Lane or Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology). “These areas are so culturally rich, and going to Brixton Market, I’ll never not find what I need,” Brown tells me just before taking me on a tour of South London to many of the spots seen in Queenie. “But …,” she’s quick to clarify, “I’m a North London girl.”

This series swings back and forth between moments of levity and profundity. Queenie often speaks about how she relates to other people — white people, other women, sexual partners — in her inner monologue. She says she’s being tested or that situations are designed against her success. Did you relate to that?

You can see her inner space, and it’s like this space was made for her. We can see from scenes in the show or book, when her friend Darcy says her boyfriend Tom was always pulling her off into corners. We can see Queenie is a bit awkward, a bit out of her area, having to be social and at the forefront of socialization because usually that was her boyfriend’s job. I had to really get into the fact of her being awkward and uncomfortable. I’m not socially awkward like that … I hope … maybe a little bit …

You’ve studied acting since you were a child. What are your favorite texts that you performed while studying theater?

When I was in secondary school, we did A Raisin in the Sun, and my drama teacher at the time gender-swapped it, so all the girls played boys and all the boys played girls. We were like, “We can sit with our legs open? We can take up a lot of space?” The concept of doing that was kind of uncomfortable because it kind of felt like we were being untoward and wasn’t how we were conditioned to behave as women. But it was so much fun! By the end of it, we were taking up space properly.

Queenie Jenkins is from South London, and you’re a proud North London girl, but what are your favorite South London spots?

I like to go to Frank’s Café in Peckham. It’s a rooftop bar and there’s no lift; it’s in a big building. To go up, you have to go up the stairs, and the stairs are all pink. Every day is leg day if you’re going to Frank’s. Pubs — pub quizzes in the U.K. are a big thing, and they’re always of a high caliber. The questions are always difficult! And I like Brixton Market and Brockwell Park.

Queenie isn’t much of a rule follower, and she’s having a hard time getting over the end of her relationship with her boyfriend, Tom, who has essentially cut her off. What’s your No. 1 rule for getting over a breakup?

No contact. Why are we talking? We’re done!

Is it ever okay to ghost someone after a date?

No, it’s not. But it’s kind of unrealistic to not expect people to do that nowadays. It seems to be that society has made it normal, but I personally don’t think it’s a flex.

Queenie tends to be the odd one out in a lot of situations, like going to an office meeting where she’s the youngest one in the room or one of the only Black people at a posh engagement party. How would you handle those situations?

I’d probably take a friend. If I couldn’t take a friend, it would have to just be an evening of small talk. You’ve been to a party and you start talking to a person because you don’t know anyone there, you’re talking to them for the whole night because you don’t want to be by themselves. But you have to move around and talk to as many as people as you can. It’s okay. Some people’s social batteries — like me — run out really quickly.

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Ambivert, maybe. When I’m around my people and my family, they get like 400 of my personalities, but I am very comfortable being quiet. The room can be empty when I’m in it, and it’s full. That is fine.

Do you have a big family with siblings?

Yes, there are five kids. I’m a twin. If we weren’t twins, I would be the second to youngest. He’s half an hour older than me.

Did you ever have your own twin language?

We were just always together. When you have twins, there’s one that’s more independent and one that’s more dependent. I was more independent, guiding him, telling him what to do. I had to share a cake until I was 6. My mom asked what I wanted for my birthday, and I was like, “I want my own cake.” It was always “Happy birthday to you both,” and it got to a point where I wanted to be an individual really bad. We had matching clothes. He would never do anything that would put him in the public eye; he hates the club. I don’t really do the club much anymore, but growing up, I loved going to a party.

What do you have to listen to when you’re getting ready to go out to the club?

Back then, bashment music because I’m Caribbean. Something that’ll make you wine ya waist. Now, if I did go to the club, it would be Afrobeats or Amapiano. But I’m not in the clerb. That’s what I listen to while cleaning the house.

Since you’re not out at the club, what’s your ideal night in?

A glass of Prosecco or white wine and a film. Maybe something from one of the old franchises, like Lord of the Rings. I watched all of those and I was like, I would’ve done damage to be in this franchise! Some snacks, popcorn.

What other movies or shows are you into lately?

I just watched Slow Horses. I love drama. I’m into sci-fi shows. There’s an Alien spinoff coming. I love sci-fi and that series, I love Ridley Scott. I can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen there.

What’s the key to a successful dinner party?

Alcohol. Good food. Chicken, macaroni and cheese, some veg. I’d get good pudding for dessert, or I might make an apple crumble.

How do you cancel plans?

I just say I’m not going. Straight up. I’ll just be like, “I don’t see that for myself” or “I don’t really do that anymore.” If I do go but don’t feel like going, I’ll make it known that I’m not coming for long. I’m a French exit–er as well.

A French exit is okay in your rule book?

Absolutely. When it’s time to go home, just go home! If you start saying bye to people, you’ll spend like 45 minutes saying bye, and I’ve been in some positions where people are really enforcing that you stay. If I’ve had enough, I’m leaving! People think it’s rude and I’m like, What did I do?! You needed me at your party? Okay …

What’s your No. 1 rule for walking on the sidewalk in London?

Don’t walk slow, act like you have somewhere to be, because everybody does. Walk in a straight line so that if I need to, I can maneuver around you. That’s it. Stay out of the way!

Queenie is based on a book. Have you read any recent books that were hard to put down?

I finished The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin, and Random Acts of Heroic Love, by Danny Scheinmann. They were completely different. Baldwin’s was a bit more memoir, more of his consciousness. He was obviously an intellectual. Random Acts of Heroic Love was super sad; it starts on a sad note.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

To try not to take yourself so seriously.

And the worst advice?

When I was a teenager, about 18 or 19, I spoke to this girl one time and she was a bit older. She told me, “If you like a guy and he’s got a girlfriend, it doesn’t matter. You can f–k him.” What?! There are rules! I was just like, No thank you. That was the worst advice. I never spoke to her about men again. I wasn’t even seeking her advice in the first place because I have older sisters. It came out of nowhere! When you say it out loud, it’s like, that’s a wild thing to tell someone.