Aliyah Royale Shines in The Red Line, Talks Diversity in Show

It’s no shock that fundamental parts of our American society are fractured and nearly broken. Racial disparities are more and more apparent as the country watches unarmed black men shot by the police, and civil unrest has followed.

With that as a background, CBS debuts The Red Line this Sunday, April 28 at 8/7c. Executive produced by Ava DuVarney, the show deals with the aftermath of the fatal shooting of an unarmed African-American doctor who is shot by a police officer. The show switches from the perspectives of the family left behind, the life of the police officer, and a woman trying to make her way into Chicago city politics. As one member of the slain doctor’s family, Jira Calder-Brennan (Aliyah Royale) struggles to deal with life in Chicago without her black father.

The Red Line star Aliyah Royale, a relative newcomer to television, took the time to talk to me about the show (it’s not the usual fare for CBS by any stretch). We chatted about NGTV favorite Noah Wylie, too.

“It was 100 percent the character of Jira Calder-Brennan,” Royale said on what brought her to the show. “I just felt like we were looking at this young girl who was obviously very wise and very strong in what she knows, and he [Daniel, her surviving father] was just searching for more information as to why this shooting would even happen.” To see a white man struggle with his African-American daughter is a powerful theme in the first three episodes, and acknowledging that Daniel (Noah Wyle) can’t understand the racial world his daughter navigates spoke to both Royale and me.

As we’re both mixed race, we spent some time sharing stories of what happens when explaining something to one half of the family that they might not understand. “I think in mixed-race families and Black families especially, it’s hard to figure out what to tell your child [about being] Black. It’s hard to figure out when to say ‘things may be more difficult for you’,” Royale said, at a moment when we highlighted what it is that complicates Jira’s life, as well as our own. Race was a the heart of the play this show is based around, though details have been changed to make it more current.

But the issues of race aren’t the only issues that The Red Line tackles. Jira’s parents, Daniel Calder (Wyle) and Harrison Brennan (Corey Reynolds) adopted Jira at a time when only one of them could legally be her father. Much of the first three episodes show Daniel struggling to deal with the aftermath of Harrison’s death, but also how he can fit into his larger communities again. The first two episodes highlight the strong and vibrant LBGTQ+ community of Chicago, but Jira has another connection. Her best friend, Riley Hooper (JJ Hawkins), is non-binary and that defines much of how we first see Riley. Discussing Riley a bit more, Royale noted that Hawkins is a trans actor, but that doesn’t take away anything from a character that is non-binary.

When discussing the larger LBGTQ+ issues of the show Royale said, “We are not trying to tell anyone, throw anything in anyone’s face, or be like, ‘this is what non-binary is, this is what it means to be gay.’ It’s one hundred percent we’re just showing you these very real people and very real character…It’s extremely important to not fetishize in it and make it some giant publicity stunt.”

The Red Line premieres on Sunday, April 27 at 8/7c. The show will air two episodes back-to-back for four Sundays on CBS.

Come back next week for more of Aliyah’s thoughts on her television dad, Noah Wyle, and a little more about the show’s heart and message.