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Chlöe Bailey‘s sex scene in Swarm was so controversial upon the show’s premiere that it clouded an otherwise valuable performance from the singer-turned-actress. But Bailey says she paid the internet backlash no mind when reflecting on her role.
In an appearance on The Tamron Hall Show on Friday (April 7), Bailey finally opened up about her buzzy turn in Donald Glover‘s Prime Video series – and she only had good things to say.
“You want to know the great thing about removing Twitter from your phone? Anything negative I did not see!” she said. “In turn, I was just proud of the work I did as an actress.”
In the pilot episode, Bailey’s character Marissa is seen having sex with her boyfriend Khalid, played by Damson Idris. The sex scene seriously shocked viewers at home, and not because Dominique Fishback‘s character was secretly creeping on the couple from the hallway. Bailey was heavily criticized on Twitter for participating in the scene, as some thought it reflected poorly on her while others questioned if the actors were acting at all.
Most of the internet’s backlash was aimed at Bailey. Idris, on the other hand, got off relatively scot-free (even though his character actually turned out to be a huge creep.)
But it looks like staying off of social media helped her focus on the silver lining.
Bailey, who previously starred alongside her sister Halle as college students in Grown-ish, told Hall that acting in Swarm opened her “love for acting so much more.”
“That was really the first time I felt comfortable being raw and open,” she said. “Why I love Marissa and resonated with her is because on the outside, she’s this huge ball of sunshine. She’s so, like, positive and she in turn was dealing with her own personal issues, so you really never know what people are going through, and I felt honored to play her and to share her.”
She also shared that Taraji P. Henson gave her some words of encouragement when they crossed paths. “Let me tell you something that just boosted my confidence as an actress so much,” she said. “A little earlier today, I saw the incredible Taraji P. Henson and the first thing she said was like, ‘You were incredible in Swarm,’ and she was like, ‘Keep going!’ And that just meant so much to me.”
Bailey once admitted she was “very scared” to film the sex scene, but got through it with Idris’ help.
“As open and liberal as I am about my body, I was very scared because I haven’t had that many partners,” she told Deadline in March. “Damson made it really comfortable; you know, there were limited people on set. It was a closed set.”
“We literally had a bouncy ball in between us, and you know, we were making a joke out of it, so it took all of the nervousness away from that,” she said. “I have to give a lot of kudos to him as a man for making me, as a woman, feel comfortable literally being raw and naked.”
Swarm is now streaming on Hulu.
