Everyone’s favorite horse is about to get a modern twist thanks to Prime Video‘s Beyond Black Beauty.
The new YA drama follows young equestrian Jolie Dumont, whose Olympic dreams are dashed when her mother moves them from Belgium to her family’s urban ranch in Baltimore. An angry Jolie wants to escape until she bonds with a spirited horse named Black Beauty. Throughout the series, Jolie learns to embrace her heritage while continuing toward her Olympic-hopeful future and discover the value of family and home.
“It is a show that explores a multitude of themes, like mother and daughter relationships, a relationship between girl and a horse, integrity, generational trauma — and it follows it through the lens of a 15-year-old equestrian named Jolie Dumont when she’s thrust into a world against her will. She has to learn how to not only trust again, but forgive,” executive producer and showrunner Pilar Golden tells Celeb Secrets exclusively during a virtual junket.
Inspired by Anna Sewell’s 1877 children’s novel Black Beauty, which is also one of the bestselling books of all time with more than 50 million copies sold, actress Kaya Coleman, who plays Jolie, tells Celeb Secrets that having a show like Beyond Black Beauty on television is needed now more than ever for young Black girls.
“It was just so beautiful to be given the opportunity to play a young complex character because I think it’s important that other young Black girls can see themselves reflected,” Coleman shares.
“I used to be a former athlete and I was raised by a single teen mother, so I understand the complexity of a mother-daughter relationship; I understand what it’s like to really grieve an old life. I think when you’re young, it’s really easy to kind of feel like your parents don’t understand you and you’re hurting inside,” she continues.
“I just wanted to really give justice to that storyline of this young girl who’s lost a lot in it. She is willing to learn and willing to forgive not only other people, but herself for the mistakes that she’s made,” she concludes.
And aside from being introduced to the world of urban ranch life and Black cowboy culture, Beyond Black Beauty shines a light on the fact that everyone’s not perfect, and they’re actually doing the best with what they’re given to make sure life goes smoothly.
“I think one of the things I discovered [while being on this show] was this… As a kid, it’s really easy to put your mother or your father on a pedestal. And I think that Jolie really learns that both her parents are humans and they’re not perfect, but they’re doing the best they can with the tools they have,” Kaya reveals.
For more on Beyond Black Beauty, make sure to watch our interview with Pilar and Kaya below. Don’t forget to let us know what you think of the show by leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecrets, after you binge all eleven episodes on Prime Video here.
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR “BEYOND BLACK BEAUTY” —
