“I immigrated here by myself when I was 18,” says Silvia Dionicio. “I had to grow up really quickly because of that, and I think I really tapped into this idea that didn’t really jade me.” Dionicio, now 28, speaks freely about using her life experience of immigrating from the Dominican Republic as the foundation for her latest role on the HBO show Task.
“It made me stronger, but it didn’t really change the foundation of who I was.”
For Task, Dionicio plays Emily, the adoptive daughter of FBI Agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo). High school student by day, Italian-ice slinger and caregiver by night, Emily is carrying a family situation as heavy as all of the West Indies. “I really wanted to tap into this idea for Emily that, yeah, this is difficult, and this is breaking her heart, but this doesn’t have to define her. And this doesn’t have to define her family,” says the actress.
When we meet the Brandis family, we quickly learn they have the makings of a great novella. Dad may be an FBI agent now, but he once was a priest who fell in love with and married a woman. Together they had a daughter Sara (Phoebie Fox) before adopting Emily and Ethan (Andrew Russel). The family’s good times are long gone now that mom has died, and the rest are left to cope with not only her loss, but how she was lost. Unfortunately, the healing is put on hold when Agent Brandis is called to work and put in charge of stopping a string of robberies involving a local motorcycle gang and their drug-slinging empire.
On the surface, it’s cops versus robbers.
But, as we have come to know, a good drama does not live on the surface. And Task isn’t just a good drama, it’s one of the best TV’s offered up this year. As the season stretches out, so too do the characters. But in a rarity on television these days, the audience is given the chance to grow by witnessing this formidably layered story.
Dionicio isn’t wrong when she says it’s a “difficult” situation. But that is putting it mildly. Dionicio, without a doubt, turns in one of the most impressive performances in the series. Her mature, calm, and quiet approach to Emily is one of the most impressive performances on this already stacked show. Dionico is quick to credit the collaboration of Task showrunner Brad Ingelsby, who also created Mare of Easttown.
“He created such a nuanced young woman,” Dionicio tells Latina Media Co in our one-on-one interview. “I felt really grateful that he injected a lot of my background and my experience into Emily. Whenever I came into the project. Emily originally wasn’t Dominican, but now she is Dominican because that’s who I am.”
But it didn’t stop there.
Did Emily speak Spanish? What from your early days as an immigrant to this country still sticks with you? These were just the starting points that Dionicio and Ingelsby had for Emily as the two began to create the character.
Dionicio remembered telling Ingelsby, that a short time after immigrating, she took an acting class where a fellow student asked if her hair was real. “And I was like, what if we include something like that?” she recalls. “And he was like, ‘I love it. Let’s put it in!’ And it’s and it’s made it into the show.”
Task absolutely has authenticity at its foundation. Also cooked into the core of Task… empathy, humanity, and zero judgement. That sentiment is echoed by Mexican-American actor Rául Castillo, who plays Cliff, best friend and coworker to Robbie (Tom Pelphrey). Robbie and Cliff are garbage collectors/robbers in Task.
“I really resent whenever I hear people speak judgmentally about characters, especially [ones] that I’m playing,” Castillo tells Latina Media Co. “It becomes very personal, and I have this kind of allergic reaction to when people are speaking about them from this judgmental place. They’re human beings at the end of the day, and typically, people don’t view themselves as villains. They don’t view themselves as evil. They’re always motivated by what they think is just or moral or imperative. And I think Cliff and Robbie are driven by real human needs and desires. And that felt very universal to me.”
Dionicio echoes this pillar of nonjudgment as something Ingelsby fostered for Task. “That was 100% on purpose. I think Brad writes with a lack of judgment over his characters, and I think he really encourages, and challenges a viewer to be like things are not black and white,” she says. “There’s beauty in the muddy space. There’s beauty, there’s growth for us as a viewer, if we really challenge the fact that things are not always polarized, that sometimes there’s not a clear answer. And I think that’s why the show is so good, because there is a fine line when good people do bad things. I found myself defending everything, and I was like, well, that’s empathy.”
Task also stars Emilia Jones, Jamie McShane, and Martha Plimpton. It airs Sunday nights on HBO.
