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Netflix/Cara Howe(NEW YORK) — U.K. actress Clare-Hope Ashitey is opening up about her new Netflix crime series, Seven Seconds, and what she hopes the heartfelt drama will accomplish once it hits the masses.
The series, which stars Ashitey as KJ Harper, an assistant prosecutor for Jersey City, follows Harper as she investigates the death of a young black boy who goes missing after a police officer accidentally runs him over.
Ashitey says she believes the series offers a narrative for African-Americans who aren’t always given a voice.
“You know there are a lot of people in America, and in the African-American community for whom these kinds of issues are a daily reality,” Ashitey tells ABC Radio. “It isn’t just something that we’re putting on screen or something that someone just made up out of their head. It’s happening to people all of the time.”
Additionally, Ashitey, who stars alongside Regina King in the crime drama, says she hopes the series will help to “validate” those who haven’t yet seen “their experience on screen.”
“I can’t imagine how hard it must be to invest in a community… when you don’t feel heard and when you don’t feel seen,” she says. “And I’m hoping that there is a validation that people understand that they are heard, and they are seen, and that people know what’s going on with them and people want to have this conversation — they want to fix it.”
Ashitey is also hopeful that the series might even bring some communities together.
“That communities…that don’t have as much contact with black and minority ethnic groups– or where there is contact, but it’s antagonistic and it’s hostile– that there’s more empathy and there’s more understanding for their neighbors,” she says.
Seven Seconds is now available on Netflix.
