In Tyler Perry’s Duplicity, high-powered attorney Marley (Kat Graham) faces her most personal case yet when she is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the shooting of her best friend Fela’s (Meagan Tandy) husband (Joshua Adeyeye). With the help of her boyfriend (Tyler Lepley)—a former cop turned private investigator—Marley’s search for what really happened leads her down a treacherous maze of deception and betrayal.
In celebration of Tyler Perry’s Duplicity, The Koalition spoke to actress Kat Graham to learn more about the psychology of Marley, how her trust issues help (or hurt) her navigate the police shooting and her relationship with others, and more.
Multi-dimensional characters with hidden motivations and complex pasts drive the narrative of Duplicity, which finds Kat Graham’s Marley Wells determined to uncover the circumstances that led to Fela’s husband, Rodney, being shot and killed.
“Marley has a lot of integrity and wants to do things the right way from the jump,” Graham says of her character, a high-powered attorney whose closeness to Fela and Rodney threatens her ability to objectively investigate his case. “I think Marley personally struggled with a lot of guilt, feeling like she didn’t do enough, that she’s not perfect, that maybe she should have been there,” adds Graham, “all of those complex feelings that we all experience when we lose someone.”
“If I was in trouble and I needed someone to fight for my justice. I would want somebody who loves me the most. Obviously, somebody who can be objective for sure, but I would want somebody who wouldn’t stop until justice was served. Sometimes there are great lawyers who can do that but sometimes I would want my cousin, I would want Alfonso David. If I’m trouble, you better come get me,” Graham stated.
“Sometimes when you see thrillers, the relationships are not always developed, and it turns automatically into a whodunit, but with this film, you really see why the characters are so close and their history with each other,” she says. “You’re so invested that when all of this stuff starts blowing up and all these twists and turns start happening, the audience is like, ‘How did this happen?’”
Marley leans on her boyfriend, Tony, a former cop turned private investigator, and his relationship with the force, particularly Lt. Kevin Moore, for both emotional support and insight into solving the case. However, the more she digs, the more she learns she doesn’t know the people around her as well as she thought. It’s that aspect of the storytelling—in addition to working with Tyler Perry for the first time—that most intrigued Graham when she first read the script.
“Tyler Perry is so great at writing women’s roles, and he makes all of these women different and dynamic. The characters in Why Did I Get Married are completely different than in Duplicity, and the comedy in Meet the Browns is different than in House of Pain. He has a way of having these multi-dimensional characters be really showcased,” said Graham.
“The way he wrote this character: she is intelligent, she has the drive, she has a lot to fight for. [The death of Rodney is] her loss too, obviously. The city is outraged, and the city feels like it’s another loss that they have to deal with, and they have to find justice. But for Marley, it’s a personal loss; it hits close to home. That intelligence, that’s just the way we want to see more Black women showcasing their brilliance in so many different roles. I want to see more Olivia Popes; I want to see more of Kerry Washingtons. All of these brilliant Black women and their talents and the women they play showcased. I wish there was more of it,” Graham added.
Life for Marley is further complicated as she attempts to balance overcoming her own personal trauma and trusting the new love, Tony, in her life, who is determined to be by her side to help her process the loss of Rodney. Marley, in her grief, refuses to leave any stone unturned, promising Fela she will get justice. Her persistence serves the thrilling nature of the film, as the concerning details she uncovers about the case begin to shatter her already shaky trust in everyone around her, including Tony.
While there are many takeaways for Marley, the biggest lesson in her journey is, “You’ve got to learn how to trust yourself first and get a couple more wins under your belt, and then you’ll be like, ‘All right, you know, maybe I can start trusting my judgment. A lot of mistrust also comes from feeling like you let yourself down by not seeing the signs early enough, and if you did see them, you ignored them. You didn’t follow them; instead, you let it go on too long. I don’t mind that she has trust. I got trust issues,” Graham said.’
As an actress, Graham is grateful for the opportunity to have put art into the world that can indeed have that type of lasting impact. “Thank God we get to do a film in which things that are really happening that feel unjustified are still being brought to our awareness, thank God it’s not just another stupid thriller, thank God for Tyler Perry setting a stage for incredible storytelling rooted in problems that our community still has to face that do make us really angry, that do make us want to fight for justice,” she says. “I’m thrilled that it’s a thriller and that it’s fun and that it’s exciting, but my soul is really grateful because we’re humanitarians. This movie, even after it’s been out for a few months and everybody’s forgotten about it, we’re still going to be really glad that we did a movie like this.”
Tyler Perry’s Duplicity will stream on Prime Video starting March 20th. Check out our full interview in the video above.
