1923 Star Aminah Nieves Breaks Down Teonna's Latest Harrowing Trial

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the seventh episode of 1923. Read at your own risk!] 

We should have known that life wouldn't stay pleasant for Teonna (Aminah Nieves) for long on 1923. After escaping the Boarding House of Horrors and murdering the nuns who had abused her, Teonna had quickly found a friend in the form of Hank (Michael Greyeyes). He was going to get her home to her family, and he helped her disguise herself as a boy and get rid of all evidence of the government school. It felt like maybe there was a chance she could make it to safety, but then two of Father Renaud's (Sebastian Roché) priests began wreaking havoc all over the plains. They attacked Hank's son and tried to drag him back to the school, and then they caught up with Teonna and Hank. A massive, ugly fight ensued, and while it appeared that Hank had taken care of the priests, one was still alive and able to shoot him right in the back. That undead priest then went after Teonna, but she got him with a rock to the head. 

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to her, Teonna's father (Michael Spears) had entered the picture. He found Teonna's grandmother dead and saved Hank's son from the priests, but he hasn't yet caught up with his daughter, and she has no idea that's even a possibility. So what's a girl supposed to do now? That's the question, says star Aminah Nieves. "What does she do? I think that's when you see her really surrender to feeling a little bit lost. That's when you see her retreat back into that childlike behavior, like oh, this is really happening," Nieves tells TV Guide. "Her words echo in my mind, like oh now they're going to come and kill me too. And now she doesn't have her protector—not that she needed one, because she definitely didn't. But I think we all have to hold out hope for her." 

That hope could come in the form of Teonna's father, who essentially represents everything she wants. "I think in the end, it's not all she wants, but it's what she deeply desires. She wants to feel a human embrace that isn't out to get her, and she wants to feel that connection with someone," Nieves says, pointing out that she left her cousin Baapuxti (Leenah Robinson) back at the boarding school knowing they would never see each other again. "When Hank says we'll find your father, I think that changed her world and flipped it upside down, because she always thought that she was going to make it home, but there was no guarantee of her family still being anywhere." 

There have been very few moments of happiness for Teonna, made even more upsetting by the fact that her story is based on a devastating real life history of indigenous people being forced onto reservations while kids were forcefully taken to religious boarding schools. Nieves says she talked to as many people as possible, both within her own family and in other communities, to find out about their experiences. She also found stories of girls like Teonna, who rebelled against those authorities. "I give my heart to them, because it's so terrifying to do that," she says. "But then you only have two options, right? Either you're rebelling and trying to get out, or you don't and you face every single day living in complete turmoil." 

So how does Nieves, a young actress from an indigenous community, handle the pressure and stress that come with a role like this? The answer involves a surprising amount of joy, laughter, and friendship with the actors playing her abusers. Below, Nieves shares her experiences from the set of the Paramount+ hit, and refuses to address the fact that her character's last name is Rainwater, or offer any specific teases for what's coming in next week's finale. She does, however, offer a warning. "I think it's gonna wreck a lot of people. It's going to keep everyone on their toes for sure. Cliffhangers are cliff-hanging." Keep reading for more from the set of 1923.

What the 1923 Premiere Tells Us About the Dutton Family Tree and the Family's Future

My first question for you is, after having watched this week's episode, are you okay? 
Nieves: First off, I want to say thank you for asking if I'm okay. Am I okay? No. Just kidding. I'm good. The process, yeah it's stressful, but I think being in entertainment, in general, is a little stressful, but stressful and also such a deep blessing to share our stories. 

Over the past couple of weeks, as Teonna has been with Hank, it's been so pleasant, but also so stressful because obviously something bad was coming. What is it like to play her in those moments when things might be okay? Does she ever feel that? 
Nieves: All the scenes with Michael Greyeyes were very special to me because she's still so scared, and she's still in fight or flight mode, but I think there's a glimpse, the faintest, quickest smile from Teonna. Then she immediately goes back to being on the edge, but even that quick moment was like a sip of a waterfall. It's like a breath of fresh air. It was a cathartic experience and also it just hurt. It still hurts, because she still doesn't know if she can trust anyone. I pray every time that I read something new that she gets another one of those moments of just being a kid, just being a child for once. 

It's so sad that we haven't really gotten to know Teonna yet as a person, because so far it's all just been fear and anger. How do you live in a character like that who is mostly just fear? Have you figured out what she would be like if she got to actually be a kid? 
Nieves: I think I started with that first. And also what helped navigate Teonna was we still played. Even though Leenah and I are grown, and even Sebastian Roché. We are all grown, but the school we were shooting at, there was a playground. We always made sure to go and take turns on the swings together, and a lot of the kids that were background actors, they also played with us. Our camera ops played with us. It's those moments that really give you comfort and safety in what you're doing, because it did hurt, and it was hard. 

Did it help to have those moments with Sebastian off-screen? Because he's terrifying.
Nieves: He's terrifying, and you know what? He's the biggest cheeseball ever, and he's one of my bestest friends. Because he's so kind and has such a sweet soul. He's so goofy, and he would just be like grooving out with everyone on set, and it really did help to cultivate these deeper relationships. 

You haven't gotten to share the screen with any of the Duttons so far, but have you gotten to spend time or work with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren at all? 
Nieves: Yeah, I have. I went to set pretty much every day when I wasn't working. 

I would too, with this cast. 
Nieves: Yeah, I'm best friends with almost everyone in the cast. I'm actually living with Julia Schlaepfer and Michelle Randolph right now. And every time I was on set, I would make sure to talk to everyone and have these relationships, but it was also so easy to do. Everyone is so loving and genuine. It was just serendipitous. Helen would just come up behind me sometimes and give me a hug, and I'd be like, "Hey!" It's incredible. 

Is there anything you want to share about what you learned on this journey, especially in terms of the real-life history you're portraying?
Nieves: I think what I've learned from more of the human experience is that genuinely, no one could ever try to dismantle or create genocide on us again. We are so resilient as human beings and this show has taught me that, because I met with so many incredible indigenous talents, and I see them and I watched them feel so much pride and see the glimmer in their eye of knowing that we are here, we're here to stay, and we will do whatever it is in our power to raise our voices and to be heard and to be seen. More than anything, that changed a lot for me, because you don't see that often. I'm from a really small town, and I just went back to talk to some actors at my old high school, and everyone's like, "How did you get out? How did you do it? We don't think we can ever get out of this place." I'm like, you can, as long as you envision yourself in the places that you want to be. You can do anything you set your mind to. Seeing all the background actors that were from reservations, seeing them be so excited to work and to be seen and seeing their parents there and full of pride and saying thank you, that was the special sauce for me. That is what really mended my heart together again because I no longer felt like I was fighting to see my people. 

As you're coming to these conclusions about how resilient your people are and how there can never be genocide again, what are the conversations like with the people playing the villains? I would imagine that as actors they have to find some way to relate to their characters in order to play them. 
Nieves: They were hours long sometimes. We'd just sit and talk and debate a little bit, but they were always held with respect, and honestly, I think it was really hard for them to step in those shoes, and I witnessed it. They would always apologize, and I'm like, you know what, this isn't who you, as a person, are. I know that this isn't Jennfier Ehle doing this. I know this isn't Sebastian Roche doing this, and I had to have compassion for it. In the moment when you're filming, can it get a little tricky? Sometimes, yeah. Because you're transported, whether you know it or not. You are transported into a different human being but it was always safe, and we always made sure to talk about it. I know for myself, and I don't want to speak for Leenah, but we didn't want a savior, like a white man savior complex going on. So to be able to confide in one another was important, and I'm so happy that they were kind enough to want to do it. Not a lot of people would want to do that. Some people would shy away from actually having the tough conversations that we had together, but they were there for it one hundred percent, and I"m so grateful to them.

Well, it sounds like you had a weirdly beautiful experience even though you had to deal with some dark things. 
Nieves: Yeah, it was. I've created lifelong bonds here. I've found soulmates in so many of these people on set, and Leenah is my sister for life. Julia and Michelle are my sisters and my best friends. Sebastian Roche is like my crazy uncle. Jennifer Ehle? That's my auntie. Michael Spears is literally me but in man version. It's crazy! 

Elsewhere on 1923, there were two major happenings this week. Whitfield (Timothy Dalton), the evil business tycoon, forced two prostitutes to whip each other just for fun after Creighton (Jerome Flynn) was carted to jail for attempted murder, just in case you weren't yet convinced that Whitfield is a Bad Guy. And in Italy, Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) and Alex's (Schlaepfer) stopover in Sicily was interrupted when her ex-fiance showed up with his whole family. Yellowstone couldn't even dream of the levels of soap this show is achieving.   

1923 airs Sundays on Paramount+.