Arianna Davis on Tornadoes, Quinta Brunson and the Gap Stumble Fills

Words: Lauren O’Neill | Photography and creative direction: Lewis Vorn | Videographer: Marie Koury | Makeup: Mikey Clifton | Hair: Gayette Williams | Styling: Venetia Kidd

For our latest cover, we caught up with the cast of NBC’s newest mockumentary Stumble, which follows an underdog team of junior college cheerleaders. Here, we chat to Arianna Davis, who plays high-achieving Madonna, about The Wizard of Oz, her history in dance and her boujie coffee order. 

Read our cover story with the cast of Stumble here. 

Polyester: Hey Arianna! How's it going?

Arianna Davis: I'm doing great. It's a nice morning. I got my little coffee. We're doing great this morning.

What's the coffee order?

Oh, my gosh, it's a little boujie. Lavender oat milk iced latte.

I sympathise with having to get yourself started with something fancy in the morning. Firstly, I just wondered if you could tell me a little bit about your background in performing and your route into acting, which I suppose is maybe via dance?

So, I've been a performer since I was a little girl. I've been dancing since I was two years old. All the styles: ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, a little bit of modern, some fusion styles. So I've just been training, training, training my whole entire life. I was always interested in performing. I did community theatre growing up. I did school plays. And I went to school for musical theatre here in New York, and I also am a singer songwriter, so I've just like wrapped myself in performing arts throughout my whole life. 

Did you have any specific memorable roles that you took up in those community theatre productions? What was your favourite? What made you be like, ‘I want to do this job?’

Well, the first and only time that I booked a lead, we were doing The Wizard of Oz. I was going to be Dorothy.

There was this - I can't even make this up - I lived in Indiana, so we had tornado season. We had a tornado and it shut the whole thing down. So I never got to play my first and only lead. I was like, “A tornado of all things.” So, I'd say that would have been my favourite - but I did do Hairspray a lot growing up! It's been my goal to be Little Inez for literally my entire life and then I feel like I aged out.

No, I think it could still happen.

It can still happen. It will happen. Let's put that in the universe. 

What were your perceptions of cheer before doing this show and this role?

Mostly growing up, the only thing I knew about cheer was like high school cheer. I knew that their budget was bigger than the show choir at high school, because they got new uniforms all the time, just like the football players. And I knew that they were really good and really competitive.

I knew it was like heavy tumbling, lots of personality, super cute outfits. And then once I graduated, I realised that there was competitive cheer. But I just still didn't know much about it until I watched the docuseries Cheer. I watched it twice, all the way through both seasons. And I think I just really fell in love with the athleticism. It reminds me so much of the athleticism of dance.

What has been the nicest part of working with Georgie, Taylor and Alyssa specifically?

Literally, I spend every waking moment with Anissa. So it's like working with your best friend. Georgie is like my girl, and Taylor is this little baby. I love them all so much. It actually does not feel like work sometimes because I’m in scenes with my best friends. It's just like being with your girls.

I’d like to speak to your character, Madonna. What's your favorite thing about her? And do you think you're similar to her in any way?

Oh my God, me and Madonna are literally the same. In a lot of ways, she's a little bit more bold than me. I feel like I need to learn more lessons about being a little bit more bold from Madonna.

 I think my favourite thing about her is that she is like an overcomer. She does not take no for an answer, similar to me. She does live with narcolepsy. She does live in a larger body. She's a Black girl in cheer. All of these things. It's like none of this is ever, ever, ever going to stop her. She is the best.

I really like that those parts of the character are sort of  informing the performance, because obviously the show does have a really light hearted tone. But when you're coming to it with that sort of perspective, you're able to play it with even more authenticity. Did you watch any particular comedies or performers to prep for this role?

Actually I pulled from Quinta Brunson a lot. Not even as Janine in Abbott Elementary, but as Quinta in real life. Because Quinta is such like a boss lady. Performer, innovator, creative person. And she's so good at what she does.

I've watched The Office like five times consecutively, Parks and Rec, you know, all of the good things. 

Do you think that Stumble fills a particular gap kind of on the TV landscape currently? Like who do you think it speaks to?

I think Stumble is actually such an innovative way to put physicality,  like physical comedy, from actual athletics, into a mockumentary. And it's also just such a good family show. And there are so many good family shows out there, but this one is just so energetic and we need this joy right now.