Willie Jack

Willie Jack is one of a small crew of Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma scheming, small-time and half-legally, to scrape together enough money to leave for California. She's blunt, funny, and fiercely loyal to her friends, quick with an insult and quicker to back someone up when it counts.

Paulina Alexis plays her with a deadpan looseness that never tips into shtick — she's the one who says the thing everyone's thinking, timed like a drummer. The writing trusts her to be funny and grounded at once, rooted in family and community even as she dreams of getting out, and that balance is what makes her feel real.