Young Mia

Seen in flashback, Young Mia is a gifted photography student scraping by on ambition and nerve, years before she becomes the enigmatic mother Elena Richardson can't quite read. She's resourceful and guarded, chasing her art with a single-mindedness that costs her comfort and safety alike, already learning how to keep her own counsel.

Tiffany Boone has to build the woman Mia will become without simply imitating Kerry Washington, and she does it through appetite — the hunger for a shot, a life, a self that hasn't hardened yet. The flashback structure could feel like homework; Boone makes it feel like discovery, letting you watch guardedness form in real time.