The Expanse: How Keon Alexander’s Marco displays “toxic masculinity” and trauma

Season five of The Expanse has been a standout in an already established standout show. A lot of that has to do with the introduction of Marco Inaros, the terrorist ex-lover of Naomi Nagata’s (Dominique Tipper) — and father to Filip (Jasai Chase-Owens) — who has created a new pathway to negotiation for the undervalued Belters.

Thanks to Marco, they now have a “free Navy,” a bargaining place of strength, and a brilliant new alliance with Mars. But it’s come at the cost of millions of innocent lives, including Earthers, Martians, and politically compromising Belters.

The Expanse’s big baddie, Marco Inaros, walks a fine line between villainy and heroism for his people. Keon Alexander talked to Culturess about crafting such a charismatic leader that is either loved or hated in The Expanse universe, coming into an established show in such a high-profile role, his great love for his Expanse family (there’s a lot of it), and his influences for crafting such a memorable, dangerous leader.

Culturess: Can you tell me how you were hired on The Expanse and what that was like coming onto such an established show?

Keon Alexander: Well, I was familiar with the book and the show. Cara Gee, who plays Drummer, is one of my dear friends, and has been for many years. And so, I was familiar with the show but had no connection to it whatsoever.

Cara, Dominique, and I ended up having dinner in Los Angeles on the night that Dom got the call that the show was canceled. And so, that was the first time Dom and I had met…and our dinner turned a little somber. We sort of processed it together, and I was sort of providing some support in those moments as we were on our way to go see a play.

And that was the last time I saw Dom for a while, and the next thing you know…the next time I see Dom is in the makeup trailer when we’re playing ex-lovers, and parents of a child, and so there’s something really synchronistic and magical that goes on this set. I think there’s something that happens when a lot of creative people infuse intentionality into a project, there’s something symbiotic that happens.

Culturess: Well, it’s amazing how you fit within the dynamic. I love you, Dominique and Jasai: The three of you seem like a cohesive unit from the start. What were your methods to show that to the audience?

Alexander: The foundation for the work we’ve put in, from the very beginning, has been a container of openness and love, I would say… For Dominique and I to look at this actor they’ve cast, and immediately feel the genetic part of us say, “Oh, yes, that can actually have been my son.” I mean, there is something very titillating about that, just at a body level to feel that your imagination is supported by something, something that stands in front of you and to have Jasai have such a big heart meant we connected very quickly. Dom and I always have been very real with each other and have had a deep connection.

And so, having that container off screen is what allowed us to go so deep, I think, in those scenes and for us to really show the depths of the pain. Because I think that something that is a sort of guiding principle in my life is that I really feel that you can, like a tree only reach so far up into the light, as you reach your roots down into the ground. And so, because our foundation was so loving, we were able to go into the absence of that so much. Not to say that it doesn’t take a toll on the actor at a certain point, I have to say.

How mean Marco gets with both of them still is, to this day, a little bit of cause of anxiety because it’s just so far from where I sit.

Cultures: Yeah, poor Naomi goes through the wringer, and especially in these last couple of episodes, it’s so hard to watch. But, you know, with Marco, I have to say he really is very charismatic. You can see he’s a great leader for his people, but he’s also this terrorist. Can you talk to me about the qualities that you brought to him and his type of leadership? He’s not really a cookie-cutter villain; there’s a fine line between heroism and villainy with him I find.

Alexander: Well, for me to do this character justice, and to approach him in as much of a multi-dimensional manner as possible, I really had to remove certain labels from my lexicon, and villain and terrorist are two that I really had to complexify and dive into to understand what that truly means. Because when we use those labels, they’re usually from the side of the status quo, or from the current power holder. So, in this dynamic when we’re talking about an entire class, and culture of people — and the writers have done a really good job of sticking to our current world,  in painting the picture of the Belters’ plight — is that there is structural injustice, there is definitely a structure in place that ensures that the suffering and the dispossession of the Belters continues, and the political and economic structure benefits from it. In fact, relies on it for its own progress and advancement.

And so, that context of somebody rising up in any socio-political movement and in any civil rights movement and saying, “This is not okay” can easily be judged by others, especially if the actions are as abhorrent as Marco’s are.

But that’s never from an eye that’s empathetic towards the injustice that people are experiencing, so I have to say that that was the first step that I had to do for Keon. What Marco does is so, so far out from my belief system and my realm of acceptability. But if I could, for a moment…for a few months, for as long as it takes, to really get myself to empathize with a person who has experienced so much injustice and has seen his family for generations bear the brunt of this inequality, I could empathize with somebody who is really willing to do whatever it takes to make that vision of freedom and justice come to fruition.

Culturess: I was just wondering if there were any public figures or maybe any situations out there that you called upon or that you felt were empathetic to Marco’s plight, that you thought about while you were in the role.

Alexander: Well, I mean I woke up to social injustice at quite a young age, and so I’ve been moved and supported and been informed by a lot of human rights leaders and civil rights leaders. And so, the mythology that I’ve sort of built around Marco is very much informed by my own sort of personal imagination and relationships with these figures that we have in history, and they’re honestly from all over.

The way that we represent our leaders in our history books…is often from the perspective of their victory or their contribution to a major change…written from the perspective of the victor, and we don’t often get the full perspective of what it took them to get to that point, what sacrifices were made in order to achieve that thing. And so, that’s a part of the complexification of a role such as Marco, is to really look at how the personal and the political are intertwined, how his psyche and his very specific individual trauma perfectly intertwined with socio-political conditions of injustice in order to light that flame that turns into the forest fire. He is charismatic, yes, but he is perfectly suited to mobilize the discontent of the Belters because of his personal history.

And so, this brings up for me something that I’d like to speak about, is the way that Marco speaks to our current state of masculinity, represents a lot of the toxic elements of the shape that our masculinity currently takes. And that’s another thing that I really wanted to show, is that some of these qualities that have been idealized in the past, in our film and television, are actually rooted in trauma and individual pain.

Culturess: Yeah, that’s true.

Alexander: That personal element has become clear that pervades expressions of power, the machismo: the control, the domination, the manipulation. All these psychological components that come from this very complex person, that has a very specific notion of what masculinity means, actually come from a history of personal pains and trauma, and to really give us a different lens into that particular form of masculinity. And I really hope that comes through.

Season five of The Expanse episodes 1-9 are available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The season finale drops Wednesday, January 3.

What do you think of Marco Inaros as a leader for the Belters? Is he helping them strengthen? Or do you feel he’s an outright terrorist? How excited are you for the season finale? Drop your thoughts in the comments section on what you think will happen.