T’Nia Miller is one of the standouts of The Haunting of Bly Manor, which is now streaming on Netflix. She stars as Hannah Grose, the loving and level-headed housekeeper at Bly Manor. Episode 5 was the show’s most jaw-dropping episode of the season and revealed that Hannah Grose was dead from the moment Dani stepped onto the grounds. Miles, who was possessed by Peter, pushed Hannah down the well to her death just before Dani arrived.
Hannah’s death meant that her growing bond with Owen would never become a full-blown relationship. They’d never get to go to Paris. Their love would never be fully realized. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with T’Nia about Hannah and Owen’s feelings for one another. “It’s not an in your face love. When love is that comfortable and that rooted, it doesn’t need to be in your face,” T’Nia told HollywoodLife. “It’s a shame they never got to express their passionate desire for each other. I think that’s a shame, but what I loved about it was how familiar they are with each other. Rahul [Kohli] and I got quite familiar with each other off-set. He very quickly became an little annoying brother.”
Even though Hannah’s death sets the entire second half of the season in motion, T’Nia wasn’t told about the twist beforehand. She didn’t know about Hannah’s death until she read the script for episode 5.
“When I got the sides, heck, I didn’t know anything,” T’Nia admitted. “I got two scenes and I thought, well, she’s rather nice. I don’t really play nice. I’m not sure why they sent me this, but I’ll have a look. I had no idea of Hill House and his [Mike Flanagan’s] huge fan base and how much people liked it. I thought, well, I’ll watch the first one. So I did. Oh my god, I binge-watched it, and I had to force myself to stop, to go away, learn lines, and put something on tape. As soon as I did that, I went back to watch the rest of the episodes. Of course, I watched more than once because it was so good. It was that that made me kind of go for it, actually. And then I booked the job, obviously. I was filming Sex Education, and they were asking, have you read episode 5? And I hadn’t. When I got to it, I was blown away to find out that arc. We didn’t get the rest of the scripts until we were actually shooting, so I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but we had an overview once we got to Vancouver. I had no idea when I first got those two scenes in my hand what Hannah Grose would be and what she would be about.”
The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor are both shows that make you think about how we process love, grief, and trauma. As T’Nia went on her Bly Manor journey, she made some realizations herself. “It does kind of make you say, there is no tomorrow,” she said. “There is just now. I don’t want to get to my deathbed and go, oh, if only I’d done that, or have a life of regret. Because what’s the worst that can happen? To live in fear. My therapist said something to me about fear and love, that they cannot exist in the same space. And they can’t. To truly love, there is no fear. You just got to go for it. But that’s a personal love for self. I think all these characters, what they’re deeply lacking is a love for self. They’re fighting their own demons, and that’s the hardest job is to truly have unconditional love for yourself and saying, I’m imperfectly perfect. It’s okay for me to f**k up. It’s okay for me not to be this. It’s okay for me not to have that. But I’m imperfectly perfect. And if I’m coming from a place of love, then it can’t be wrong. That’s my motto anyway.”
The actress also noted that she believes “there’s a lesson to not be too judgmental. Everyone has their scars. We just need to take the time to understand what those scars are so we can begin to really heal collectively. That’s what I take away.”
The Haunting of Bly Manor is currently the #1 show on Netflix in the U.S. When asked whether or not she’d come back for a potential third season of the Haunting anthology, T’Nia answered without hesitation: “Without a shadow of a doubt. Hopefully, there is a third season. I have eyes, fingers, toes crossed. Everything that I can possibly cross. I understand if he doesn’t because sometimes you need to move on to different things, but I absolutely would love to come back.”