Lara Solanki / Netflix

“When I would tell people, ‘I’m going to film The Lincoln Lawyer,’ they’d be like, ‘oh, my God, I love that show,’” says Yaya DaCosta, who stars in the series as the attorney Andrea Freeman. “You don’t always hear that.”

Now in her second season on the series (its third, streaming now on Netflix), DaCosta’s Freeman is a formidable legal force—albeit one who finds herself in some difficult situations this time around, both at work and in her personal life which is entangled with that of the title character, lawyer Mickey Haller (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo). It makes for compelling drama on screen, but it isn’t something DaCosta always wants to take home with her.

“Doing your work, your craft as an actor, is one art; separating yourself from the character and that heaviness is a different art,” she says. “I’ve become good at doing that separating, and it requires serious energy work. I’ve made that a serious practice of mine using different modalities: Reiki, meditation, sometimes just taking a bath. It is a real thing.”

Luckily, life on the L.A. set isn’t entirely heavy—especially when the cameras stop rolling. Here, DaCosta opens her camera roll to T&C to share a behind-the-scenes look at The Lincoln Lawyer, and the moments that didn’t make it on screen.

Courtesy Yaya DaCosta

“I like hot tea, and so I make sure that I clean my prop cup out very well, and every once in a while on a break, when they’re changing the lights or the direction of the camera, I’ll go and put actual tea in it. I stopped drinking coffee, but I’ve started using the mushroom tea alternative, so it’ll have your Lion’s Mane, Ashwagandha, and all that kind of stuff with some Manuka honey, because I’m fancy.”

Courtesy Yaya DaCosta

“I don’t make a habit of watching dailies. I really love doing and focusing on my job, but it is hard because I have a director’s mind, so I pay attention to all the details and that mind doesn’t really stop. So, it’s important for me to stay in character and completely trust the directors and everyone else. When I do look at the monitor, it’s probably that I want to see how the light is hitting me. When I first came on the scene, people didn’t know to light melanated skin very well, and now—just like we have more options for shades of makeup—we also have better lighting and people who know how to light someone who looks like me. Still, when I’m directing, I don’t think I want actors over my shoulder all the time.”

Courtesy Yaya DaCosta

“Ben Bray, one of our directors, is someone who was so great to work with because he was so fun. He knows what he wants and you can see him editing in his mind and putting things together, which is great as a time saver, but also keeps the morale up. Especially in courtroom settings, where everything is kind of heavy, he was just a light to be around.”