'Black-ish' Co-Showrunner Kenny Smith and Writer Peter Saji Tackle Colorism In "Black Like Us"

Since the sitcom first aired in 2014, ABC’s Black-ish has been unapologetically examining what it means to be B;ack in America today.The show stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, as Dre and Rainbow Johnson, upper-class Black Angelenos raising their five children.  With episodes that explored slavery—like the famous "Juneteenth" episode from Season 4 and the Season 3 episode “Lemons,” which centered around the abysmal 2016 election and its results, Black-ish has never shied away from the topics that sting us to our core.

In the upcoming episode, "Black Like Us," the series is tacking another topic that society and the Black community has been wrestling with for generations—colorism.

In the episode, Dre and Bow are disgusted when they discover that their youngest daughter Diane (Marsai Marin) was not correctly lit in her class photo. Though Bow and Dre want to address the school with their grievances, Diane wants to let it all blow over, resulting in a heart-wrenching dialogue about colorism among the Johnson clan.

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Barry Jenkins and Ta-Nehisi Coates Reflect On 'If Beale Street Could Talk'

What does it mean to be born Black in America? In the 20th century, writer and cultural critic James Baldwin examined this question through his words and experiences. Today, journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates is grappling with the very same subject. While Baldwin and Coates have managed to articulate the beauty and pain of being Black men in this country —Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins has succeeded in depicting the majesty and fullness of Black life on screen. In his latest work —an adaptation of James Baldwin’s 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk, Jenkins explores trauma, family, love, and survival in 1970s Harlem, a microcosm of Black America, that still powerfully resonates today. After all, the souls of Black folk still whisper to each other across generations; the specifics of our stories may differ, but the experiences are the same. Jenkins opens his film with Baldwin's quote, "Every Black person born in America was born on Beale Street, born in the Black neighborhood of some American city, whether in Jackson, Mississippi, or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy."

Shadow And Act attended the Baltimore premiere of If Beale Street Could Talk, where Jenkins sat down to chat with Ta-Nehisi Coates —a Baltimore native, and the man he says inspired him to tell this story.

"I’ve never seen anybody shoot Black people the way Barry shoots Black people," Coates marveled. "There's a kind of lushness, a beauty that he bestows on Black people, that we are really not used to seeing."

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'Black-ish' Star Marsai Martin And Mega-Producer Will Packer On The Melanated Magic Of 'Little'

Marsai Martin’s portrayal of the precocious and witty Diane Johnson on ABC's Black-ish has been brilliant since she premiered on the show in 2014. However, Martin has had her sights set on the big screen since the beginning. The Texas native was just ten years old when she approached Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and Hollywood mega-producer Will Packer with an idea for her very own film — the body-swap comedy, Little.

"It was me, mommy, and daddy, we were actually talking about the movies that they're watching back in the day,” she explained to Shadow and Act during a visit to the Little set on a hot day in July 2018. "One of my mom's favorite movies growing up was Big. That's where it all started and then we just started brainstorming and thinking about how it could be turned into a Black Girl Magic-type of situation."

Will Packer remembered that meeting and what compelled him to back the film and subsequently pitch it to Universal. "It’s crazy, what were we doing when we were ten years old?!" the Night School producer said. "I could see the movie even back then. It’s interesting because it’s Hollywood, it takes time to get a movie going, and because she is on Black-ish we could only shoot during her hiatus which is a certain time every year. She pitched it when she was ten, so we tried to get it ready to hit her hiatus when she was 11, but the script wasn’t ready. We tried again when she was 12, but the actors we wanted —their availabilities didn’t line up. Then I was like 'Yo! This is the last chance, she’s going to get too old and the movie won’t work.' Fortunately, we got it done just in time and I’m glad because as a teen, she’s able to embody the character differently. It’s funnier now — it’s edgier."

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Photo Credit: Eli Joshua Ade/Universal Pictures

Photo Credit: Eli Joshua Ade/Universal Pictures

On Set With 'Little': Regina Hall and Issa Rae On the Power Of Black Women

Black girlhood is often overlooked— not only in mainstream films but also in the archive of Black Cinema across the diaspora. Now, with the new movie Little — helmed by Tina Brown and starring Black-ish's Marsai Martin, Regina Hall, and Issa Rae, Black girls are being brought to the forefront of mainstream cinema.

Set in the present day, Little follows Jordan Sanders (Hall) a ballsy no-nonsense businesswoman in the tech space. On the eve of the most significant presentation of her career, Jordan wakes up in her penthouse apartment as her 13-year-old self (Martin) Forced to rely on April (Rae) her long-suffering assistant to keep her secret and her business up and running, Jordan must confront some tough truths about her present and her past.

Last July on a sticky hot day in Atlanta —Shadow and Act got the opportunity to visit the Little set. As the soundstage door opened, we found ourselves in Jordan’s office, a brightly lit space that had the CEO’s face and presence all over it. As filming continued on set, we chatted with Regina Hall and Issa Rae about working with Martin, Black women's stories and what it means to be the H.B.I.C.

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Trevor Jackson On The Growth And Glow-Up Of 'Grown-ish' Season 2

Grown-ish, Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi) and her misfit group of friends are back for their sophomore year. In the first season of Freeform's critically acclaimed spin-off of the hit ABC sitcom Black-ish, Grown-ish explored what it means to be a member of Generation Z navigating the higher education system along with the joys and perils of adulthood. Since Zoey first set foot on the Cal U campus, she set her sites on the deliciously handsome Aaron (Trevor Jackson), a Black Lives Matter activist and outspoken sophomore whose passion and unwillingness to be silenced (and ability to pull off a rat tail unironically) made the stylish popular girl's heart flutter. Though Aaron and Zoey lived in a bubble of sexual tension and admiration for each other for much of Grown-ish’s freshman season— in the end, Zoey fell for Luca (Luka Sabbath) — a laid-back artist who matched Zoey’s fashion sense and curbed her desire to be the center of attention. 

With a new school year on the horizon — and the second season of Grown-ish debuting tonight, Shadow and Act sat down with Trevor Jackson about his explosive 2018, where Aaron and Zoey stand now, and what we can expect from the series this season. 

"Everything’s changed," Jackson said of the sophomore season of Grown-ish. "I think the characters are like a big family now trying to figure out all their shit. Should they be more comfortable now, or a closer family? Maybe. Aaron is sorting his shit out. Luca and Zoey are together. Everybody is just trying to find their rhythm, and I'm very, very excited for it." 

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Aramide Tinubu on BBC World News' "Talking Movies" Chatting About Black Cinema in 2018

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As promised, here is an HD clip of me chatting about Black Cinema in 2018 on @bbctalkingmovies Its been a truly powerful year for Black stories on screen and I feel so thrilled to be apart of the conversation! 🎬 #onward #awordwitharamide

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Shrouded In Darkness: The Trailer For Jordan Peele's 'Us' Redefines Horror Mythology

"It’s important to note that Us — unlike Get Out is not about race," director Jordan Peele explained to Shadow and Act at an Us trailer-viewing presentation in New York City last week. "It is a horror film. I dedicated a lot of myself to creating new horror mythology and new monsters. I think that monsters and stories about monsters are one of our best ways of getting at deeper truths and facing our fears in society. It was very important to me to have a Black family at the center of a horror film." 

The Us trailer opens warmly enough. A Black family — a mother, father, son and daughter travel along a country road with Luniz's 1995 hip-hop classic “I Got 5 On It” blasting from the radio. The father, Gabe (Winston Duke) sits in the driver's seat rapping along to the music as the mother, Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o), turns toward the backseat eagerly trying to get her young children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex) to engage with the classic song. The kids, of course, are less than impressed. 

The Wilson family soon arrives at Adelaide’s old childhood beachside home in Northern California where they are spending the summer. They take in the day lounging at the beach with some old friends —the Tyler family (Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker). Their blissful day quickly turns sinister when Adelaide —who is haunted by a past trauma -- notices that her son Jason (Alex) is no longer on the beach. Adelaide spirals into a panic running along the sand shouting for her son before finally finding Jason who —seems OK, though perhaps a little thrown off by an eerie figure he sees on the beach. Done with the beach for the day, the Wilsons head back to their summer home for the evening. As night swoops in, the family's lives descends into complete chaos. First, a figure clutching a large pair of shears appears in their driveway along with four silent figures clutching hands. From Peele and the cast's exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly we've learned that these monsters are called "the Tethered." 

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'Bird Box' Has Some Gripping Moments -- But it's No 'A Quiet Place'

Netflix’s horror thriller Bird Box opens with Sandra Bullock’s character Malorie cruelly threatening two small children. “Listen to me," she says. "We’re going on the trip now; it’s going to be rough. If you hear something in the woods, you tell me. If you hear something in the water, you tell me, but under no circumstance are you allowed to take off your blindfold. If you do, I will hurt you." Cold and calculated, Malorie is a woman driven by the need to survive — and she’s done so for years, by the skin of her teeth. 

Zipping back five years into the past, we discover how Malorie ended up in this apocalyptic hell. A pregnant artist who doesn’t seem to have the time or the emotional range for the baby that she is carrying, Malorie's world collapses as a suicide-inducing plague comes cracking through the earth bringing humanity to its knees. 

After witnessing a woman crack her skull in half by bashing it against a pane glass window, and seeing her sister (Sarah Paulson)’s pupils dilate in fear before she endangers both Malorie's life and her own — Malorie finds herself pregnant, alone and without any connection to the life she once knew. Stumbling into an open door off the street, she finds herself amongst an eclectic group of survivors. 

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Academy Award Nominated Film Editor Joi McMillon Talks the Art Of Assembling 'Moonlight' and 'If Beale Street Could Talk'

There is a poetry in cinema. A moviegoer might not realize it in the moment, but there is something magnetic about the way the dialogue and images bend and twist into one another, creating a narrative and allowing us to fall in love with a character, story, or even a moment. While the directors and actors are often recognized for their work —it’s the editors who work tirelessly during post-production to make sure that the filmmaker’s vision comes to life. Editor Joi McMillon, one of the only Black female feature film editors in Hollywood, is responsible for assembling Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning Moonlight and his latest work --If Beale Street Could Talk. 

McMillon’s journey in Hollywood has been fraught with curving roads and alternative paths that began in the editing room for various reality television series. After years of hard work, in 2017, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing with her co-editor Nat Sanders. She was the first Black woman to ever nominated in the category. Now, on the eve of If Beale Street Could Talk’s premiere, McMillon talked with Shadow and Act about her career, how she approaches her craft, and why this is just the beginning for her. 

“When Barry and Nat [Sanders], my co-editor, let me know that I was gonna be an editor on Moonlight, at first I couldn't believe it," McMillon remembered. "It’s one of those things where I'd been rejected so often on jobs that I felt were a good fit and the director and I had a good rapport, and the material spoke to me, only to be told, 'no,' a few weeks later. They'd say they'd gone with someone else, and it was interesting because a lot of times when people were telling me that they were going with someone else, they would say, 'He is just a really good fit,' or, 'We'd work with him before.' I was hearing 'he' and 'him' and I was like, 'Oh, this is who I'm losing these opportunities to.'" 

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On Barry, Baldwin and the Black Female Narrative In ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’

When it comes to cinema —and with mainstream films, in particular, Black women aren’t often the narrators of their own stories. In those rare cases when we are the main subjects in narratives about Black love or the Black experience, we are gagged and bound —relegated to filler material, helpmate roles or figures who solely exist for the male gaze. James Baldwin’s 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk refuses to place this injustice on Black women and with his film adaptation of the stunning work, director Barry Jenkins quiets other voices so that the Black female voice can soar. 

If Beale Street Can Talk is love ablaze. The narrative follows 19-year-old Tish Rivers (portrayed by Kiki Layne), and her childhood best friend turned lover, Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt (portrayed by Stephan James) who become enchanted in their romance. Tragically, just as they begin to plot for the future, Fonny is wrongfully accused of rape and thrown into prison. Set in Harlem during the 1970s Jenkins’ film sweeps gently between the past and the present as Tish struggles to press forward seeking to clear Fonny’s name while growing their child in her belly. 

Though Fonny is the one who must directly contend with the injustices of the American penile system— it's Tish and the women around her — her mother Sharon (Regina King) and older sister, Ernestine (Teyonah Parris) who feel the gut-wrenching after-effects of his imprisonment. It's these three women who band together on Fonny’s behalf, enacting a plan of attack to find a lawyer and get his accuser to recant. There is an overarching thread of Black feminism in the film. Though men— namely Fonny and Tish’s fathers (Colman Domingo and Michael Beach respectively) take action in the background, the women propel things forward in the foreground. It’s Sharon who dries Tish’s eyes as she weeps alone at night and travels to Puerto Rico in search of Fonny's accuser. It's Ernestine who uses her connections to secure a lawyer on Fonny's behalf. 

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'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Star Shameik Moore and Director Peter Ramsey Speak On Bringing Miles And Brooklyn To The Screen

The era of the one-size fits all superhero is a thing of the past. In Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Afro-Latino web-slinger, Miles Morales is finally getting his moment on the big screen, and his debut couldn’t be more cinematically satisfying. Voiced by The Get Down’s Shameik Moore and helmed by Rise of the Guardians director Peter Ramsey, who has the distinct title of being the first Black person to direct a big budget animated feature, Into The Spider-Verse is something special. Along with his co-directors, Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman, Ramsey's take on Miles' story is bold and Brooklyn to its core. The film opens the floodgates for an entirely new visual style when it comes to animated storytelling. 

In the film, Miles, while hanging out with his uncle, Aaron (voiced by Mahershala Ali) in New York City’s subway tunnels gets bitten by a radioactive spider transforming him into Spider-Man. As he grapples with his new powers, and a strained relationship with his father, Jefferson (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry) Miles soon discovers that he might not be the only high-flying superhero in the universe. 

Just ahead of the film's premiere Shadow and Act spoke with Shameik Moore and director Peter Ramsey about the two-year journey to bring Miles’ story to the big screen, and why we can expect to see more of the A1-loving teen in the near future. 

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Photo Credit: Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images 

Veteran Journalist Shaun Robinson Dishes On Her New Mega-Project With Lifetime Network

The news sector has not been a welcoming space for Black women. And yet, veteran journalist Shaun Robinson has been a staple on our television screens for over two decades. The Spelman alum began her career at Detroit's WGPR-TV (now WWJ-TV) --the first Black-owned television station in the United States and quickly became one of the nation’s top journalist. Robinson covered Bill Clinton’s Impeachment proceedings in the ‘90s and the Oklahoma City bombing before becoming a host of the acclaimed NBC show, Access Hollywood — a role she held for 16 seasons before moving on in 2015. Never one to be confined to a certain role or a certain type of news coverage, the Emmy Award-winning journalist and avid philanthropist is ready to add a new title to her lengthy resume -- executive producer. 

Recently, Shadow and Act caught up with the Detroit native to talk about how the news landscape has shifted and evolved during this current political administration, and her forthcoming mega-project with Lifetime. 

"When I was growing up in the business, the number one lesson you learn was to get the facts before you report them," Robinson reflected on the way journalism has shifted since she first began her career. "There were checks and balances back then. Sure, everyone wanted to be first, but you made sure to check all of your sources, and get the information from both sides of the story before you went on the air and reported anything." 

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Student Oscar Winner Kelley Kali On Her Enthralling Film 'Lalo's House'

Storytelling is a process that involves unpacking the truth: peeling back layers and revealing, no matter how unsavory or uncomfortable, the raw and authentic parts of our humanity that are often sequestered in corners or shoved into closets. With her breathtaking short film, Lalo’s House, filmmaker Kelley Kali — a University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts graduate student who is the first Black woman to win the Student Academy Award for a fiction piece —exposes the heartbreaking issue of child sex trafficking. 

Lalo’s House follows two Haitian girls,14-year-old Manouchka (Jasmin Jean-Louis) and her 5-year-old sister, Phara (Kyra Rose), who are kidnapped off the streets of Jacmel, Haiti and forced into an underground prostitution network which operates as a Catholic boarding school. Desperate to free her sister and herself, Manou hatches a dangerous plan to escape and find a path back home. 

Ahead of the 91st Annual Academy Awards nominations which Lalo's House is now eligible for, Shadow and Act sat down with Kali to chat about making Lalo’s House, her journey into filmmaking, and why it’s so critical for Black women to have a say in our art. 

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Kelley Kali and Jasmin Jean-Louis | Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kelley Kali

Sandra Bland's Sisters Speak On Her Life, Legacy And HBO's 'Say Her Name: The Life And Death of Sandra Bland'

We know her name. Sandra Annette Bland — affectionately known as Sandy by her friends and loved ones— was just 28 years old in July 2015, when she was pulled over for what should have been a routine traffic stop in Prairie View, Texas. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Bland was ripped from her vehicle by a Texas State Trooper and jailed in Waller County. Three days later, she was found hanged in her jail cell. From the moment the news of her death was reported, it was met with immediate outrage and suspicion. Her story became a leading face in the #SayHerName movement that focus on the Black women and girls who have been victims of police violence but have often been overshadowed in the #BlackLivesMatter movement by male victims whose stories have received more attention. 

Though Bland’s family is no closer to having answers than they were three years ago, they’ve partnered with Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner to bring Sandra’s story to the big screen while ensuring that her legacy and her name continues to echo loudly around the world. HBO’s Say Her Name: The Life & Death of Sandra Bland begins just ten days after the young activist’s death and follows Bland’s family and the Black community as they desperately search for answers. 

Ahead of the film’s debut, Shadow and Act sat down with Bland’s older sisters Sharon Cooper and Shante Needham to discuss the movie, who Sandy was, and how they’ve continued to push forward in the midst of overwhelming grief. 

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Tyra Banks Talks 'Life Size 2' And Why Eve Was Never Supposed to Be In the Cards For Her

Nostalgia is king in the entertainment industry these days. With countless reboots and revamps in and out of the box office and on our television screens, there is something both comforting and whimsical about returning to a past time in our lives. For those of us who came of age in the new millennium, Life Size was a distinct pop culture moment. The film followed an angsty young tween, Casey (Lindsay Lohan), who while mourning her mother, inadvertently brings her Eve fashion doll (Tyra Banks) to life. The plucky Disney tale was supposed to be just another Disney Channel flick at the time, but instead, it became a phenomenon. Now, almost two decades later, Banks has stepped back into Eve’s stilettos for Freeform’s Life Size 2: A Christmas Eve. 

This time around, Eve is inadvertently awakened by Grace Manning (grown-ish actress Francia Raisa) — a spoiled twenty-something socialite turned CEO, who has been tasked with taking over her mother’s company Marathon Toys —the same organization that established the Eve dolls. 

The sequel to Life Size didn’t come together quickly. Though Banks first announced the film was in development in 2012, the movie was not greenlit until April 2017. Nearly six years after she first began discussing a sequel to Life Size, Shadow and Act sat down to chat with Banks about becoming Eve again, why the sequel is so much sexier than the original, and why she knew Raisa was the right choice to push this film forward. 

"It was so exciting to step into the high heeled shoes — the very painful high heeled shoes of Eve after eighteen years," Banks told Shadow and Act. 

Knowing how much fans loved the original, and now that the iconic supermodel was on board as an executive producer, she wanted to be confident that she gave Eve and Life Size the reverence that they deserved. 

"I wanted to make sure as an executive producer of the sequel to give you all that stuff that you loved about it the first time but switch it up. I wanted to twist it up and also mature it up a little bit so that people who watched Life Size when they were little and are now adults could have something that they could relate to." 

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On some supermodel shit with the iconic Tyra Banks. We talked Life Size 2, returning to Eve almost 20 years later & why the sequel is much sexier than the OG flick ✨✨#LifeSize2 #Freeform Full interview soon come, but check out my stories for a snippet 🎬

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Tyler Perry And The Cast Of 'Nobody's Fool' Talk Getting R-Rated, Traits For An Ideal Mate And Whoopi's Epic Wig

After more than two decades in the entertainment industry, Tyler Perry is switching things up once again. Just seven months after the debut of his first R-rated psychological thriller, Acrimony, Perry is premiering his first R-rated comedy, Nobody’s Fool. Shot in just ten days, the romantic comedy with a twist brings together The Haves and the Have Nots darling Tika Sumpter along with Emmy winner, Tiffany Haddish. Perry was well aware of Haddish's talent before her breakout role in Girls Trip, the director and actress worked together back in 2014 on Perry’s OWN series If Loving You Is Wrong. In Nobody’s Fool, he paired Haddish and Sumpter up as sisters, Tanya and Danika respectively. In the movie, the sisters are reunited after the hilarious but hot-headed Tanya is released from prison after a five-year stint. 

Tanya’s re-entry into Danika's life upends the straight-laced advertising executive's picture perfect world including her online relationship with a man that Tanya is confident is "catfishing" her sister. Perry didn’t just stop with Haddish and Sumpter — he rounded out his raunchy and entertaining rom-com with Power star Omari Hardwick as Frank, Tanya’s boss who is desperately interested in Danika, E.G.O.T. legend Whoppi Goldberg as the Tanya and Danika's mom, Lola and the mega-talented Amber Riley as Danika’s bestie, Callie. 

Ahead of the film’s premiere Shadow and Act got the opportunity to sit down with Tyler Perry and the cast to chat about Nobody's Fool and how much fun they had while making it. 

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My latest for @shadow_act 🎬 I caught up with Tyler Perry and the cast of @nobodysfool to chat about those superficial standards they once had on their dating lists✨

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South African Crime Thriller 'Number 37' is an Exhilarating Ride About Greed and Desperation (Review)

In her superb crime thriller, Number 37,  South African filmmaker Nosipho Dumisa channels the master of horror, Alfred Hitchcock to show the impact of desperation and greed on a person's soul. Dumisa turns her lens on a man named Randal (Irshaad Ally), a former drug dealer who is left crippled as a result of a botched robbery. Devastated by his inability to sustain the life he once had, and desperate to stay under the radar of a diabolical loan shark named Emmie (Danny Ross), Randal's only outlets are his long-suffering girlfriend Pam (Monique Rockman), and the pair of binoculars she gifts him. 

Set in the gloomy and gritty government housing projects in Cape Town, Dumisa pulls no punches when it comes to illustrating the violence and abject poverty that continues to chew away at impoverished communities of color. The filmmaker also refuses to make excuses for her main character. Though Randal is confined to a wheelchair and his home, it’s clear that he is is the villain in his own story. Seeing no way to carve out a better path for himself, the ill-tempered criminal thrusts much of his pain and anger on Pam — who tries but fails to sustain it. 

The couple’s luck seems to shift one day when Randal — hopelessly looking to connect with the outside world, witnesses the murder of a police officer at the hands of the project's most violent criminal, Lawyer (David Manuel). Seeing the murder as an opportunity to escape his present circumstances, Randal decides to blackmail Lawyer for the money he owes Emmie so he can start a new life. 

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'Legacies' Stars Peyton Alex Smith and Quincy Fouse Talk Magic And Mystique In The CW's New 'TVD' Spinoff Show

Nearly a decade after The CW first introduced us to Mystic Falls' bloodthirsty characters in The Vampire Diaries, and the New Orleans set-The Originals, executive producers Julie Plec and Brett Matthews are presenting the final installment of their supernatural saga, Legacies. Set in the distant future, Legacies follows a group of magical teens who all live in safe confines of the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted as they struggle to control both their magical and hormonal urges. 

Run by headmaster and TVD alum Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis), the Salvatore student population also boasts a few familiar faces. The Originals alum, Danielle Rose Russell stars as Hope Mikaelson, the first ever vampire/werewolf/witch hybrid who witnessed her parents' destruction during the final season of The Originals. Fans of the original television dramas will also remember Josie (Kaylee Bryant) and Lizzie Saltzman (Jenny Boyd), Alaric’s twin daughters who have their own battles to face. 

While Mystic Falls is no stranger to supernatural events, vampires, werewolves and witches, Legacies is set to unveil something fans of The Vampire Diaries universe have never seen before. 

Ahead of the series premiere, Shadow and Act traveled to Atlanta where Legacies is filmed. We spoke with The Quad alum, Peyton Alex Smith, who stars as Rafael -- a troubled young man just uncovering his true nature as a werewolf and Quincy Fouse, who plays M.G., a cheeky vampire trying to find his footing in the world. 

For Smith, stepping into a world that was already 236 episodes deep with The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, wasn’t as intimidating as one would think. After all, before becoming Rafael, he wasn’t uber-familiar with the franchise. "I’d seen a couple of episodes, but I wasn't really familiar with the world at all," he explained. "It was an eye-opening experience for me because, on the back end, I've been able to catch up on everything. " 

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The Women Of 'Black Lightning' On Being Badass, Embracing Their Powers In The 'High Stakes' Season 2

The second season of The CW’s impactful superhero series, Black Lightning is well underway. This season, the women who have stood behind, Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) as he reluctantly resumed his role as the vigilante, Black Lightning, are about to be front and center. During Season 1, the audience watched as Jefferson’s ex-wife Lynn (Christine Adams) voiced her concern and disdain about Jeff putting his superhero suit back on. Now, Lynn is ready to take matters into her own hands, using her own superpowers – her role as a doctor and scientist—to save the children of Freeland who have succumbed to the volatile Green Light drug. 

Jeff and Lynn’s daughters Anissa (Nafessa Williams) and Jennifer (China Anne McClain) are also finding their footing as superheroes in their own right. During Black Lightning's inaugural season we watched the young women grapple with the knowledge of their father’s true identity, as well as the revelation of their own powers. While Anissa is keen to work alongside her father as the superhero Thunder, Jennifer is uncomfortable with her new abilities and her inability to control them. 

Reluctant as they may have been, as Salim Akil, Black Lightning's creator/showrunner, told Shadow and Act, the women of Black Lightning will spend season 2 following in Jeff's footsteps and coming into their own. 

Shadow and Act recently traveled to Decatur, Georgia, where Black Lightning is filmed to speak with Christine Adams, Nafessa Williams, and China Anne McClain about Season 2 and why their characters will be the focal points as we move forward. 

"I think I've been so lucky to play this kind of character in this kind of show," Adams said of Lynn, who is the only person in the Pierce household without superhuman abilities. "There was always the discussion of her not having superpowers --how that feels, and how she would navigate this chapter. Lynn has evolved. She's a protective mother, that's always first and foremost. But also at the end of season one, she killed someone. There's no going back from that," she said. "In season two, she goes on this unbelievable journey, which is not just about the family but it's about her as a doctor, as a mother, a woman, and a wife. Killing someone has tapped into something very primal to Lynn." 

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Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris On 'Red Table Talk' and Sacred Spaces For Black Healing

There are few safe spaces in the media for Black women to come together and speak about issues that affect them personally and across the Diaspora. Recognizing the need for explosive and healing dialogue, legendary actress Jada Pinkett Smith, her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris and daughter, Willow Smith, decided they would create such a space for themselves. 

In May 2018, the women opened up their lives and home for the profoundly impactful and moving Facebook Watch series, Red Table Talk. Over the course of 10-episodes, the women discussed a wide range of difficult subjects including sex, feuds in Black Hollywood and even addiction. Using their magnetic personalities and bold transparency, the Smiths and Banfield-Norris welcomed millions of viewers and several A-list guests to their red table. 

Now, the People’s Choice award-nominated series is launching new episodes. Shadow and Act got the opportunity to speak with Pinkett Smith and Banfield-Norris about their critically acclaimed series and why it has been vital for them to speak their truths. 

"It’s been a great opportunity for us to learn and grow together," Banfield-Norris said of the show's impact on her family. For the mother/daughter duo, the most beautiful aspect about this journey is that it has allowed multiple generations of Black women to have in-depth and honest conversations that have been historically stifled or unspoken. "Your mistakes can be eye-opening." 

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.