A brand new episode of OWN’s hit series “Queen Sugar” airs tonight so it’s only right that we prepare by giving you a little something special.
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Tina Lifford And Omar Dorsey Reflect On Their “Queen Sugar” Experiences
We wanted to share an interview our Sr. Content Director Janeé Bolden conducted with Tina Lifford and Omar Dorsey, who play beloved couple Violet Bourdelon and Hollywood Desonier on the show.
We asked Tina and Omar about working on “Queen Sugar” for seven seasons and the kinds of reactions they get when they meet fans.
“You know what’s so crazy? I could be in Kenya, I could be anywhere and the first thing people say is ‘where is Aunt Vi?’” Omar Dorsey told BOSSIP. “We’ve become so synonymous with each other. I could be with my girlfriend and people will be like ‘Where is Aunt Vi at?’ ‘I don’t know, but Crystal is over here.’”
“It resonates with people,” Dorsey said about the relationship between Hollywood and Vi. “Hashtag #RelationshipGoals. People love to see that kind of love on camera, they like to see it reflected and I think that’s what I’ll take with me. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring that kind of love, whether I’m directing or writing or acting in something again because it makes people feel good. It’s two people who really love each other. Two people we really know. That’s my uncle, that’s my aunt, that’s my cousin, that’s my brother, that’s my sister. We know those people. That’s something I will always take with me.”
Tina Lifford confirmed that she too has met a number of fans who expect to see her scene partner somewhere nearby when encountered.
“The flip side of that story is my experience, because when people meet me it’s, ‘Where’s Hollywood?’” Lifford told BOSSIP. “So truly we are seen as one. One but with independence, with distinction. I think one of the things that translate through the work that is an experience that I have with Omar is that it’s just comfortable to be together. I know Omar’s lady, Crystal, she’s WONDERFUL right? But when I step on to set, there’s just this real comfort like that’s my favorite house shoe or robe right there. And there’s nothing held back. There’s nothing covered. It’s just the energy and I’m not just talking about our energy, but the energy of the idea just leans into itself in a really comfortable way and people respond to that. We make them feel good.”
So far this season Aunt Vi has been in pretty good health, but we asked Tina Lifford about her character’s lupus diagnosis and what it’s been for her to play someone dealing with the disease.
“I feel that the writers addressed lupus brilliantly,” Lifford told BOSSIP. ” have friends who are dealing with really challenging ailments, and there is a big difference between the ones who are owned by their ailments and the others who are owned by living and Vi is owned by living. She doesn’t think about her lupus until it shows up and when it shows up it’s always stress related for her. She’s always being over-responsible or giving way too much of her energy away to someone else. That’s when she has a flare-up. But when she’s not in her episode, Vi is always about living her life. I think that’s a gift the writers give to the audience. When we focus on living, then the other things, the complications the challenges all live in the same bucket called life.”
After spending seven seasons on “Queen Sugar,” we had to ask Omar and Tina about their biggest takeaway from being on the show. For Omar Dorsey, he says Array Productions commitment to gender parity by using only female directors on the show has helped him grow in his craft.
“I’ve been doing films since 1998 and I’ve had one female director my whole life before “Queen Sugar,”” Dorsey told BOSSIP, before revealing it was “Queen Sugar” creator Ava DuVernay, who directed him in Selma.”A female director might bring something out of me different than a male director might. A sensitivity direction that a woman might give me, or a way to look at a line, or circumstance that a woman director might give me might be different from what a male director might have given. It gives me more colors as an actor. I’m blessed with the 40-odd directors that we’ve had, women who came in and taught me a different way of acting without being beaten down with machismo, and having some type of sensitivity to it, has made me a better actor.”
For Lifford’s part, “Queen Sugar” has allowed her to experience working with a group of people wholly committed to showing up and showing out.
“What it has shown me, is the power of intentionality,” Lifford told BOSSIP. “I believe that if we were to interview all of the key players in this success, each person came to this party with a very clear intention and the intention actually was aligned without us even knowing it. So it lived, it breathed, it expanded and it became something greater than any of us individually could have foreseen because of the connected and resonating intention held by everyone.”
Beautifully said!
Make sure to tune in to the new episode of “Queen Sugar” tonight, Tuesday October 4th at 8pm EST / 7pm CST on OWN.