Whether you know Deborah from her diverse roles, can’t get enough of her red carpet style, or are just looking for a new celebrity obsession, this interview’s for you! It’s a bit like, “Okay, I fit in, but I don’t really.” That could happen from someone moving from state to state. Being a part of different cultures like that can really make someone feel out of place also. But it can turn into a beautiful thing, where you become almost like a translator. There’s so many things about Nina that I really just felt like, “Oh, I know this girl. She is me.” And, yes, even though most of them have been living in London for most of their lives, I have been able to show them some very fabulous places in London. I’ve made them even more bourgeois. The fact that Black people in America felt represented by Black people in the UK, for me, mending that gap was everything. I’m all for us being united and us seeing ourselves through each other, and us respecting our differences but also celebrating the fact that we, at some point, had the same blood running through our veins. I was like, “You’re gonna make me cry, walk away!” So yeah, that was really beautiful. With last season, a lot of people came up to me and told me that their grandmother was there and someone was even like, “Oh my God, that’s my story!” Now, a lot of people were like, “Oh, crap! I was there.” I hope it will really make people think, “Oh, wow! That’s what that caused.” Do you get what I’m saying? This season will explain a lot of things. It will bring up a lot of questions. When I had that meeting with creator Little Marvin about what he wanted to do and the fact that he wanted me to lead it again, in a whole different character, I was just speechless. The way that he connected his mind — he’s genius. He’s somewhere else. He’s like light years ahead of us mere mortals. But yeah, people are really gonna appreciate this one. And Luke and Iman, those are my guys! Luke actually just texted me right now. With a project like this, if you’re not working with the right people, it can really be hard and heavy. Even in Season 1, I was blessed with such a great group of people, and this time is no different. Not only just Iman, Luke, and Pam, but also the rest of the cast and crew. I was just telling my friend the other day about how blessed I feel, because if they were assholes, it would be really hard [laughs]. But they’re such good people. There were so many laughs. They lightened it for me. It’s been amazing. You’re holding so much on your shoulders already as the lead, so when you’re surrounded with great people, even with Riches, it lightens that load. I don’t think people realize how smart Little Marvin is. He makes sure that every single bit of the story is real. Even though it’s a fictional story, it’s real. It’s grounded in truth. I have had projects come across my desk, that speak about our pain, but in ways that don’t feel very grounded in truth — they don’t really see us from the human experience, if that makes sense. And those roles I pass up very quickly. I’m very, very particular, and I will continue to be because I’m very protective over my portrayals of my representation of us on screen. Especially when it comes to portrayals of Black women — I don’t take that lightly. The sad thing is that we’re still going through a lot of things that happen in this series. We’re still dealing with the after effects of them. So, if we stop talking about it, then what happens? We can’t heal what we don’t acknowledge. We would love to see a day where we don’t have to talk about certain things anymore.
