Actress Angela Lewis Talks Snowfall Season 4, John Singleton’s Legacy, and Motherhood
Actress and new mother Angela Lewis is back as fan-favorite "Aunt Louie" for season four of FX's Snowfall. We talked with Angela Lewis about what to look forward to this season, honoring John Singleton and embracing life as a new mother!
By: Alexis Oatman
Actress and new mother Angela Lewis is back as fan-favorite "Aunt Louie" for season four of FX's Snowfall.
Set against the crack epidemic of the 1980s in Los Angeles, the series was created by the late Academy Award-nominated writer and director John Singleton. The cast includes Damson Idris (Netflix's "Black Mirror"), Emily Rios (If Beale Street Could Talk), and Isaiah John (Downsized).
Lewis returns as Franklin's right hand woman and has come a long way from the tough and gritty drug-addict with ambitious dreams from season one. In the new season, she has taken over the trade, playing a pivotal role in Franklin's operation, and is ready to make her own name in the game.
24/7 spoke with the actress over the phone about the new season, continuing with Singleton's visionary series, as well as her new role as a new mother.
Season four premiered last Wednesday night, how are you feeling? Are you excited about the new season?
Angela Lewis: Yes. I’m so excited! It took us forever to get it shot and completed, so not only is it a fire season, but we also got it done. Not everybody has been able to say that. I’m really grateful and super excited.
Can you talk about Louie’s transformation throughout the series and what we can expect from her this season?
Angela Lewis: We’ve watched Louie elevate her station in life. She’s fought so hard, each season, more and more, to obtain power and the life she’s always dreamed for herself. Last season, she took over for Franklin while he was injured and out of commission. This season, Franklin is back. How will Louie handle a relinquishing of power? Can she handle it?
Due to COVID, you guys were shut down from filming temporarily, how was it getting back on set?
Angela Lewis: It was a relief. We had worked so hard in the first part before we got shut down, and for a while, we didn’t know what was going to happen with the rest of the season, if we were going to get to finish, so when we got the green light, it was really a relief because everybody was working so hard.
Being on set was different, you know. You couldn’t hug people, you couldn’t be up on each other, but they definitely went all out to make us feel safe, and I’m grateful for that.
You’ve mentioned in past interviews how much John Singleton was instrumental in you getting involved with this project early on, can you speak on what it means entering season four without him? How are you carrying on his vision?
Angela Lewis: I think he would be extremely disappointed if we did not carry on. I don’t think that’s what he would have wanted at all. It’s an honor to continue his legacy and to the active part of his legacy live on as long as it can.
Obviously, it’s a part of us that is missing. There’s a hole there. There’s no way to fill that. I think we tried to look at from a place of love and a place of joy, keep each other lifted, and about doing the work, so we can fulfill the intention that he was putting out into the world.
Switching gears, can you speak your experience as a new mother? How has it been?
Angela Lewis: It’s been amazing. It’s the hardest thing I ever had to do, but it's amazing. She’s 16 months now, and she keeps me on my toes. It’s humbling.
You come in from a day of work where you're putting out all your creativity, you’re doing press, everyone is like, “Oh my gosh, your amazing!” and she’s like, “mmhmm, milk.” She’s a really special soul, and I’m really grateful to be a part of her life and help guide her on this journey. It’s beautiful, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Can you talk about the how often women of color are disproportionally affected by the maternal mortality rate and how that led you to using midwife and doula for your pregnancy?
Angela Lewis: When I decided to get a midwife and a doula, I think I did it because I knew that I didn’t want the hospital experience.
Oftentimes, we’re not heard, it’s a colder experience, and it often leads to procedures that are not necessary and not wanted. During my journey, she did not want to come on out, so I had to be induced. So, I ended up having to go into the hospital, but because it wasn’t an emergency, I was able to go to the hospital where my midwife had privileges to actually deliver my baby. I had a wonderful, supportive experience, even in the hospital.
Still, through the whole journey of my pregnancy, I spent a lot of money on a doula and a midwife and a post-partum doula, breastfeeding classes, birthing classes. I just thought, wow, what if I didn’t have all of this money to have access to these resources? I may not have had a healthy birth as I did.
I think it’s terrible that a healthy birth is determined by how much money you do or don’t have. I feel extremely passionate about every woman, especially every Black woman, because we are the ones who are overlooked. We are the ones who are unheard. We are the ones who are dying in our birthing rooms. Every one of us should have the opportunity to have a beautiful, healthy, safe birth.
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Taraji P. Henson Is Defeating Mental Health Stigmas With Start Of Her Own Nonprofit Organization
Taraji P. Henson launched a nonprofit organization to combat mental health stigmas in the African American community!
By: Omar Cook
Taraji P. Henson decided to open up about her own mental health battles within her family with the launch of her new nonprofit organization Saturday. The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation is named after her late father and is aimed to make mental health care in the black community commonplace.
Taraji was pushed to advocate for mental health awareness among African Americans due to her son battling his own mental health issues after the murder of his father in 2003. In search of mental health help for her son, she was looking “someone that he could trust, someone that looks like him and could understand his struggle,” but said it was hard because “they wouldn’t be African American and it wouldn’t get anything accomplished because he felt guilty for the things he was saying.”
It’s no secret that mental health awareness in the black community is not taken as seriously as it should be. Henson told Variety:
“It was like looking for a unicorn, and the reason that happens is because we don’t talk about it in our community; it’s taboo, it’s looked upon as a weakness or we’re demonized for expressing rage for traumas we’ve been through. I have a lot of white friends and that’s what got me going. They say, ‘You don’t talk to anybody? Girl, I’m going to see my shrink every Thursday at 3 o’clock.’ So I was like why don’t we do that in our community?”
The Empire star understood the need for celebrity power behind her movement because “the misconception about celebrities that we have it all together and we’re perfect and we’re not. Our kids aren’t perfect, we’re suffering and struggling just like the regular person and money doesn’t help. I thank God I can pay for the psychiatry bill but it doesn’t necessarily take away the problems.”
During the event, Henson also discussed her own mental health issues and that she also she’s a therapist. “I’m here to tell you that when they tell cut and the cameras go away, I go home to real problems just like everybody else” Taraji said. She stated she wanted to be transparent in hopes that “people go, “Oh wow she’s going through it? Well I’m alright then.”
The first mission of her foundation was to put art in inner city schools with hopes that this will help combat suicide, bullying and depression. Taraji partnered with artist Cierra Lynn and the thought process behind the art in bathrooms is that this is “where fights happened, jumps, that’s where you got bullied because the teachers weren’t in there, so I thought that was a great thing to do to flip it. You go there to get your head together and instead of seeing hate stuff or whatever madness kids put in there, we decided to turn it into art.”
Actress Jennifer Lewis who also attended the event and has been open about her own bipolar disorder has made mental health awareness a priority for her. “We are as sick as our secrets and it’s time for people to come together, to reach out to those who are hiding in dark rooms, reach out to those who are afraid to take the next step, reach out to those who want to be better and don’t know how to,” Lewis said.
Having celebrities get behind the mental health awareness movement is big because people can see that their are people that they look up to that go through the same things. Black celebrities are looking to eliminate the stigma behind mental health issues in the black community and this is something everyone can get behind!
