Robinne Lee – Being Mary Jane

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I recently finished a film by Christopher Scott Cherot called Sex and Violence! Or: A Brief Review of Simple Physics. I also did a spot on a new ABC midseason replacement drama called “Mind Games” with Christian Slater and Steve Zahn.

Q) The premiere of your new show “Being Mary Jane” is approaching. How do you plan to celebrate?

A) I’m going to a screening in New York. I am also going to try and live tweet.

Q) Are you looking forward to the instant feedback you’ll be receiving via social media?

A) I love doing the live tweet thing! We did it when the pilot aired on BET as a movie. It was so much fun! It was so wonderful and we just had a blast. It’s so good and really connects with people who are watching and enjoying the show. We’re really in the future because I didn’t have that growing up. It’s really great!

Q) Please tell us the premise for “Being Mary Jane” and about your character.

A) Gabrielle Union plays a single, professional woman living in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a real portrayal of a woman who is approaching forty years old and has an incredible career, but still deals with the trials and tribulations of being a woman in business. She’s a talk show host and deals with everything that comes with that. She is also dealing with a relationship life that is not very satisfying. She is dating a man who she finds out early on is married and she has an ex-boyfriend that comes in and out of the picture. She is dealing with her family as well. She has an ailing mother and she feels like she is carrying her family on her back. It’s just a very real portrayal of what it is to be a woman in the early part of the 21st Century and everything that we deal with on a daily basis. My character is the role of Avery Daniels and I play the wife of the man she is having an affair with. In thepilot episode, Mary Jane confronts me. Things shift and then I’m kind of dealing with that news in that moment. Over the next several episodes, you will see what happens when a couple falls apart when an infidelity is revealed and how it affects me, the kids and him. It’s been a wonderful experience dealing with a character that has all this emotionally turmoil with the loss of a marriage and the love that she thought was strong. And she fights to get it back and hold on to where she can.

Q) Where do you draw from for your portrayal of Avery?

A) I’ve had friends go through similar experiences and I can kind of draw from that and my take on it being with them while their marriage was falling apart while they were discovering this Earth shattering news and how it effected them. It’s watching and kind of feeling like the person I thought who someone was is not quite that person. Fortunately, I have not had to draw on real life for it! (And I hope I never have to!) It was still close enough to be very, very painful.

Q) The show airs on the BET network. What is it about that channel that makes it such a perfect fit for the show?

A) BET has raised their caliber on what they are producing for original programming. I think it is their first one hour scripted drama. They have “The Game” and “The Real Husbands of Hollywood,” but I think this is the first one hour scripted drama. It’s really interesting because it is not like anything they have done so far. I think it has the potential to be a huge crossover hit because it is not going to appeal just to a black audience. It just appeals to the American audience. It is what it is about being a woman in America today, maybe not even in just America.  It’s all of the things that we deal with in our day-to-day experiences. It’s just very raw, real and honest portrayal. It’s subtle and multi-layered. It’s complex and it’s complicated. It’s really beautifully done and I think she could be any woman. It is supposed to be one woman’s story, but I think it will be appealing to many different types of people. I think there are a lot of different characters portrayed here. It’s kind of humanity across the board. It’s a slice of life! I hope it will appeal to many, many people outside of what is your traditional BET audience.

Q) Did the chemistry between the cast come naturally? Were you familiar at all with any of your costars before taking on the role?

A) I worked with Gabrielle Union before many years ago on the movie Deliver Us From Eva and we played sisters. We have been very, very close ever since. Working with her is an absolute delight and a breeze. We come into the relationship with our shared history of knowing each other and knowing how to push each other’s buttons. We’ve got our own language. We can tap into it really easily, as opposed to working with an actor for the first time and you are getting a feel for how they work, how they prepare, what turns them on and what doesn’t. We’ve got this shared language and we can just jump into it and it allows us to play more deeply from the beginning. Latarsha Rose I have known, but I haven’t had any scenes with her yet. I’ve known her for years and she is a good friend. It was a joy to be able to work with her. This was the first time I had met Omari Hardwick and I have absolutely enjoyed working with him. It’s been an absolute pleasure! He is such a talented guy in so many different ways. He’s a poet, a writer and an actor. He was a football player in high school and he’s smart. He’s a modern day Renaissance man. What an incredibly gifted actor he is. We were just able to do so much together. We get to explore all these different emotions and it was wonderful to have someone like that to work with. Even people I don’t have scenes with I just love watching them work! I went to law school and I watched more “Law & Order” during my time in law school than probably any one person should. Richard Brooks was in so many of those episodes that it is just incredible to be on the other side of the camera with A.D.A. Robinette. It’s really great to be a part of a cast with such lovely and talented people. I feel blessed, lucky and happy. I’m excited for what everyone else is going to discover what I have discovered over this last year of shooting. I am so happy that BET is bringing it out.

Q) What have been some of your most memorable moments from filming “Being Mary Jane?”

A) There is a scene in the very first episodes of the seasons where I confront Mary Jane at her workplace and it is electric! These are two women who have been with the same man andAvery is kind of fighting to hold on to her marriage. She wants to state her position as wife in this marriage and not the mistress. It’s really intense the conversation they have. Avery goes to the office and she has a barrage of questions. She really gives it to Mary Jane and it is difficult to watch because it is so real, raw, sensitive and emotional. That was a blast to shoot! I have more scenes with Omari coming up in future episodes that Mara [Brock Akil] said when she watches them feels like it is jazz watching us work together. It’s really like this dance you’re doing. We shot late into the night and we’re exhausting and we’re ripping each other apart during the scene. We just kept doing it over and over again. It was just so thrilling to work with such a faceted actor who is able to give you all these different colors and different levels of rage, exhaustion, anger and sorrow. I think that scene is going to be really powerful when people see it. I am looking forward to that.

Q) Is there anything else about the show you would like to share with fans?

A) It’s going to be so surprising and people are going to be thrilled with the stories. The performances are excellent and the writing is great, but what an incredible story that we haven’t seen before and it’s just been very honest. It’s water cooler talk. You are going to want to be discussing it with your friends in the office the next day. It’s water cooler talk because it is about things that we experience in every day life that we don’t necessarily talk about. We found a way to portray it that is pleasant, interesting, raw and fresh. People are going to be surprised. It’s not this fantasy life. It’s a real life that has dark moments, moments of levity and moments and comedy, but it is different than what we have seen on TV.