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Towards the end of Lovecraft Country’s first episode, there’s a moment when the real monsters are obscured in HBO’s new horror- aria-label=”As Tic (Jonathan Majors) (opens in a new tab)” href=”https://www.essence.com/celebrity/5-things-jonathan-majors-lovecraft-country/” target=”_blank”>As traveling trio Atticus (Jonathan Majors), Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and Leti (Jurnee Smollett) are ambushed by gun-wielding racist cops, hellbent on making them pay for trespassing in theirsundown town.
The travelers are marched into the woods and the adrenaline of will they or won’t they make it is terrifying enough as the cops keep shotguns at their backs. But then another panic stirs in the dark night. Something equally wicked starts tearing limbs and devouring heads. New monsters—more accurately the shoggoths, nocturnal tentacled creatures dreamed up by fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft—have arrived.
Although Lovecraft Country is set in the mid-1950s, the series’ searing depictions of Jim Crow America feel eerily and necessarily right on time. Jurnee Smollett, who plays fierce disrupter Letitia “Leti” Lewis, agrees the show’s systemic racism themes are parallel with today’s continuing racial discourse.
“We’re in midst of fighting two pandemics. What we’re seeing is people are tired of them killing us. It literally comes down to that. Emmitt Till is Trayvon Martin. George Floyd, unfortunately. Breonna Taylor, unfortunately. These situations we’ve grown up with this. Our ancestors grew up in this,” says Smollett. “This systemic racism that the nation was built up on because it hasn’t been dismantled yet, we haven’t healed from it.”
Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and Atticus (Jonathan Majors) in Lovecraft Country | Photo credit: Eli Joshua Ade/HBO
However, the Underground actress, knows her work—being a continued change agent in how Black female characters are portrayed on screen—on the show has just begun. “What encourages me and excites me about being in a story like Lovecraft, it goes back to the widely quoted Nina Simone [who said]: ‘It’s the duty of the artist to reflect these times,’” she says.
Smollett continues: “Not only is the story timely but it’s also personal. It’s so deeply personal for us. I know what it’s like to feel displaced. I know what it’s like to have that great shock, that James Baldwin talks about. When you discover this nation, who you owe your identity to, right, has yet to create a space for you. I know this, this is the blood memory we talk about. I’m excited because I feel like Lovecraft Country contributes to this discussion. And doesn’t negate it.”
Lovecraft Country airs on Sundays at 9 pm on HBO.
The post Jurnee Smollett On Lovecraft Country’s Impact In Time of Black Lives Matter appeared first on Essence.
Towards the end of Lovecraft Country’s first episode, there’s a moment when the real monsters are obscured in HBO’s new horror- aria-label="As Tic (Jonathan Majors) (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.essence.com/celebrity/5-things-jonathan-majors-lovecraft-country/" target="_blank">As traveling trio Atticus (Jonathan Majors), Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and Leti (Jurnee Smollett) are ambushed by gun-wielding racist cops, hellbent on making them pay for trespassing in theirsundown town.
The travelers are marched into the woods and the adrenaline of will they or won’t they make it is terrifying enough as the cops keep shotguns at their backs. But then another panic stirs in the dark night. Something equally wicked starts tearing limbs and devouring heads. New monsters—more accurately the shoggoths, nocturnal tentacled creatures dreamed up by fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft—have arrived.
Although Lovecraft Country is set in the mid-1950s, the series’ searing depictions of Jim Crow America feel eerily and necessarily right on time. Jurnee Smollett, who plays fierce disrupter Letitia “Leti” Lewis, agrees the show’s systemic racism themes are parallel with today’s continuing racial discourse.
“We’re in midst of fighting two pandemics. What we’re seeing is people are tired of them killing us. It literally comes down to that. Emmitt Till is Trayvon Martin. George Floyd, unfortunately. Breonna Taylor, unfortunately. These situations we’ve grown up with this. Our ancestors grew up in this,” says Smollett. “This systemic racism that the nation was built up on because it hasn’t been dismantled yet, we haven’t healed from it.”
Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and Atticus (Jonathan Majors) in Lovecraft Country | Photo credit: Eli Joshua Ade/HBOHowever, the Underground actress, knows her work—being a continued change agent in how Black female characters are portrayed on screen—on the show has just begun. “What encourages me and excites me about being in a story like Lovecraft, it goes back to the widely quoted Nina Simone [who said]: ‘It’s the duty of the artist to reflect these times,’” she says.
Smollett continues: “Not only is the story timely but it’s also personal. It’s so deeply personal for us. I know what it’s like to feel displaced. I know what it’s like to have that great shock, that James Baldwin talks about. When you discover this nation, who you owe your identity to, right, has yet to create a space for you. I know this, this is the blood memory we talk about. I’m excited because I feel like Lovecraft Country contributes to this discussion. And doesn’t negate it.”
Lovecraft Country airs on Sundays at 9 pm on HBO.
The post Jurnee Smollett On Lovecraft Country’s Impact In Time of Black Lives Matter appeared first on Essence.
Source: JC Olivera; Jerritt Clark / Getty
As we previously reported, former Basketball Wives star Jennifer Williams’ ex-boyfriend Tim Norman, who starred on Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s, has been charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire in the death of his own nephew, 18-year-old Andre Montgomery. Williams already made her comments about Norman’s charges in the 2016 murder and now her former co-star-turned-foe Tami Roman has decided to chime in.
On her Instagram favorite, Bonnet Chronicles, Roman had a message for Williams.
“Jennifer, you escaped it girl,” she said. “If he would do that to his nephew, b***h you didn’t have a chance and he probably wouldn’t have got caught because no one would’ve gave a f**k,”
Williams responded by releasing a statement to Page Six, calling Roman classless and tacky.
“I don’t talk to Tami and I don’t know why she is making fun of a horrific situation where a life was lost,” Williams said. “Tami is classless, and it was done in poor taste while a family is trying to come to terms with the ultimate betrayal from one of their own. That’s all I have to say about Tami’s tacky ass… With everything going on in the world and the climate within the Black community, I’m saddened a Black woman is tearing another one down.”
When news of Norman’s charges first hit, Williams commented on her ex’s legal woes on social media.
“Karma will get you one way or another,” she wrote on Instagram. “The truth always reveals itself. Condolences to the family, I can’t imagine this how this dose of truth is hitting..”
According to the Riverfront Times, Norman allegedly enlisted Waiel “Wally” Yaghnam, who produced tracks on Nelly’s Nellyville album, to help him with his alleged murder plot. Yaghnam has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and is accused of helping Norman illegally take out life insurances policies on Montgomery. The Times also reported that an exotic dancer named Terica Ellis was called on by Norman to help commit this murder and she has been charged with conspiracy as well.
Take a look at what Roman had to say below.
Source: Gregg DeGuire / Getty
Jay Manuel worked beside Tyra Banks for America’s Next Top Model for 18 seasons and left the modeling competition in 2012. After he parted ways with the reality show, he and Banks unfortunately drifted apart. During a recent interview on Barstool’s Chicks in the Office podcast, he said their relationship isn’t as close as it was while they worked together.
“In terms of my feelings for Tyra, our relationship isn’t what it was. However, I still will always speak positively about her,” Manuel said. “I respect everything that she represents, every door she’s kicked down—as a woman, as a Black woman; what she represents to so many young Brown and Black girls and boys in the industry, so I will never, ever speak negatively against that.”
Manuel, who worked as a creative director on the show, said Banks wasn’t too happy with him when he decided to move on in 2012 and from there the friendship was never the same.
“She basically just said ‘I’m disappointed’ and that was it and kind of cut me off,” he continued. “And even outside of the show, we would almost talk every day and it was very weird.”
In May, the 48-year-old told Variety that he and Banks were more distant than ever.