Harlem returned to our screens last week, so we sat down with Meagan Good and Jerrie Johnson – AKA Camille and Tye – to ask them your burning questions and discuss the love triangles, self-discovery, and sistership explored in the second season!
If you could play any other character in the show, who would you choose?
Jerrie: I think I would play Camille, that would be funny.
Meagan: I would play Tye. That would be a hot mess!
Jerrie: Like Camille, I have a connection to academia – I also studied African American Studies and arts entrepreneurship when I was an undergrad and I felt that the burn when we meet Dr Pruitt – I had a few Dr Pruitts when I was an undergrad, and I just feel very much connected to that. I think if I wasn't an actor, I would be a quantum physicist and then I would be a professor.
Meagan: I like Tye’s journey of self-discovery; as confident as she is, as much as she's a boss, and as accomplished and successful as she is, she's on this journey, especially in season two. I can't give too much away, but she's on this journey of self-discovery, learning you can have so much self-love and know your value and worth, but also realising that there are other things behind some of her behaviours. I can't tell too much, but I just think that she's a badass character and she's just dope and smart and unapologetic.
The wardrobe on the show is immaculate – how did Camille’s and Tye’s looks compare to your own personal style?
Megan: It was very different for me! There were so many things that I loved, like as soon as I tried them on I was like, “oh, I love this, I would want to wear this in real life because it’s so dope.” But I mean, I'm a very kind of casual girl – I'll spend money on boots and purses once in a while, but I just like vintage and I'm very very chill and just like to do a cute face. But Camille is completely fashion-forward, both in her regular life and as a professor, and so everything that Deidra (Govan, Harlem’s costume designer) pulled and put together was just gorgeous and helped me discover who Camille is.
Jerrie: Yeah, I think playing Tye and being on this show has expanded different facets of me as a person. I think there are a lot of things that Tye wears that I'm like, “wow, I would have never seen to put these things together,” but you did and it's gorgeous, so I think there’s a version of Jerrie that's would wear most of the stuff. But I also do feel like this season, I wanted to play more with this other side of Tye too, which we see reflected in the wardrobe as well.
So in the first season, we had some serious plotlines, with episodes like “Strong Black Woman.” How did you navigate those tough episodes, and is there more of that in season two?
Meagan: You'll definitely see a lot more of that. We have some important conversations and had Tracy (Oliver, Harlem’s creator) coming to each one of us girls and saying, “hey, what do you think about this?” or, you know, “this is something that you experienced in your real life, what do you think if we if tackle this?” so whatever it may be, you'll definitely see that. But I think during the season the biggest thing was to approach it authentically, as women, specifically as Black women, and specifically as something that we can comprehend and understand ourselves, but in the world of these characters.
Jerrie: Yeah, and we have those conversations with each other off-camera as well. And it helps to be around beautiful, grounded women so that we can ask questions like “what does it mean for you to be a strong Black woman?”, or “what is it that you're working through in this area?” So when the camera is on, it feels like an extension of conversations that we're already having, instead of us having to turn it on and play at something.
What's the most relatable part of each of your characters’ storylines?
Meagan: Love being confusing and interesting and complicated – not black and white, which I think is one of the big themes for Camille. And I think true friendship and sistership being a lasting forever thing.
Jerrie: Besides the obvious part of Tye being a queer Black woman, I think Tye is a manifesting generator like Jerrie is, so I think we're really similar in that way. It's very interesting too because I think when people meet me they sometimes expect me to be Tye, and I think I am a little bit softer than Tye is in a lot of ways, and very much more self-aware emotionally. But I do think we both have that mindset that’s like, “oh, you want this? Then you have to do this, this, and this to get it, period.”
I love how you referred to yourself in the third person there! Some people have called Harlem the melanated Sex and the City – what do you think sets you apart from shows like that?
Jerrie: One, the backdrop is Harlem, and I’ve never seen the girls from Sex and the City go to Harlem! It’s a realistic depiction – I used to watch shows like Sex and the City and Friends, and I was like: this is in New York and not even an extra is Black, but New York is so diverse and it's such a breeding ground for so many people from so many places. And so I think with Harlem, we have the ability to show that diversity, but also to show Black women in different positions; like Black women who are doctors, and all of these things that you will never see on shows like that. I feel like a show like Sex and the City could have been shot in LA and it wouldn't have made the biggest difference, whereas Harlem IS Harlem – I live in Harlem, and it's very much the heartbeat of our show. And the show is so specific to the experience of these Black women, but because it's so specific, it can also be universal as well.
