‘Ginny & Georgia’ Star Antonia Gentry on Representing the Black Experience: ‘It’s Not One Size Fits All’
During a recent interview with Complex, the 25-year-old actress spoke candidly about Ginny's mental health journey, representing the Black experience, and more.
Image via Netflix
There’s a reason Ginny & Georgia Season 2 became the No. 1 show on Netflix and dethroned Wednesday after a six-week run. The show is exhilarating.
Created by Sarah Lampert, the series depicts the lives of troubled mother Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey) and her teenage daughter, Ginny (Antonia Gentry), who attempt to escape their past by starting over in Wellsbury, Massachusetts. Season 2 aired on Jan. 5, with 10 episodes that left viewers on the edge of their seats. The second installment picks up by showing the aftermath of Ginny running away with her younger brother, Austin, after learning about Georgia’s murderous past.
If you haven’t finished watching…it’s time to catch up. Not only does this season dive into Georgia’s deadly past, but it also touches on important issues such as therapy and discovering one’s identity. Ginny, who is a biracial teen, has a tough time finding the balance between her different groups of friends. These problems were brought to light with the help of brilliant Black writers like Angela Nissel, who has writing credits on hit shows such as Mixed-ish, Bigger, and Scrubs. And Mike Guayo, who has written on Insecure and Send Help.
While reflecting on the addition of Nissel’s writing this season, Gentry explained why it’s important to have the Black experience represented in a meaningful way on the small screen. “Bringing in writers and producers who have that experience and opinion on a matter that is very real to so many people only improves the quality of the show,” the 25-year-old actor explained. “It’s representation of those things.”
Just last week, a tweet from Keke Palmer went viral in which she said her chauffeur was marathoning Ginny & Georgia in hopes of learning more about his teenage daughter. If that isn’t proof that the mother-daughter series reaches a wider audience, then what is?
During a recent interview with Complex, Gentry spoke in detail about Ginny’s identity journey throughout Season 2, Nissel’s writing, her hopes for a potential Season 3, the painful breakup with her character’s boyfriend, and more.
Season 2 was quite the roller coaster. I’m sure there were some fun moments to film and some that were challenging. Can you give an example of each?
Yeah, sure. Party scenes are always fun. The birthday party scene was fun because everyone was on set at the same time, and so we all get to just have a good time and goof off. But yeah, those kinds of scenes are few and far between for Ginny anyway. The bachelorette party scene was also a wild time. We were all so tired and punch-drunk. Of course, the challenging scenes are always the ones dealing with the heavier-hitting moments of the show. Ginny’s mental health struggles. The breakup between Marcus and Ginny was super hard. It’s like 90 percent challenging moments and 10 percent fun.
Speaking of challenges, Ginny had to overcome a handful of obstacles. Were there any challenges that she dealt with that you drew inspiration from in your real life?
There’s a lot that I can relate to Ginny with, and there’s a lot that I don’t. So when I have to go to places that I haven’t been to in a very long time, I just remember how I felt. She’s very young. She’s only 16, and she’s never had a sense of stability.
I try to find those moments in my life where I’ve felt alone, out of place, not beautiful enough, not good enough. When I’ve felt like I haven’t had a voice. You kind of just center yourself in the humanity of it. Because Ginny is a very, very messy character, but she’s a very human character. She’s not perfect. She makes mistakes, and we all do. So that’s what I draw on when I have to do scenes like that to connect with her. It’s drawing on our own imperfections and insecurities.
In this season, Ginny is open to therapy and learns coping mechanisms as a result. I felt that was so important to show everyone that talking about your problems can be beneficial.
Yeah, I was really happy that Ginny finally got the resources that she needed to start healing. She’s just so young, and she’s going through so much. It’s never good to hold things inside of you, because then inevitably it will have to come out. And if you don’t know how to deal with those emotions in a healthy way, you’re going to end up hurting yourself.
We see with Ginny, she’s never had a healthy way to deal with her negative emotions. She’s always bottled it in until it bubbles out, and it reflects in her unfortunate habit of self-harm. I’m so glad that we took the steps toward representing her mental health journey in a more healthy way. Her therapist is also a biracial woman to who she can open up to. It’s just a really powerful symbol in the show. I know that a lot of audience members really do relate to that. It feels good when fans say that this is what they needed to see because I want to do it responsibly and I want it to send the message that you can ask for help.
Ginny’s identity as a biracial teenager is explored this season. Describe her journey from the beginning of the season to the end.
Honestly, I wouldn’t say Ginny’s arrived, but she has improved a lot. She’s made such good strides in the right direction in figuring out who she is. I love her friendship with Bracia. I’m so glad that she has another group of friends apart from her core group, MANG, who can just look at her and understand everything. She doesn’t have to suffer in silence. They don’t have snide comments like Samantha does about her dad or mom: “Which one of your parents is white?” or “Didn’t you grow up poor?” If we get another season, I hope to see her become more confident in who she is and maybe learn how to take care of her hair better. But I’m going to have to talk to the writers about that.
And it’s cool that she’s also learning things from Bracia, like correct photo lighting for women of color.
No, definitely. And I think that’s very important. It’s always nuanced and layered, and the Black experience is not one size fits all in any way, shape, or form. It’s very important to show that as much as Ginny’s white friends have blind sides to what Ginny goes through, Ginny also has blind sides and doesn’t know every single aspect of what Black women go through. It’s essential for our show to include as many of those experiences as possible. Ginny has her own separate experience as a biracial teenager from Bracia and her friend group. They have their own experiences, and it’s very important to open up those conversations and really just listen to each other and learn.
With the addition of Black writers like Angela Nissel, how do you feel that impacted the script and brought some of the issues that Ginny faces to the forefront?
It’s great. There’s always room for improvement. It is important to at least try and bring in voices who have lived these experiences so that you can write characters that have a little bit more realness to them and aren’t done in a way where it feels like you’re trying to check off a box. It needs to be done in a way that is meaningful. Bringing in writers and producers who have that experience and opinion on a matter that is very real to so many people only improves the quality of the show and its representation of those things.
Ginny appears to be a lot more understanding this season. From giving her mother a second chance to being there for Marcus after their breakup. What is the cause of this?
When you’re a teenager, it’s hard to see. The world is so big and you can feel so small, but all of your problems seem just as big as the world. And to give Ginny some credit, she is going through a lot of major things like her mom killing people and lying to her. And that’s not something that I would want to deal with ever. But I do love the growth that she has. I do love the fact that she isn’t afraid to pause for a moment and understand what everyone’s going through. She sees Abby’s situation, for example, and when she finally understands what Marcus is going through, she wants to support him as a friend, and that’s just really beautiful. It reminds us all to know that you really don’t know what people are going through unless you listen and talk to them.
We could go on forever about Georgia and Ginny’s relationship this season. There were quite a few moments between them that stood out, like when Georgia tells Ginny she would do anything for her in the car or when Ginny looks at her mother in the face while reading the poem about her. What was your favorite Ginny and Georgia moment or conversation?
Where to begin? They have such a complicated relationship. It’s not healthy. However, when they’re on the same page, you just love their chemistry. You love that they are two people who really do deeply love each other, but they also deeply hurt each other at the same time. The scene that you mentioned where Ginny’s reading her poem and she sees Georgia and she decides to continue is such an important moment for her character development, because Season 1 Ginny would’ve stopped reading.
And the whole point of that poem is that she’s tired of feeling like she doesn’t have a voice and she’s tired of struggling with things silently. And one of the main people in her life who needs to understand that is her mom. And so the fact that Georgia shows up, Ginny sees her, you see that she’s shocked. She didn’t expect her to be there. But you also see her make the decision to continue and to keep going so that she can finally be heard. I think that’s really, really important. It’s a big moment for her character. And then, of course, Georgia doesn’t really understand the poem, but they fix it. It’s fine. They love each other.
Season 3 isn’t confirmed yet. But how do you predict Ginny will react after learning about her mom’s connection to Tom’s death? Do you believe she will be understanding again after everything they’ve gone through?
That’s really hard to say. She knows that she’s killed two people. She’s been understanding every single time. She’s like, “OK, all right, mom, that’s it.” And then her mom goes and does this. Every time Ginny thinks she knows her mom, she realizes there are, like, five more cellars underground that she has to go through. I imagine Ginny would try her hardest to support her mom while also struggling to justify why it was Tom. “Why would you do this? There was a P.I. on you. Why would you kill someone else? You said you were done killing. What’s going on?” I don’t know. I really just hope it doesn’t break her even more because she’s really on a healing journey. I need Georgia to just take a backseat and stop killing people. I don’t know what the writers have in store. I’m curious.
Assuming there’s a Season 3, what are your hopes for Ginny?
I just really want to see Ginny happy. I know the circumstances really don’t help her out, but I just want to see her stronger. I think she has huge trust issues, so I hope that she heals. I hope she learns to trust in spite of the fact that her mom killed someone else and just to really become a strong young woman who knows what she wants and goes after it.
I have to ask before I let you go. Are you secretly hoping for a Marcus and Ginny reunion?
I love the two of them! I think they’re really just perfect characters for each other. I don’t know. They’re always going to be in each other’s lives. I do want to see them together. He’s really good for her, and she’s good for him. And as long as they can both grow in their own ways, they can be stronger. But I really don’t know. They’re both still so young and they’re going through so much, but I love the way they are together. And so I want to see them together for sure, in some way.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Ginny & Georgia are now streaming on Netflix.