The opening shot of Queen Sugar is utterly cinematic: the camera glides over a sleeping Rutina Wesley, detailing her tattoos as she climbs out of bed, stretches, and puts her clothes back on next to a lover who hasn't yet noticed her movement. Set to perfect music, it is languid and sexy, yet another moment from the mind of writer/director Ava DuVernay that feels immediate and revealing.
OWN's exceptional new drama based on the novel by Natalie Baszile follows three siblings (Charley, Nova, and Ralph Angel Bordelon) after the unexpected death of their beloved father brings them together. The characters are in very different places in their lives: Charley, a basketball wife, is watching a scandal unfold with her husband; Ralph Angel is raising his son Blue alone and trying to straighten out his own life; and Nova, played by the aforementioned Rutina Wesley, is a journalist and activist involved with a married man. From that opening shot to the premiere episode's end, Queen Sugar is an emotional roller coaster—it feels like the closest we've had to Six Feet Under (a truly perfect family drama) since that show went off the air in 2005.
As Nova, Wesley’s a true force—she’s equally soft and hard, vulnerable and guarded. Thanks to DuVernay's eye and Wesley's talent, Nova feels like a real woman—someone you’d meet at a coffee shop. The 37-year-old actress, best known for her wild role as Tara on HBO’s True Blood, talked with Complex about Queen Sugar, fully inhabiting Nova, and casually meeting Oprah Winfrey.
The first three episodes of Queen Sugar are so emotionally real and intense. When you got on set with Ava DuVernay, was that the vibe right away?
That’s all Ava. She was very specific with the tone. It made it very safe for us to play, to figure out the story together and to explore the actions of these characters that we're going to know and fall in love with. When you start that high with the boss, I expect no less than for you to just have fun and explore, and give me your truth in every moment. And that's easy to do. Ava and Oprah are both so gracious in their spirits that we, the cast, feel so incredibly supported.
It must have been so wild meeting Oprah.
I cried. I was the first person to get there that day. I walk in the room and lo and behold, who is sitting directly across from me? Oprah Winfrey. And my little body is about to explode. I was like, I gotta hide behind this little corner wall. I was trying to stand behind it when Oprah came around the corner, she saw me, and I couldn't hide anymore. She threw her arms open, then I threw my arms open, and she just held me for a minute, and I was crying. Then she said, "Don't you make me!" and that just made me laugh. Her arms were so full, they were so supportive. I could feel her energy.
It seems like a singular experience, working with Ava and Oprah, and being able to work with so many female directors, too.
There was never a time on set where I didn't feel like I did my best work. I always felt my best self at all times. And I love our male directors but there's something about having that sensitivity of a female, a different perspective, having a woman put her hand on it. And they each have their own way into our world and they all flow together. All of those women came in and were like, "How can we best tell this story together?" It was very collaborative. I was like, "This is awesome!"
While your character, Nova, isn’t in the novel Queen Sugar, did having that source material, that world, help establish the character for you?
Because I wasn't in the book, I really got to build upon the plot points and characterization that Ava gave me right away. It's fun for me to create in that way, to not have it all laid out. Ava has really taken the book and been able to take it off the page and put it to life. And then creating this woman, Nova, who is delicious. She's black, but a woman first. She's incredibly smart, she's strong, she's vulnerable, she's insecure, yet she is comfortable in her own skin and she does not care about it. How many women out there that are just not comfortable enough with themselves? She's not afraid to be a woman.
I'm so interested in seeing the strands of everything that's gonna come out in the show. It’s complicated and messy but Nova feels so real, so lived in.
I call Nova a beautiful mess. She's a beautiful mess of a woman, of a human being. The one thing I love about Ava that I've said before is that she really walks in her truth. I was inspired by that, and this is the first time I feel in my life that I've been comfortable walking in my truth with abandon. To just be like, You know what Rutina? You're gonna have to jump off this cliff, girl. I think people will see the reasons why Nova does the things that she does. They will understand it because they will recognize it in themselves.
Aside from feeling universal, the show also isn't afraid to really go there—to touch on things that are so tough and upsetting, but that need to be talked about.
Ava is not afraid. I'm hoping that people can see it as a relief because of the crazy way the world is right now, maybe they can watch our show and feel some sense of, yeah, let's talk about that.
And it’s just an everyday, slice of life story about black women and men. That's so rarely seen in film and television, where premises have often relied on history or biography.
The way we're approaching the black family, I think other races, other families in general are gonna be like, "I got an uncle like that." I just want people to start talking, to shed some light on the world. This is how we're loving each other, how we're treating each other.
