Categories: Celebs

(Exclusive) Meagan Good & Jerrie Johnson Open Up About Friendships & Queer Representation On ‘Harlem’

<div data-reactroot&equals;"">&NewLine;<div data-reactroot&equals;"">&NewLine;<div>&NewLine;<p>Actor <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;instagram&period;com&sol;thejerriejohnson&sol;&quest;hl&equals;en" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Jerrie Johnson<&sol;a> says that Amazon&&num;8217&semi;s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;amazon-studios-announces-romantic-comedy-drama-harlem-has-been-renewed-for-season-two&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><em>Harlem<&sol;em><&sol;a> series is the <em>Sex In The City<&sol;em> show she&&num;8217&semi;s always wanted while Meagan Good has learned lessons on friendship from her character&comma; Camille&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The series revolves around four Black women friends who are strikingly stylish and carry bold personalities as they navigate the realms of life&comma; love&comma; and career&period; For Johnson&&num;8217&semi;s co-star <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;meagan-good-opens-up-about-divorce-from-devon-franklin-not-everything-makes-sense-to-me-right-now-but-i-trust-god&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Meagan Good<&sol;a>&comma; the series represents an opportunity to address issues that Black &&num;8220&semi;women are dealing with and want to have conversations about&period;&&num;8221&semi; With the return of the series&&num;8217&semi; second season&comma; this statement from Good couldn&&num;8217&semi;t be more true&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Fans continue to be enamored with the storylines portrayed by each of the <em>Harlem <&sol;em>leading ladies&period; Camille&comma; played by Good&comma; is struggling to move on from her ex and explore new options romantically&period; While also furthering her career in education&period; While Tye&comma; played by Johnson&comma; strives to initiate a divorce from her former husband&period; And establish long-term romantic ties with female suitors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Quinn&comma; played by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;instagram&period;com&sol;ladygracebyers&sol;&quest;hl&equals;en" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Grace Byers<&sol;a>&comma; struggles to make her mother happy after switching careers from an office worker to a business owner&period; And decides to explore the option of dating the opposite sex for the first time&period; Angie&comma; played by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;instagram&period;com&sol;shoniquashandai&sol;&quest;hl&equals;en" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Shoniqua Shandai<&sol;a>&comma; struggles with a failing Broadway career after signing a record deal five years prior and then being dropped from the music label&period; Ultimately&comma; <em>Harlem<&sol;em> maintains viewers&&num;8217&semi; interest by being unpredictable in its storyline&period; Yet unafraid to approach topics and scenarios that many shows would simply avoid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"CnChaxVOzyy" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Jerrie Johnson Talks Fluid Sexuality On <em>Harlem<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Jerrie Johnson and Meagan Good sat down exclusively with <em>The Shade Room’s <&sol;em>Senior Editor&comma; Jadriena Solomon&period; And shared why the show is a breath of fresh air in today&&num;8217&semi;s entertainment&period; As well as how participating in the series has fostered better friendship skills&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 40px&semi;"><strong>Jadriena Solomon&colon;<&sol;strong> <em><strong>Harlem gives modern Day &&num;8216&semi;Girlfriend&&num;8217&semi; vibes&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s safe to say we don&&num;8217&semi;t have too many shows like this today&period; Jerry&comma; how does it feel to be a part of such a rarity in today&&num;8217&semi;s sea of entertainment&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<div style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 40px&semi;">&NewLine;<p><strong>Jerrie Johnson&colon;<&sol;strong> It feels amazing because I feel like I am playing a character that the younger me would&&num;8217&semi;ve liked to see&period; Additionally&comma; it can open doors to more writers making space for queer people to not just be in the margins — to not just be playing the best friend&comma; to have a storyline&comma; and&&num;8230&semi; for it not to be a constant coming out story&period; I understand that coming out is important&comma; but some queer narratives are <em>all<&sol;em> about coming out&period; Or all rooted in some sort of confusion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sexuality is a choice and it&&num;8217&semi;s fluid&period; At any moment&comma; any different choice can be made&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s up to the person&period; And I think what Tracy has created — in even making sure that the writer&&num;8217&semi;s room had queer writers — is important for people to know that queer people exist&period; And you don&&num;8217&semi;t have to create a show without any queer people because you are not a queer person&period; Tracy recognized that her friend group has queer people&period; And even though she&&num;8217&semi;s not a queer person&comma; she wanted to write a character that expresses that so that her friends feel seen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I think it&&num;8217&semi;s beautiful that the door is now open&period; And I&&num;8217&semi;m excited to see what nuances now come from it&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m excited to see more queer characters that are playing leads in movies that are not all about their queerness&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<h3><em>&&num;8220&semi;What Being Around The Women On This Show Has Taught Me Is That I Have Friends Too&period;&&num;8221&semi; — Meagan Good<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<div>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 40px&semi;"><strong>Jadriena Solomon&colon;<&sol;strong> <em><strong>The women in &&num;8216&semi;Harlem&&num;8217&semi; confide in one another about the good&comma; bad&comma; and the Ugly&period; Meagan&comma; what lessons have you learned from your character as well as the other ladies about how to show up as a better friend&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 40px&semi;"><strong>Meagan Good&colon;<&sol;strong> I think I&&num;8217&semi;ve learned a lot from us just working together because&comma; in a lot of ways&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re very new in each other&&num;8217&semi;s lives&period; And I think we&&num;8217&semi;ve all had friendships&comma; in some capacity&comma; that have &lbrack;lasted for&rsqb; almost lifetimes at this point&&num;8230&semi; Trusting &lbrack;is something&rsqb; I do have a little bit of a hard time &lbrack;with&rsqb;&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t have a hard time being vulnerable or having the desire to confide&period; But I have a hard time trusting that someone really has me and someone really is covering me&period; And that they have my best interest&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 40px&semi;">What I&&num;8217&semi;ve learned is to trust more&comma; and to see that God brings specific things in very specific seasons of your life&period; And to lean into that&comma; and appreciate that&period; Additionally&comma; to understand that it&&num;8217&semi;s a gift and to treat it as such&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"padding-left&colon; 40px&semi;">I feel like I try really hard to be a really good friend and to be trustworthy&period; I try to be very honest and show up when people ask me to&period; And protect their privacy and secrets — all those things&period; But I think the biggest thing for me is that I have spent a lot of time being other people&&num;8217&semi;s friends — being a good friend to them&period; But without allowing them to be a good friend to me&&num;8230&semi; So I think&&num;8230&semi; what being around the women on this show has taught me is that I have friends too&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not just a friend&comma; but I have friends too&period; Good friends&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"Cou4v4PucPU" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-wrap wpra-plugin-container" style&equals;"justify-content&colon; center&semi;&semi;"> <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-container" data-ver&equals;"1&period;3&period;10" data-post&lowbar;id&equals;"112424" data-show&lowbar;count&equals;"true" data-enable&lowbar;share&equals;"onclick" data-behavior&equals;"regular" data-animation&equals;"true" data-share&lowbar;url&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;meagan-good-jerrie-johnson-harlem&sol;" data-secure&equals;"b58d235200"> <div class&equals;"wpra-call-to-action" style&equals;"color&colon; 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Jadriena Solomon

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