“Star” is a production of 20th Century Fox Television in association with Lee Daniels Entertainment. Lee Daniels and Tom Donaghy are the creators and executive producers of the series.Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award, Grammy Award and Golden Globe Award winner Queen Latifah stars as Carlotta, a surrogate mother to the young crew (Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny, Brittany O’Grady) that also includes Cotton (newcomer Amiyah Scott). Emmy Award nominee Benjamin Bratt plays Jahil, a down-on-his-luck talent agent looking to revitalize his career, who’s taken a certain interest in Star. The series also features guest stars Grammy Award winner Lenny Kravitz and supermodel/actress Naomi Campbell.
We caught up with three of the show’s stars Jude Demorest, Amiyah Scott, and Miss Lawrence to catch up us on where all their characters are headed for season 2.
The Knockturnal: How much of Atlanta itself carries like a character itself in the show?
Miss Lawrence: Me being from Atlanta, I can identify every character with someone that I’ve come across growing up in Atlanta, yeah.
Jude Demorest: Yeah, I mean I think that Atlanta being the backdrop for this show, it’s so important because you don’t have to fake anything. I mean, when we’re at JR Cricket’s, we’re there, shooting.
The Knockturnal: So, tell me how you prepared for the second season, now that you know a little bit about how the show works. Where do you guys put your own expectations for what you want to dig out of it this season?
Amiyah Scott: I think that we just continue, like you said, like our characters are more developed, we’re more familiar with them, we’re more familiar with the stories, we’re more familiar with each other. So, we’re just continuing on forward, we’re doing what we’ve done the first season, but just better.
Miss Lawrence: Yeah. I would say the first season for me it was more learning this world, learning this new space of art. And learning the character Miss Bruce. And, so now, like what Maya said this season, first day of the set I was like, “Okay, let me try Miss Bruce on.” You already know who she is, I’m familiar with everything, I know everybody. Miss Bruce knows Star, we already know what our relationship is like with Cotton. So, it’s easy, yeah know? It’s easy
The Knockturnal: For you coming back, you guys are not … you’re not struggling as much, your struggles are different this season so, when you came back, what was your preparation like?
Jude Demorest: We got the story lines out the way, that’s the best part, is that the first season everybody knows who these characters are, what they’ve been through, what their attitudes are like. The tone was set. We got to come in and just pick up the script and say, “Okay, now what are we going through?” All right. And then take it from there. We kinda had fun with it this time. I think we took some liberties (laughing). We definitely did.
The Knockturnal: What do you guys think is the most common misconception that people have about your characters?
Jude Demorest: You know, it’s interesting, someone asked me a question earlier today … She asked me what it was like, you know, playing a character that’s unlikable sometimes. I think she’s unlikeable most of the time, but I think, you know, it’s a challenge, but it is the life of actress. That I think some people think, or just, never really know, what I think of my character. And I was telling her, I have never had any interest in defending her. I don’t have anything to say for her. I’m appalled by her, just like everybody else. I just have to say the lines. I mean, there … And Maya knows there have been times I’ve been distraught on set, like, “Lee really wants Star to say this like I’m gonna … ” He’s like, “Yeah that’s what I wrote on the piece of paper, isn’t it?” Yep. So, you know what I’m saying? So that’s my job. My job is to act and my job is to tell Lee’s story. This is Lee’s story. This is his art.
