Last Thursday at Soho’s boutique Crosby Street Hotel there was a private screening of Ava DuVernay’s drama Queen Sugar. The series is a part of Oprah Winfrey Network and is created, directed and executive produced by Ava DuVernay alongside Oprah Winfrey.
The series stars Rutina Wesley and Dawn-Lyen Gardner as two estranged sisters from the Deep South. Nova played by Wesley is journalist, activist and spiritual healer on the side quite the opposite Charley played by Gardner is the wealthy wife and manager of an NBA star. Kofi Siriboe also co-stars as Ralph Angel, a formerly incarcerated young father in search of forgiveness. Inspired by Natalie Baszile’s novel of the same title, the series follows the siblings as they navigate through the trials and tribulations of life while trying to manage their father’s sugarcane farm.
The highly-anticipated one-hour drama is scheduled to premiere on September 6, 2016.
Check out our exclusive Q & A with the cast and crew:
Q: What was the strategy behind setting the pace of the series? Nothing dragged and nothing was too fast. There was a good balance.
Ava Duvernay: We are happy about that because my colleagues here know that it’s something I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous about. It is luxurious; it is deliberate. You have to sync into it and bare witness to it. The character is not going to say the thing and then I cut. He’s going to say the thing and I’m going to stay on him. He’s going to blink; he’s going to turn. He’s going to think and walk away and I may just hang on the wall for a second- then I’ll cut to allow you to think about what’s happening. It’s a way I work on my indie films- in my early films I will follow ‘Middle of Nowhere’ but as you start to make bigger films ‘Selma’ and ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ no one’s letting you hang on the wall. But with this we were able to apply some of those indie film techniques to allow our actors to go deeper into the characters. It’s also not plot driven so you don’t have to cut that fast. Like I said before; I think it’s luxurious to sit with people for a while.
Rutina Wesley: For me it was really nice to have those beats because often times you don’t get the beats. It allowed us to live fully in these characters with our intentions and moments. Nothing was rushed, you got to really think what just happened to you- react to it and respond and move through it. You often don’t get that; it was a safe comforting space as an actor to say I can really have this moment. You have these moments more on stage and not really through television where you can breath for a moment and it was really nice.
Dawn-Lyen Gardner: I think it really gave me permission just to be. That’s a big part of what the show is doing. To just be with people- be with the characters- be with yourself-be with your journey- be with your heart. It felt like as an actor; I could just breath and be and that’s such a gift.
Q: Can you tell us how you choose the soundtrack for the series?
Ava Duvernay: I knew I wanted a black woman composer; you can count them on two hands. I’ve worked with Jason Moran who did the musical for ‘Selma’ and a sister named Kathryn Bostic on my two earlier films. I wanted to continue to use a black musical tradition. I was speaking to Jason saying “Who do you reccomend, I need a sista?” He responded “Who do you love? What about Meshell Ndegeocello?” And I said, “She’ll never do it; she’s an enigma. She’s a Godess. She’s the soundtrack of my life! What you mean? I’m not going to ask her” And he was like “I’ll ask her because she lives down the street” He actually put us together.
At the end of this season you’re going to hear two more Meshell albums. Through the episodes, she’s made 17 new songs and it’s very exciting.
Q: Aside from working with a legendary filmmaker and being a part of the Oprah Winfrey Network, as a cast member what made you want to sign up?
Kofi Siriboe: My immediate draw was Ava and then after that I read the script and to see a black man portrayed so sensitively and be so vulnerable was challenging. I wanted to try to portray this and she gave me the chance.
Rutina Wesley: If you fall they catch you and you get back up and try again. I just thought that that was really amazing to be embarking on something to really go in knowing that it will be a safe place to create. I think we really created something beautiful. That’s because I think we started off really bonding right away and you will see that as the series goes one. It is really wonderful.
Dawn-Lyen Gardner: Ava is my hero and I still get nervous when I’m around her and I’m in love with her work. After that it was the characters for me. Every single character is their own universe and I fell in love with every character for different reasons.
Nicholas L. Ashe: When I saw Ava and Oprah I was like I have to be a part of this. Ava has been on this media revolution that I wanted to join for some time. As an aspiring writer reading the script was inspiring. She paints characters with and without language. The stars aligned and it happened.
Q: Can you tell us about that significance of title and location of the series?
Natalie Baszile: I set the novel in South Louisiana because I think it’s a world that a lot of people don’t know. I have a love for black farmers. In writing the book, I wanted to try to find a place in this world where it would be a setting that we typically don’t see in literature, film or television. It’s an incredibly rich and textured environment. They say New Orlean’s is the most northern Caribbean city. I really tried to capture this in the book. I’m excited to see that the setting in the book is as much a presence as it is in the series. Every region in South Louisiana grows a different crop. Every year when that crop is harvested whether it’s sugar cane, rice or crawfish, the people of that region will have a festival. They usually have a little town parade and a queen of that crop. You’ll have the rice queen, the crawfish queen. The region where the story takes place they grow sugar cane, they have a queen sugar. I thought it was a title that captured something that was aspirational, magical and would make you wonder and optimistic too. That was the title that came to me for the book and I’m delighted they kept it for the series because it really says so much about the region, the people and really just a spirit and sense of life that you experience when you are there.
#QueenSugar will debut as a two-night event on Tuesday, September 6 and Wednesday, September 7 at 10PM ET/PT on OWN. The series will regularly air Wednesday nights at 10PM ET/PT for the remainder of its 13-episode first season. Watch the extended trailer here: