"Sometimes Ava is saying one thing, but her face is betraying what she's actually feeling. So for a lot of those moments with O'Shon, that's what I'm really trying to do - showing that she's being vulnerable," says James, a four-time Emmy nominee up for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. "She's usually [giving] a quick quip or insult, and then she's gone. But with O'Shon, she's softer, she speaks slower, and she's doing more with her eyes."
"I worked at a hair salon as a shampoo girl. You're touching someone - maybe the only person that touched that person that day - and you're providing them with their me time. A lot of people use those moments as their therapy. You're taking in all their problems while still trying to maintain a professional demeanor. All of that takes so much energy that I used to come home and collapse."
Janelle James's Principal Ava develops a tender romantic arc with O'Shon, a patient district IT representative whose brawn matches his patience. Ava typically masks emotions with quick quips, but scenes with O'Shon show vulnerability through slower speech, softer behavior, and expressive facial acting. James values the creative challenge of conveying emotion subtly and favors a smoldering, sexy dynamic for the pairing. The Ava–O'Shon relationship contrasts with Janine and Gregory's sweeter, nerdier connection. James is a four-time Emmy nominee, and she recalls past work as a shampoo girl, describing the emotional labor and exhaustion of providing clients' 'me time.'
Read at Bustle
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]