When the world shut down, so did The Pynk and as everyone works to get back to a sense of normalcy, so are the beloved characters “down in the valley where the girls get naked.”
Ahead of the second season premiere of P-Valley, Shadow and Act sat down with creator Katori Hall and cast members Brandee Evans, Nicco Annan, Shannon Thornton, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Parker Sawyers, Elarica Johnson to discuss exactly why the perfect word to describe the show’s return, roughly two years later, would be “deeper.”
"I feel like we met our characters in the space of glitter," Hall told S&A when talking about season 2.
“Like they were in the strip club, they came in with all the fabulous clothes and the fits and the nails, the looks – all together. It was just about the floss,” she continued. “We went home with a few of our characters last season, but in this season, we pretty much go home or inside the private spaces of literally every character.”
Characters like Mercedes who was on the cusp of having her dreams come true only to have it all change in an instant.
“She had to sit with herself, much like we all did during the pandemic,” said Evans. “Mercedes had to get to know Mercedes and so you’re going to see what happens when that job is no longer there, because of course The Pynk has to shut down like the world shut down. So what else is she doing? How is she grinding and hustling to make her dreams come true? Because those are still very present.”
Mercedes is not the only character with dreams. In fact, everyone is chasing something, even characters like Haley - known at The Pynk as Autumn Knight - have something about them that goes beyond the surface level.
“Everybody’s just gonna see more of who Haley Colton actually is and finally…because that’s the only question that I got from fans…’Who is she? Tell us, can you give us more?;” said Johnson. “We’re definitely digging a bit deeper into the past that she had when it comes to money and this kind of boss world that she’s in now owning The Pynk. She’s comfortable in that space and then there’s a lot of things will unravel where you can see more of where she’s coming from and how deep she’s been in the kind of money and accounting world.”
The man that had Autumn enthralled in season 1 is also back, but this time, we’ll see Andre lean on his family more than ever before.
“You’ll see that it is indeed his family that inspires him to sort of take action and become more of himself or chip away to the better being that he knows is underneath,” said Sawyers. “It’s interesting that he’s using his family, he’s using his past, he’s using his truth to be more productive and achieve his goals.”
“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from Keyshawn is that she is a fighter,” said Thornton. “I think that this season, more than ever, she has come to the realization that she is deserving of the best of the best that life has to offer and she will stop at nothing to get that and to enjoy the sweetness of life.”
Like Andre is learning lessons from his family, those watching can learn a lesson or two from Keyshawn, better known as Miss Mississippi. After bursting out of her shell last season, she is ready for all the world (and The Pynk) has to offer.
“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from Keyshawn is that she is a fighter,” said Thornton. “I think that this season, more than ever, she has come to the realization that she is deserving of the best of the best that life has to offer and she will stop at nothing to get that and to enjoy the sweetness of life.”
In season 1, characters like Lil Murda opened up the conversation that the world, specifically Black people, needed to have when it comes to supporting the LGBTQIA community.
“One of the biggest things that I took away from Lil Murda, aka Lil Marcus, is just how to really sit and be honest with yourself, and how to kind of remove the layers of who you are and who you want to be,” said Nicholson. “I think prior to playing the role, I didn’t know how hard it was for my brothers and sisters within the community and everyone in between to be comfortable with who they are and their identity,” he shared. “I didn’t know exactly how hard it was for this particular guy, this Black man, masculine rapper, who had done some time, coming out, or whatever the case may be. It’s a very tough journey to take and so it allowed me to sympathize a lot more with people that i knew who are on that journey or are finding that journey.”
Whether the journeys be personal or art imitating life, the new season of P-Valley focuses on the discovery of ownership for each character.
“There’s this line [this season] about standing in the sun,” said Annan. “And to me, you get to see, you literally will be seeing characters standing in the sun. But whenever a character is standing in the sun, there’s a cost to that and I think that’s true of us as people, in real life It’s just beautiful to be able to see and go on that journey with us.”
Season 2 of P-Valley premieres June 3, with new episodes premiering every Sunday at 10 p.m. ET.
Watch the full video interviews below:
