is j. alphonse nicholson gay
While there's been no shortage of drama on P-Valley, season ii just debuted its most shocking episode however. Written by creator Katori Hall and co-executive producer Nicole Jefferson Asher and directed by Melanie Mayron, "Savage" sees Lil' Murda and Big Teak's relationship pushed to its limit before catastrophe with an unexpected, emotional punch to the gut.
Through conversations with ET, J. Alphonse Nicholson and John Clarence Stewart interruption down this week's powerful episode, reveal what information technology has been like working together this flavour and push button back on homophobic criticism of their characters' groundbreaking human relationship.
[Warning: Spoilers for P-Valley flavor 2, episode 6: "Vicious."]
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While Andre (Parker Sawyers) continued to move frontwards with his mayoral entrada -- much to the chagrin of Fall (Elarica Johnson) and Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan) -- and Mercedes (Brandee Evans) found herself further entangled with things in Memphis, information technology was the relationship between Murda (Nicholson) and Teak (Stewart) that took centerstage this calendar week.
Things started off strong as the two celebrated the release of Murda'south new song with Tina Snowfall (aka Megan Thee Stallion), but their momentary elation is eventually shattered when Murda realizes Teak has been preparing to take his ain life. And by the terminate of the episode, the two spend time together as Murda tries to talk Teak out of killing himself.
Sadly, however, Teak goes through with it, shooting himself in front of Murda. And the episode ends with the bloodied and stunned rapper at Clifford's doorstep, where he gets consoled by his ex-lover.
While both actors were aware from the start that Teak'due south arc would finish at some bespeak earlier the end of flavor 2, neither of them knew exactly how his story would conclude. It wasn't until they got the script for "Barbarous," that they learned near Teak's fate, leaving both men in tears.
"When I read 206, I cried," Alphonse reveals. "I was sitting in a Barnes & Noble with my daughter and my wife. And we were looking for some books and I happened to read the script and I call back it brought me to tears, homo. Right in that location in Barnes & Noble. Then I called Katori and I said, 'Wow, this is a journey.'"
"I bawled," Stewart says of reading the episode, explaining that "information technology'south a wonderfully heartbreaking, complex examination of depression and a man that doesn't take the tools to be in the world that he's been reintroduced to."
Despite being released from prison, Teak constitute himself overwhelmed with pain and anger and ultimately unable to cope with the pandemic and the ongoing social injustice, as well equally his deep childhood traumas, which includes seeing his female parent murder his siblings when he seven years old.
"He's just a really sensitive, poor soul in a world that wasn't made for him," Stewart says, explaining that Teak was struggling to survive.
Later on Teak shares what he's gone through to Murda, the two sit down on the hood of the car as they rap Outkast's "And so Fresh, And so Clean." The sweet moment was indicative of the caring, intimate relationship the two formed over the past few episodes.
The song choice, it turns out, was improvised past Nicholson. "I'm a drummer and Katori said, 'Come up up with something y'all all would exist rapping.' And I just thought that was the perfect song," he says, explaining that in that moment, "it just felt right."
The sequence, which ends with the two in the machine where Teak kills himself, was Stewart's last day on set. "So, you felt that energy," Nicholson says. "We shot those things in club. Nosotros shot the peak of the hood first and then we moved into the motorcar. And and then, it felt very real. The emotions that you run into on screen, we were breathing and believing it."
He adds, "Information technology felt and so real in the moment."
"The scene is -- information technology'southward just special," Stewart says. "There's these 2 men and the journey they become through in that scene from 'Then Fresh, So Clean' to the stop, it's an exquisite and epic journey in the span of that scene. We tried not to overplay the hand or skip any beats, but just live in the moment and tell the truth. As Alphonse would say, 'Breathe and believe.' And I believe nosotros did that."
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Stewart then goes on to credit his co-star for existence "an incredibly present, generous" performer. "The magic that happens betwixt the two, you know, information technology takes ii people pinging the ball back and forth. And there was no better actor to practise that with than J. Alphonse," he says.
Echoing his sentiment, Nicholson says he was happy that he could share this with Stewart. "I knew he was going to bring his A-game, simply once we got into it and started getting the scripts and reading what it was that nosotros were gonna have to share and the fourth dimension that we were gonna have to share on the screen, we realized that nosotros were gonna make history together," he says.
"That meant a lot to both of united states of america. He's now a great colleague, a friend of mine, and I'm grateful that I could brand history with such a talented brother," he continues, revealing that after shooting their last scenes together, "We could smiling and release that free energy and hug each other and celebrate the wrap of John Stewart."
While Teak's suicide cuts short the romance betwixt him and Murda, both actors say the relationship was securely meaningful for both characters.
"For Teak, specifically, Murda is 1 of the only safety places he's always had," Stewart says, explaining that from the fourth dimension they were incarcerated together, they formed a special bond. "In [episodes] iv through 6, we get to meet this connection. Nosotros get to run across this intimacy that they have, which is beautiful in my stance. Information technology'south beautiful and vulnerable and for Teak, this echoes dorsum to the condom that he experienced when they were initially together."
"Their relationship is then complex. It'south a relationship that nosotros haven't seen on screen before, and it's purely genuine," Nicholson says. "Their anger is genuine. Their beloved is genuine. Their longing for unlike things they want, not only in each other but in their personal lives, is very genuine."
He adds that "by the time we get to [this episode], you see them sit in all of those elements and all of those parts of their relationship and friendship and brotherhood. And then, unfortunately, it comes to a tragic end."
Unfortunately, there has been some fan backlash to the onscreen relationship, with co-executive producer Patrik-Ian Polk calling out the homophobic responses. "The gay own't goin' nowhere," he wrote on Twitter last month, adding subsequently that anyone feeling "triggered" by gay sexual practice scenes or Murda and Teak'due south romance should "practice the work; wait inward."
"I knew prior to doing the scene that we were gonna make history," Nicholson says, specifically referring to Teak and Murda's sexual activity scene in episode four. "I only didn't know what that wave was gonna feel. But I was prepared for it… And then, I've merely chosen to take in the love as much as I tin can." That said, he "still gets surprised by the backlash that comes from certain people and people you lot don't wait."
Stewart, meanwhile, says that he doesn't "disregard whatsoever phobic oral communication or rhetoric or hate of any kind." But instead of focusing on the backlash, he has pivoted his focus "on the people who this was made for," the actor says. "The people for whom this was fabricated, from what I've received, take felt and so seen and considered. And that scene, that moment, was for them."
Ultimately, for the actor, "the work speaks for itself," he says. "I think that what we have is an incredibly intimate scene on the back of devastating trauma and a style that Blackness men comfort one another and love i another in the midst of the hurricane. And that's everything."
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As existent as that human relationship was betwixt Tweak and Murda, things are just as passionate and intense between Murda and Uncle Clifford, who finally reunite at the finish of the episode. And Nicholson couldn't exist more excited to see them back together, even if it's due to such tragic circumstances.
"For Lil' Murda, it was a life changing experience," he says. "Yous know, we lost Teak, who [the audience] have started to understand past the stop of episode half-dozen. Y'all sympathize his acrimony and where he'south coming from and then you lose him immediately, you know? Then, it's very bittersweet, because nosotros lost him, but then people have just been peckish for Uncle Cliff and Lil' Murda."
"To run across them come up dorsum together is a beautiful moment," the actor continues. "Obviously, they're coming back together on such devastating terms, simply I recollect the audience, 'The Pynk Posse,' as we similar to say, has been waiting for that."
Nicholson ends by teasing that the 2 pick dorsum up on that relationship started in flavor i as they "venture into different lanes of their mindset and their understanding of who they are as a couple and who they are as individuals… I tin can't wait for people to see it."
P-Valley season 2 airs Sundays at ten p.chiliad. ET/PT on Starz.
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Source: https://www.etonline.com/p-valley-cast-breaks-down-big-teaks-tragic-episode-in-season-2-exclusive-187008
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