John Clarence Stewart Talks Avoiding Tropes and Black Men Showing Vulnerability

The season finale NBCs Zoeys Extraordinary Playlist broadcast THIS NIGHT, Sunday (05-03-20). The musical focuses on Zoey Clarke (Jane Levy), an intelligent computer coder who magically begins to hear people’s deepest thoughts through the song.

John Clarence Stewart (Netflixs Luke cage and What if) plays the role of Simon, a new colleague with whom Zoey associates with the death of his father. After a season of ups and downs, we ended up with the cliff hanger as Zoey and Simon struggled to move their friendship to the relationship area. EURs Jill Munroe spoke with Stewart about his journey to the role, black men discussing grief on television, his favorite musical numbers of the season and how he handled himself during the Covid-19 crisis.

JILL: What did you do during the pandemic?

JOHN: I cry sometimes because it’s hard, I listen to music, I dance. Im learning to be creative just for me. Much of my creativity is wrapped up in my vocation, so I’m learning to recover that. Write, read, dance, sing. I just do what I have to do to feel good. And finally, probably the most important thing is to reach out to my community because it’s easy to feel disconnected.

JILL: You have a diversified background, theater, Luke Cage. In this show, a drama with an integrated cast having a black man as the main character and love as the main character is not the norm. How did you live this experience?

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ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST – “Zoey’s Extraordinary Failure” Episode 105 – Photo: (l-r) Jane Levy as Zoey Clarke, John Clarence Stewart as Simon – (Photo: Sergei Bachlakov / NBC)

JOHN: What first attracted me to the show was Simon and his bow, especially what he is going through. This idea of ​​grief and loss is something I know very well, I lost my father 13 years ago. When I read the pilot, I thought, what an opportunity for me as a black man in this project where we use music to talk about the inner world.

There are now many more examples in the media than before of black men navigating emotional, traumatized and heartbreaking spaces. But, I don’t think this is happening enough, so I’m happy to be part of this arc in television heritage.

As for the emerging love, Jane – which is the lead and Skylar which is the triangle, the trifecta in the show, it was important to all of us, well, I’m going to speak for myself – is that it doesn’t there are no such tropes. Austin (the creator of shows) has been very deliberate about this. In Simons, journey through grief, this is what connects them and begins this nascent part of the romance, whether it is not harmful or unwilling. But it comes from a human and vulnerable space, and I think it’s honest.

JILL: You can show all aspects of your talent with this show. Your acting, your comedies, drama, song and dance. What is it like to repeat for that. How far in advance to record the songs? Do you know at the start of the season which songs you will be working on? And when do you add the choreography?

JOHN: We don’t know at the start of the season which songs will sing well. This happens and sometimes fluctuates during the season. Well, take the wind on a song and it will change in two or three days. Then we have to record another version of the song, and then we have to change the choreography. Stuff like that.

There is a lot of structure because it is necessary, we must have that. But there are many unknowns. For me, coming from the theater and having made television, it’s like you said, a unique mixture. Everything I have done has been outside my comfort zone. Singing and dancing at this level with people I admire and respect being choreographed by one of the most iconic choreographers of our time Mandy Moore and realizing that time has passed, I can do it. Everything is in me. I can do it and I can do it well. I can say this without pride, but with a feeling of confidence. When I booked the show, I didn’t know I had that. When I started auditioning, I thought I wanted to make my father proud.

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JILL: How long do you spend rehearsing.

JOHN: Sometimes an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Sometimes it’s less than that. Jane is pretty much in every scene, so there is even less time for her.

JILL: Do you have a favorite performance of the season?

JOHN: Yeah, it’s happier and the number I did with India de Beaufort (Jessica) is incredible. He is an incredible actor, singer. She played my fiance and there were a few things I liked about it. First, there is the belief that when a relationship ends, there must be a lot of vitriol out there, we push against this archetype by showing love in transition, which can be difficult in some ways. Second, the song was supposed to be a person singing, and then Austin had the brilliant idea of ​​making it a duet. And when I listened to the words, it sounded like a conversation between two people, and it was going so well.

The season finale Zoeys Extraordinary Playlist aired TONIGHT (and every Sunday) on NBC at 9:00 p.m.

Additional EUR cover…

From “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”, Skylar Astin and John Clarence Stewart take up the Whisper challenge:

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