Angela Lewis says her ‘Snowfall’ character has taught her to ‘stand in her power’
EXCLUSIVE: The actress, who plays Aunt Louie, opens up about the current season of the hit FX series.
Actress Angela Lewis is growing right alongside her character, Aunt Louie, as the fourth season of Snowfall kicks into high gear on FX.
The hit show is deep in its highly-rated fourth outing, and, as theGrio previously reported, has already been renewed for a fifth one. Lewis told theGrio exclusively that the show’s success only helps “confirm what they already knew.”
“I when I think when we first got the script for the pilot, we were all excited, like it was really good,” Lewis revealed to theGrio on Monday, “and then when we were shooting the pilot, it felt good … the energy was crazy! And then we saw it, and we loved it, and we all felt like, ‘Yeah, we got a special thing here.'”
“And so the more other people get to witness and be a part of it is really a beautiful thing,” she continued, “because it helps to confirm what we already knew.”
Read More: Isaiah John talks Leon’s redemption in ‘Snowfall,’ filming without John Singleton
Lewis also shared how “lucky” she feels just to be able to tell Snowfall‘s story, one that peels back the curtain of a specific and pivotal moment in American history. “It’s a good show, and it’s fun, and it’s truthful,” she said. “We’re telling the truth of a moment in time of a thing that happened that is still reverberating today, you know? So, how lucky are we to be able to do that?”
In last week’s episode of Snowfall, the operation expands outside of Los Angeles, with Lewis’ character heading to Little Rock, Arkansas with Jerome. In some heightened and emotional scenes, Louie dances around revealing a major secret to Jerome, ultimately telling him in one of the final scenes of the episode. The actress opened up about her character’s thought process in those major moments and what ramifications may stem from her decision.
“Louie has always been laser-focused on getting out of her situation and creating a life for herself that she had has always imagined,” said Lewis, “but the potential destruction and the inevitable destruction that she is bringing upon her very close friend, it’s not until Jerome brings it up that it kind of like knocks her in the head.”
“In terms of her keeping this secret from Jerome,” she continues, “I think she and Franklin really are trying to protect Jerome and Leon because I think until they know where things are going, they really did not want to expose that information, because what do you do with that? Was that the best choice? I think it was a choice that was not malicious.”
Read More: ‘Snowfall’ renewed for season 5 at FX
After playing Aunt Louie for four years now, Lewis has learned a lot about not only her determined character, but about herself as well. “[Louie] is a person who has been told no her whole life and abused her whole life,” Lewis told theGrio. “She took one inkling of an opportunity for something better, and she blew it up and made it … did a 360 and really fought hard and strategized really, really intelligently to create a life for herself that she’s always wanted.”
“I think that I have learned to stand more in my power and to speak up when something is not what I want it to be,” said Lewis, “because that’s the only way I am going to have the life that I want for myself. So, I admire Louie. I don’t always agree with her choices, but I certainly admire her.”
Snowfall airs on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.
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