*With a green light for the second season of his reality show “Flex & Shanice” on OWN and a couple of upcoming projects, Flex Alexander is bouncing back in a big way after facing hard times.
The actor, who enjoyed good times in the 1990s and early 2000s as the star of the sitcom “One on One,” ended up losing much of the money he made working on the show due a desire for expensive things and the lifestyle that came with it.
Fortunately, things have turned around and Alexander has managed to get back on his feet with the support of his wife, Grammy-nominated R&B singer Shanice Wilson.
Reflecting on what he faced and how he triumped over past tribulations, the actor chatted with BET.com about the motivation to write his new graphic novel “The Joshua Run” as well as reaction to “Flex & Shanice” and how he and Wilson survived bankruptcy.
Highlights from the interview are below:
What inspired you to create the character and write the graphic novel?
Honestly, I just wanted to see a Black character in a really dominant role, almost kind of like a Robin Hood, a super hero almost. We hadn’t seen it. It was a big fan of the Bourne Supremacy series and Enemy of the State and all those governmental-type movies. I just said, “This would be interesting.”
Your reality show Flex & Shanice was picked up for a second season. You guys have been remarkably upfront about your financial troubles on the show. What was the reaction from audiences?
It’s been great. It’s been so much positive feedback. The glass-throwing, chair-throwing stuff… that’s just not what we’re doing. When we travel… people are saying, “Thank you. I can relate,” or, “My whole family can sit down and watch the show.” That, for me, is the most rewarding, because we wanted to be able to do something that can inspire people and let them know that you don’t have to give up. You can keep going. We’re entertainers, we’re in this business, and we go through it just like you. We chose to talk about it as opposed to letting someone else talk about it.
A lot of marriages don’t survive bankruptcy. How did you and Shanice make it through?
A lot of prayer. A lot of prayer and just communication. It was never a conversation about, “Hey, maybe we’d be better if I’m over here, you’re over there.” That never came up. It was always, “We’re going to get through this. We’re going to see that other side. We’re going to get through this.” We didn’t argue about it. We just said, “Okay, we’re in this situation. We hate that we got here.”
How did you get there? You were making tens of thousands of dollars a week at one point.
We’re not extravagant people. When you have expenses and you’re making a certain amount of money, your expenses go up, then when money’s not coming in, those expenses still have to be paid. What you do have saved, it’s being pulled off constantly. It’s being chipped off and nothing’s replenishing it. Next thing you know, it’s all the way down. That’s what happened. Of course, [Shanice] was like, “What happened?” I’m like, “Babe, we both got our reports every month from our business manager at the time.” We got reports. I said, “It was our responsibility. You can’t point fingers at anybody but ourselves.” She had the opportunity to go over them and had any questions, to call, just like I did. We were so busy in denial, I think that is what we did. Yeah, she was upset at first and everything, but I’m like, “OK, you can get upset, but it’s not going to change the situation right now.” It was on both of us. We signed our own checks. We’d get our packets, go over expenses, everything that was done. We signed the checks.
What are you teaching your kids about money?
It’s a daily lesson. They get it. Our son, my wife just called me the other day, and he wants one of those boards that everybody’s going around on, I call them “futuristic skateboards,” everybody’s using now. I’m like, “Why does he need that? Those things are expensive. He doesn’t need it. He needs to take his money and get school clothes.” Every now and then, we got to reel back in and put them in reality. I was a member of a country club, all that stuff. I had to let that stuff go. Would I have loved to have kept it so I could play golf? Yeah. Was it important, was it going to help feed my family? No, not at all. We have to teach them about saving money, only use what you need. They’re really good. Our daughter’s really, really good. They both are. But my son, because he’s younger, every now and then just wants some outrageous thing.
You’re a born-again Christian. Did you find faith before or after your bankruptcy?
I don’t think I “found” it at any point in a sense of, “Now we’re in trouble. Let’s have faith.” I’ve always been a person who I just know that good is going to come. Meeting my wife, knowing she was definitely a strong person of faith, we just had that same goal in knowing that God put something in us and we just have to activate it. So many of us get into a jam and say, “I’m going to pray, and I’m going to wait and see what happens.” It unnerves me because that’s not how we’re wired. We’re not wired to pray or meditate and “Let me just wait.” We have to activate, we have to move and go after what we want.
Get more of Flex Alexander’s interview at BET.
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