*Famed film and television producer Tracey Edmonds is speaking about her latest work as EP on BET’s hit drama series “Games People Play.”
Based on Angela Burt-Murray’s critically acclaimed book, “Games Divas Play,” the series, per press release, is a sexy, stylized one-hour drama about the L.A. high life, featuring a cast of characters where everyone plays to win, including a basketball player navigating both his equally rocky personal life and NBA career, a newly appointed team marketing executive who’s got a lot to prove, a tenacious journalist desperately seeking the truth and a struggling actress with a scandalous past.
The talented ensemble cast includes Karrueche Tran, Lauren London, Sarunas J. Jackson, Karen Obilom, Parker McKenna Posey, Jackie Long, Kendall Kyndall and Brandi Denise. In addition, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Vanessa Simmons, Shaun Robinson, Kevin Jackson, Barry Brewer, and Monti Washington reprise their recurring roles, with Cynthia Bailey, Nazanin Mandi, Ro Parrish, Hitman Holla, Leon, and Calvin Seabrooks guest star in the ten-episode drama.
Edmonds dished with MadameNoire about some of the complex storylines this season. Check out excerpts from the conversation below.
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How was filming season two during the pandemic? Was it difficult?
We had a lot of challenges. First challenge was having to move our production from Los Angeles to Atlanta because L.A. shut down and went on serious lockdown right as we were trying to film season two. We had pre-production going and we were maybe about two weeks out for shooting season two in L.A. and then the whole city went on lockdown. We had to take a really long pause. It was probably almost a year and then when things started opening up again, specifically Atlanta, was one of the first production cities to open up again so, we decided to move production there. Creatively, once we made that decision, I’m like, so we have to tell an L.A. story based on an Atlanta production? I knew that was going to be challenging, but I spent a lot of time doing a deep dive in location scouting.
I went all over the place trying to find homes that looked like they would be L.A. homes, trying to find restaurants that looked like they would be L.A. restaurants. Come to find out, there’s this cute little area in Atlanta that looks just like Rodeo Drive. Then we were able to shoot at State Farm Arena for our basketball games, so Atlanta actually ended up being an amazing city to shoot with. We feel like visually, we were able to take things even higher this season and then the pandemic allowed us that extra time that we wanted to dive deeper into stories. While everything was shut down, our writers kept going. They would do virtual writers rooms and they would keep going deeper into the foundation.
Those writers really went to work because now all of those incredibly twisted web of interconnected stories came to an interesting boiling point. We loved watching social media to see everyone’s reactions to the show in real-time.
It’s so fun and it’s so nice that you say that because I tweet live every week. I’m watching Black Twitter. It’s a blessing because they are really into the characters this season and the storylines and the twists and turns. It seems like we did a pretty good job of not giving you the expected. So every time you think something’s going down one road, we kind of flip it. Social media and being on Twitter as the show is airing live it’s so interesting because I’m amazed at how fast and how clever these Black Twitter people are in terms of coming up with memes and stuff. I’m like ‘yall are quick!’ It’s a lot of fun. We all have a lot of fun together.
There was phenomenal casting this season too! Karreuche Tran knocked it out of the park with her role as Eden Lazlo.
We were so blessed to have Karrueche join our cast because we really needed a beautiful, strong, boss lady to play this Eden character. So we needed someone who was just naturally beautiful and naturally sexy, but didn’t seem like she had to try hard to do it. Didn’t need to wear a lot of make-up and big hair. She just naturally had it. It was fun for us, story-wise, to see how long it would take for an alpha male and a womanizer like Marques to resist this beautiful Eden character that came in as head of operations for his team and then how long it would take her to keep this boss lady persona on and resist a really attractive sexy head of the Vipers team when they had to interact all the time.
So, it was really fun exploring that. Karrueche, as a human being, I always tell everybody she’s beautiful from the inside out. She is just an angel and a joy to work with. I don’t know if you can tell, but the chemistry that you see on screen is off-screen. Our whole cast- they hang out together! They love each other. They’re like family. It’s a beautiful dynamic. Even after we wrapped production, they all went to Miami together and hung out. So when they come to work and have to go into these characters, their chemistry is so good and their timing is so good. It’s like when one ends their line, another one jumps right in at the perfect time. I’m blessed I get to work with all of them.
Oh and Cynthia Bailey too! This was her first time acting on screen, right?
Yes! There are so many things about my work that I just thank God I get to do every day. So it’s wonderful being a producer when you get to put people that you love into your creative work and let them just rise and shine. Cynthia Bailey and I were friends. We’ve had dinner quite a few times. I have so much respect for what she’s done in her career, pre, during, and post-Real Housewives, like her supermodel career, was amazing! She’s just really smart and just a wonderful human being and Kenya Moore has been a longtime friend of mine. Even then, they were both Housewives it was kind of fun to put them into these different roles that you would not expect them to play. I think Cynthia did an amazing job playing our “Ndasia” character who’s just kind of cooky and weird. You don’t know what her motive is and if she’s being honest or if she just really believes all this crazy stuff that’s going on in the world and Kenya had a lot of fun playing Marques’ dad’s new lady.
We also see Laila dealing with a difficult storyline this season with trauma stemming from her sexual assault incident. Why was that something you wanted to expound upon further in season two?
I’m a super nerd, and I’m constantly watching the news, researching and looking into everything that’s going on. In the world, society, and in life. The Me Too movement emerged over the last couple of years where we found out that a lot of men, in particular, that we thought were good guys behind the scenes were disrespecting or abusing women. I wanted to really explore that storyline through this show because that reflects what is going on in society today and in this world today. And then, behind the scenes, to have a woman who decided to be brave enough to come forward, how then she’s attacked, whether it’s the lawyers or the media, you know, they try to cast doubt on her story by attacking her character. We wanted to explore how that operates from the perspective of Laila.
We hinted at it in season one that something may have happened to her in the past that she still hasn’t fully emotionally recovered from and how that could come into perspective in her relationships, dating and her trust in men. So, we thought in season two, let’s go deeper and really see what happened and how that made her who she is right now.
Is there one storyline that you really loved watching this season in particular?
You know what? I actually don’t have a favorite. I love all of them! I think Parker’s was probably our most powerful. What I loved about that storyline is that it gave her character a better depth and understanding. I think in season one, because we didn’t know much about where she came from, what happened in her life and whatever. A quick observation of her could come off like, ‘okay, well, she’s just like a groupie or she’s just like one of those little you know, cheap wannabe actresses or whatever,’ but no, in this season, we really see her stand up for herself.
We see her have courage, and we now understand what happened and how that can change your perspective on life and relationships. The beautiful thing for me, going back to Twitter again, is that as our viewers learn more and more about Laila’s character, and what happened, I really see them loving Laila and really rooting for her to become stronger and stronger, you know? So, who knows if we get to season three. There’s no telling what Laila can do!
Read the full Q&A here.
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