Remembered for her role as Dr Stephanie Edwards in the hit TV medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, Jerrika Hinton made her exit at the end of season 13. She joined the series as a promising surgical intern in the ninth instalment.
The curly locks, serious face and blue scrubs are no more in Hinton’s latest show, Here and Now. Inhabiting the role of Ashley Collins, a mother, wife and successful creator and owner of a retail fashion website, she exudes chicness and her sass has been taken up several notches.
Beneath the façade of perfection lies a rebellious vixen, who dallies in casual flirting and recreational drugs. And she has a close bond with her stepbrother, Duc Bayer-Boatwright (Raymond Lee, Mozart in the Jungle), who is a life coach.
Here and Now starts with Greg Boatwright (Tim Robbins), their father’s 60th birthday party.
Meticulously planned by their overbearing, free-spirited mother Audrey Bayer (Holly Hunter), the joyful occasion is quickly reduced to emotional pandemonium as their respective journeys come to the forefront.
The cast of Here and Now. Picture: Supplied
The biggest upset of the night, aside from Greg’s doleful speech, is Ramon Bayer-Boatwright’s (Daniel Zovatto) delusions.
On her initial response to the script, Hinton offers, “It’s intriguing because you don’t see shows like this very often, especially with someone like Alan Ball at the helm, and so the whole alchemy there is just crazy interesting. I just wanted to be a part of it. And once you do become a part of it, then you’re trying to create the understanding and the dialogue and the tone of the show and everything, so it became a real collaborative process afterwards.”
As for the “frustrated liberals” depiction of Audrey and Greg, the 36-year-old actress says: “When Greg has to encounter the current understanding of the world, a lot of the things he’s built himself upon, and a lot of the things that he’s fighting for – both of them have been fighting for – since Berkeley, come to head. “And it’s like, what have we been fighting for this whole time? And it definitely feels like they’ve lost a battle here at the beginning of the show.”
Reflecting on playing an adopted child, along with Lee, she says: “I read a lot of books written by, or accounts by, transracial adoptees. Because that was a huge part of understanding Ashley’s backstory. I have no earthly idea of what that could be.”
Co-star Lee adds: “I think we were kind of the experiment babies. I think they’ve endowed in us a lot of their ideals and tried to help us grow up within the parameters that they viewed us as, and I think we hold a lot of resentment as a result. I think they were able to fail with Ashley and Duc in a lot of ways, and succeed in a lot of ways, too; because we turned out okay, seemingly.”
Hinton agrees, “Yeah, I agree with that, and I would say there’s also a certain resentment, rage, whatever the appropriate word is, for, for having someone define you for you. I think they had to deal with a lot of that growing up, with those very progressive parents, with this experiment. This is what we’re doing, this is what this means. This is who you are. You should be proud of who you are. Wear this, do this. Meanwhile, these children who just stand out wherever they go. All they want is to just blend in, belong, and you’re constantly forcing them to be a billboard.”
The other sibling in the family is 17-year-old Kristen (Sosie Bacon – Kevin Bacon’s daughter). A junior in high school, she is the only biological child. She is also the most spirited of them all.
Hypocrisy rears its ugly head in the lives of this suburban family. The characters are a mix of refreshing and annoying, which propels the drama.
Ultimately, you are going to either love or loathe this star-studded show.
* Here and Now airs on M-Net (DStv Channel 101) on Mondays at 9pm.
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