“Tyler Perry’s The Oval” tells the story of a family placed in the White House by people of power while also highlighting the personal side and everyday lives of the staff who run the inner workings of the nation’s most iconic residence.
“Tyler Perry’s The Oval” is executive produced, directed and written by Tyler Perry. Michelle Sneed also serves as Executive Producer of the series for Tyler Perry Studios.
The series stars Ed Quinn, Kron Moore, Paige Hurd, Daniel Croix Henderson, Javon Johnson, Ptosha Storey, Vaughn Hebron, Teesha Renee, Lodric Collins, Ciera Payton, Taja V. Simpson, Walter Fauntleroy, Brad Benedict, Travis Cure and Matthew Law star in the 25-episodes original series.
Episode #124″Twenty-Four Hours ” premieres, Wednesday July 22 at 9 PM ET/PT– Victoria feels Ellie has been less than forthcoming and puts her in her place. Priscilla probes Jean for answers about her behavior as of late. Donald and Diane argue over a misunderstanding.
Episode #125″One of Us” premieres, Wednesday July 22 at 10 PM ET/PT– Priscilla drudges up the past in a conversation with Sam about their latest interactions. Richard doubles down on his decision when Nancy returns from Priscilla’s house. Maude returns to the White House to handle business.
Blackfilm.com recently spoke with Ed Quinn, who plays Hunter Franklin, the newly elected President of the United States, Kron Moore, who plays Victoria Franklin, the First Lady of the United States, and Paige Hurd, the beautiful and spoiled daughter of the President and First Lady. *Daniel Croix Henderson, who plays Jason Franklin, the troubled son of The President and First Lady, was unfortunately not able to participate in today’s interview as his call time for production shifted and he needed to travel.
I met you guys back in October 2019 at the Josephine Butler Parks Center in Washington, DC for the unveiling of Tyler Perry’s new BET shows (The Oval and Sistahs). Knowing what you knew of the series then, what was going through your minds at that time?
Kron Moore: I was super nervous because I wasn’t sure as to whether or not people were going to embrace the show because you never know, but it’s Tyler Perry and he has a cult following so I don’t know why I was worried about it. For my character, I was a little bit concerned that people would not love to hate her— but just hate her. But much to my surprise, it’s been quite the opposite, so I’m really happy about that.
Paige Hurd: Much like Kron, I didn’t know what people were going to think. I knew how crazy it was because we’d filmed it, so I was really excited. I was almost thinking too far ahead and wanting to get to episodes 113 and 114 but we hadn’t even premiered yet. I was just waiting and waiting for it to get juicier because I knew that people were going to react the way that they did.
Ed Quinn: Because it was a Tyler Perry production and because it was going to be this huge merger with Viacom and Tyler Perry’s Studios and because Tyler Perry was coming home to BET, I just felt like the entire show and process had so much momentum that all we really had to do was keep the train on the tracks. Tyler comes with a built-in fan base, they know his work, he casts such beautiful human beings like Kron and Paige and Daniel and our whole cast, that it was really almost like a breeze to keep everything going forward. We’re still so appreciative and so humbled when we see the numbers and the ratings but I felt like it was ours to screw up and as long as we didn’t screw up, we’d be okay because we’d already done the work at that point; the show was already in the can. It was almost just like this sort of patient optimism that things were going to go well. And fortunately, everything came to fruition.
Did you have the slightest idea that “The Oval” would be the #1 scripted drama series on cable television?
Ed Quinn: I thought it could set records at BET simply because of the marriage between Tyler and the BET audience. I tend to not worry about bigger picture across the spectrum of television and cable TV and numbers. I care about taking care of our business in-house because then everybody is happy and the success just builds upon itself.
The first three minutes of episode one are epic. Did you know how impactful that opening scene would be?
Kron Moore: We didn’t exactly know would impactful it would be. I think both of us were a little nervous about it because it’s the first scene of the entire season and we come out swinging. Literally. So we weren’t sure how people were going to accept that but people loved it. We had a lot of fun with the choreography— Ed only suffered minor injuries, so it was okay.
Ed Quinn: I thought my career was going to be over once I read it. And to make matters worse, we shot it once and it was good, different and a little more nuanced maybe. And Tyler never reshoots anything and we came back and re-shot it. It was pretty intense. Tyler just wanted to come out with such a bang, a controversial over the top, something you’d never seen before, no context at all opener. All what you see is the turbo level of what the scene was. And when we saw the opening for the first time, I had my face in my hands and Kron started petting me like a sick cat or something while telling me it was going to be okay. We all watched the premiere at Tyler’s house and so we got to see people unloading on Twitter and it was all good and people thought I was hilarious, which was a huge relief.
Ed and Kron, you both play Alpha characters but you’re also polar opposites, which is a great reversal of roles. What’s that process like for the both of you playing off of each other?
Ed Quinn: There’s something really organic with the relationship that both Kron and I have, and then we turn on the Victoria and Hunter of it all. It was interesting because Tyler cast me first and then he started looking for the perfect first lady, and it was just within 20 seconds of the chemistry read with Kron and it was just over. Kron is so incredibly sweet and intelligent and reserved and there’s just all this composure to her, and then Victoria turns into this sort of Alpha female, she’s almost like this predator. There’s something that the two of us are able to fit so well together, which allows Kron/Victoria to make the choice to go as big as possible and for me and my character to both absorb it and never really get steam rolled by it. There’s this weird sort of dichotomy where Hunter’s this big dude and he’s the president and has a lot of issues with everything in this certain situation and there’s almost a perfect “marriage” when they come together of this couple in which you’re really looking at two equals. And it all becomes really believable as well, like you really believe Victoria is going to whoop Hunter’s ass.
Kron Moore: I’m grateful to Ed because he did give me the space and the latitude to go as big as I wanted my character to be without it looking ridiculous. We have an organic chemistry so that played well with our characters, and Ed is a seasoned veteran so he knew the direction he wanted to go in and he was able to kind of help me. This is my first lead role in a series that’s been picked up so he was a really great partner and an integral part of me coming into the character. He allowed Victoria just to be who she is and as the script is written, it just plays really well.
You play the first daughter Gayle Franklin – and she takes being rebellious and bitchy to a whole new level. How much fun has it been playing Gayle?
Paige Hurd: She’s really fun; you just kind of dig into your teenage years and just think about how you reacted when you were that young and just have an attitude. It’s not that hard sometimes. The only thing we have in common though is our eye-rolling. I love to roll my eyes, which is why Gayle rolls her eyes as much as she does. But at first I didn’t even know if I could play her because I always struggled with the mean roles; I was so used to playing the girl next door and just being nice. But I was really happy to get this role because I wanted to play her.
Your characters say things (from different perspectives) that people probably think but can never say out loud. How does that freedom play a role in relinquishing self-control so that your characters can live to their fullest potential?
Ed Quinn: I think it comes to not being scared of being unlikeable. Kron and Paige probably heard it for the first few days of filming, Tyler used to just yell at me to quit being funny and get darker and it just got to this place where I would just do these scenes and in some of them I’m almost growling and it just kind of became fun and freeing. I was trying to insert a little more humanity or kind of like frat boy humor, you know, just having fun with it but he was having none of it and that actually was what really sort of freed me up to go to some really scary places. And in reality, when you watch the final cut—it matches Victoria’s energy, it matches the dysfunction of the white house. It just works.
Kron Moore: Tyler gives us the latitude to explore as much as we want to with the characters and he doesn’t stifle us, he doesn’t limit us, and so we get to play around a lot. And for Victoria, I wanted to bring a quiet quality to her and I think with that comes power because I think people expect that when someone is angry or powerful that they will be loud and boisterous. But I wanted to play just the opposite. I’m grateful to have that space as an artist to explore the character and I think we’ll see some really interesting things come with season two for Victoria.
Paige Hurd: I agree with everything they both said.
The Tyler Perry name comes with its own fan base, but you’re now all part of a whole new soap-opera cult following with this particular series. Is that received with pressure or motivation?
Paige Hurd: Motivation for sure. No pressure at all. We have fun with what we do and every time we read something and see how crazy it is, we get excited because we know how much the fans will enjoy it. And because we’re all so close, it doesn’t make it hard to turn it on and off.
Kron Moore: I grew up watching Knots Landing, Dynasty and Dallas with my mom and so to have something along those lines is refreshing. I haven’t see it done like this and so I am really happy to be a part of it. It’s a motivation for me as well. I don’t feel pressure. The fans love it and we’re just going to keep giving it to them.
Ed Quinn: I agree with both the ladies— it’s really motivating. We also lived up to our potential in the first season, which is so hard to launch a new show on a new network with everything going on behind the scenes, the building of the white house, the grand opening of the new Tyler Perry Studios and now we can continue building on it. Kron hit it out of the park—in this business, what you start to learn is that they’re some genres that are just more fun that others; they’re just better and two of my favorite are comedy and primetime soap. I had a great time on Desperate Housewives, I had so much fun on Mistresses. It’s a lot of fun to go to work every day and the fans get into it. Just the same way people want to tune in to Two Broke Girls and just sort of laugh at mindless silly jokes for a half-hour, people want to watch crazy over the top soapy drama. When you deliver on the promise of your trailer, your fans are there and then we can continue to build that audience. Longevity is our next big goal and we can set records in that sense, too, for being on the air for a long time.
The season one two-hour finale premieres on Wednesday July 22, at 9 ET on BET— what can we expect?
Paige Hurd: I’m the wrong person to ask, I’ll tell you everything by accident so I’ll just stay quiet and let Ed and Kron speak to that really fast.
Kron Moore: Tyler Perry is really good at cliffhangers and this will be no different but it’s going to be a big one and I think season two won’t come fast enough for our fans. We’re going to have some surprises for the two-hour
finale and it’s going to be a lot of fun. Like Ed said, it’s just building.
Victoria’s mom is coming back and I know that people have been loving her character so she’ll make an appearance in the season finale and that ought to be real interesting given the conversation that Victoria and Gayle had in the last episode.
On a scale of 1-10, what’s the level of insanity we can expect from season two?
Paige Hurd: It’s high. It’s going to be crazy.
Ed Quinn: Tyler’s built some more incredible sets, kind of. I can’t say anymore. Basically, there’s a whole new aspect of the show and then there’s a massive plot to take out the president—it’s completely bonkers. Every once in a while, you read it and think it’s way too much but it always works and the fans love it.
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