Essence Atkins and Stephen Bishop Talk to Blackfilm.com on Reuniting for TVOne’s “Coins” Sequel, Coins for Love Premiering Sunday, July 19 at 9pm ET and 8pm CT.
How many times have we let our busy lives interfere with our chance at love? That girl or guy you are constantly flirting and joking with at work. Or that friend that you’ve known since college who you wish were more than just a friend. It’s so easy to go through life never making a move or letting that person know how you really feel.
Coins for Love, TVOne’s sequel to the Christmas romantic drama Coins for Christmas, is about two people doing just that- denying how they really feel about each other and letting life get in the way. The film deals with the complexities of navigating a work romance, ex lovers and teenagers, while managing a demanding career.
Coins for Love stars Essence Atkins (Ambitions, Are We There Yet) and Stephen Bishop (Being Mary Jane, Money Ball). Having worked together on other projects including Girlfriend’s Getaway, Atkins and Bishop are old friends and were happy to jump back on board for Coins for Love after having so much fun on the set of Coins for Christmas.
In Coins for Love, Atkins stars as over-worked and underpaid single Mom, Madison, struggling to make the best life possible for herself and her two teens, Chloe and Jackie. She is burning the candle at both ends holding down two demanding jobs. By day she is working her tail off in her dream job at a big publishing house where she hopes to climb corporate ladder. By night she is the personal assistant to complicated and opinionated athlete-turned sports show host, Alec Darby. Self-absorbed and handsome, Darby has a soft side and soft spot for Madison but lets his ego get in the way of doing anything about it.
Although he is a former professional baseball player having played for the Atlanta Braves before pursuing a career in acting, Stephen Bishop genuinely comes across as an easy-going , not-your-typical-Hollywood-actor type. And the same also can actually be said about Essence Atkins. So to hear Bishop say portraying egotistical diva pro athlete Darby was “a stretch” for him and just a really fun role to play, was not a surprise.
Hardworking actress Essence Atkins says she felt that her and her character Madison were “Kindred Spirits.” Both have a “By-any-means-necessary” attitude toward doing want needs to be done when it comes to their children. As a working wife and mom of an 8 year old son, Atkins struggles with having to leave her son to travel for work and is often out of town on set for weeks at a time. She regretfully admits to missing her son’s first day of second grade and (one of) his martial arts belt promotions, which are extra special to him. Now she makes sure to travel home every weekend when she is away.
So as a mother she had no trouble relating to Madison who is juggling two teens, work and more work and wondering if she’ll ever catch a break while her on-screen ex (reprised by Karon Riley) adds to her drama by focusing all of his energy on the pipe dream of making it big as a music manager. He has high hopes of finding the next Beyoncé. If only those high hopes came with a weekly paycheck to help with raising their two teens.
Actor Stephen Bishop, has two children, a 2 year old and a 13 year old. With a steady stream of work over the years, Bishop finds the time while away filming to “face time with them everyday and night,” not giving them the chance to miss him. This super dad also coaches his children’s baseball games and has managed to do some virtual coaching while away on set.
In Coins for Love both Madison and Alec’s lives don’t change for the better until they focus less on themselves and more on the important things in life. At the center of both “Coins” films are two important themes – family and kindness. These are two important themes at the center of Essence and Stephen lives as well, keeping them centered and grounded.
Grow Where You’re Planted
Coins for Love will premiere on TVOne on Sunday, July 19 at 9pm ET and 8pm CT.
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