OWN Drama ‘If Loving You is Wrong’ Explores Women’s Desire to ‘Swirl’

With Tyler Perry‘s new OWN drama series “If Loving You is Wrong,” he showcases a variety of women’s desire to get their “swirl” on … to date and love beyond race, age and socio-economic status.
The cast of the new drama include April Parker Jones as Natalie, a single, working-class mother who has a son in prison and must decide if she can forgive him; Edwina Findley Dickerson as Kelly, a single, career-oriented mom; and Heather Hemmens as Marcie, a woman who desperately wants to have children with her undesirable husband (Eltony Williams).
The drama also co-stars Charles Malik Whitfield, Amanda Clayton, Zulay Henao and Aiden Turner. The cast talked about their characters at a screening of the show based on Perry’s movie “The Single Mom’s Club.”
“Our characters go through a lot,” said Findley Dickerson, whose Kelly character wants to be married. “Women go through a lot – whether it’s mothering, whether it’s desiring to be loved. Whether it’s trying to balance a career. Whether it’s domestic violence. Women experience a lot and our characters really reflect that.
She added, “as Shakespeare talks about holding the mirror to nature, I believe that it will be a mirror for many women. And prayerfully, many women will receive a great deal of healing as a result of this project.”
The actors related to the material and their characters on a personal level. Jones who plays Natalie, a single mom with different children’s fathers, also has more than one children’s father in real life.
“I was a single mom with multiple kids and different fathers,” Jones said. “That is the reality of so many women. Learning how to juggle parenting and co-parenting with different dads. Natalie is going to be one of the more relatable characters in the sense that she’s so very strong. So strong, that it can also be a bit crippling.”
Tiffany Haddish plays comedic foil Jackie, and said critics are already comparing the show to “Desperate Housewives,” but she said once fans see the show, it will provoke a different reaction.
“People are going to try and compare it to ‘Desperate Housewives’ but I never watched ‘Desperate Housewives’ and yelled, ‘No she didn’t just do that!’ Haddish said. “I was yelling and talking to the TV. And I know there are a lot of Americans like me that like to talk to the TV. They are going to be talking and tweeting about this.”
The diverse cast can be seen on OWN every Tuesday night following the show’s premiere tonight, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2014 at 9 p.m. ET.