my motherboard, my self, and my chat with the cast of grownish

when the universe blesses you with a lost interview, you cherish it!

Almost one year ago, I was reminded of a critical journalism lesson that Carrie Bradshaw taught me. You’ve always got to backup.

In season four, episode eight of Sex and The City, “My Motherboard, My Self,” as Carrie composes the next edition of her column for The New York Star, her computer dies, erasing the majority of her life’s work in only a matter of seconds. Though she wraps the laptop in a violet pashmina and rushes to the nearest repair store to get it fixed, she is hit with a hard-hitting discovery. She’s got “sad Mac,” aka irreversible computer death.

I, unlike Carrie, always carried (lol) a backup drive with me as I stomped the streets of New York conducting interviews, writing stories and pursuing my journalism dreams. However, the one day that I didn’t, I learned the hard way.

And not because it was being mansplained to me by a caring (yet, potentially overbearing) boyfriend. Thanks, Aidan.

In January 2023, I had the opportunity to chat with lovely cast of “grown-ish” about the Freeform show’s fifth season. We chatted, we had laughs, I requested that the show produce a musical episode due to the cast’s abundance of talented singers and music makers.

THEN, that same week, my computer broke, and I lost the entire interview. My soul was C-R-U-S-H-E-D, and I vowed to never conduct an interview again without hitting record on multiple devices and transcribing my notes and quotes immediately after.

Miraculously, this week, in the goodness and grace of Black History Month, the file reemerged on my cloud.

I can do nothing but be grateful and share it with all of you. 

Below, find some segments of my chats with Marcus Scribner, Diggy Simmons, and Trevor Jackson. Part two of “grown-ish” season six will premiere later this year, so consider this a primer for all of the binge watching you’ll have to do to be prepared to watch.

[The conversations below have been condensed and edited for clarity.]

TF: You've kind of grown up with this character. I'm wondering is there anything that you you've learned about yourself and taking on this character that you are excited to share with people? And how have you grown individually as an actor and as a person in taking on this role?

MS: I think one of the things I've learned a lot from Junior is he just does not care whatsoever what people think, like he's just himself always. I think that's something that I've struggled with for a long time and getting to see Junior be so confident in who he is and not care is, I mean, it's refreshing. It's really It's nice to see in a character who's so outwardly nerdy, dorky, or whatever, just to be like, “Yeah, I am the way I am. I still pull and I'm cool.” So like that's it. I love Junior for that.

I feel like I've learned honestly just being on set and being around so many people who use their voice for things that they're passionate about and being a part of a show that talks a lot about current world issues, Black issues, issues with race, family, all those sorts of things. I've learned a lot from those episodes and those experiences and getting to sit back and really just live in it and have a conversation with my fellow actors. I've learned so much over the years I've learned business since I've learned how to start up a company how to create I mean, just started my own production company. I've learned countless things I'm so thankful for the opportunities presented in front of me.

TF: I love that you bring up that this show talks about so many important issues. I think that's always been one of my favorite things about it. I know that you've been pretty vocal and passionate about environmental activism and you've worked with as an ambassador for Defend Our Future and the Environmental Defense Fund. Is there any issue that hasn't been tackled on the show yet that you would love to see the characters kind of interact with or play with on screen?

MS: One that I'm really excited about that we're dealing with is mental health issues that it's kind of displayed a little bit in the second half of of this season. I've said it for a while that I really wanted the character to go through those things. Whenever people ask me this question, so I'm excited that we're finally tackling that, and I feel like we did a great job on it. I mean, everybody goes through it, and it's not cool to see because, of course, it sucks. But it's kind of refreshing and eye opening when you have a character like Junior, who's been so positive his entire life realize, oh, maybe everything isn't sunshine and rainbows, and I have to figure things out. And it's very relatable. So it's one of those issues that I'm happy we're finally tackling.

TF: Diggy, do you have a favorite episode of this season? Can you tell us a little bit about what Doug is getting into in this next few episodes?

DS: Ironically, my favorite episode is probably Doug's most difficult episode, so I guess I love Doug’s pain. Being able to depict what he's been going through from that lens of a of a college person thinking that his degree is going to give him the world as soon as he gets out, and then he has to reckon with some struggle, some pain and his ego being kind of dealt with. That initial episode when Aaron found out that I needed a place to stay that was a deep one.

TF: I love watching your arc over the course of the season, I think some people would see it perhaps is more of a flop era, and people don't often talk about those challenges and struggles that young people face. For you and kind of portraying that role, but sensitivities did you bring to it as, as a black man and knowing that this is, you know, something that a lot of people go through, and perhaps would be pretty demoralizing or discouraging?

DS: Thank you. Yeah, I felt like I had to kind of tap into that sense of embarrassment. I guess, when you feel like you've come up short of your life trajectory, right? I kind of liken it to like mountain climbing, right. It's like, you kind of picture yourself, like, going on these rocks, like, Oh, I'm gonna put my foot here. I'll put my hand here. But like it's not available, right? I have to take this detour, I have to go this other way. A lot of the times when we have to go that other way, we feel we feel bad about it. I feel like always to just learn that it was a lesson that we needed, to not have things go exactly the way we thought it would.

TF: Trevor, you've been a part of this show for a long time. Is there anything that you've learned about yourself along the way, perhaps career wise or in developing this character, that you really found to be profound or impactful?

TJ: Something super impactful, and I always say this, I feel very stressed out when you think about the reality of the world and a lot of just horrible things that go on. You can be overwhelmed. Especially when you're a good person, and you want to like help your just natural instinct is to help. You're like, “What can I do?,” “Can I do it in my lifetime?”

I'm really grateful to be a part of the show that I think does a lot of the heavy lifting for me, I can be a part of a show that has, you know, made an impact made a difference. It's affected people in a positive manner. So that kind of alleviates some of that weight that I feel is on me.

TF: As a veteran member of this cast, is there any leadership role that you took on in this season, or that you hope to do in season six that you want to share about?

TJ: A leadership role that I've taken on since the beginning is the environmental set is love anybody in a bad mood? We're not having that. You know, I'm going up to them hugging them, Hey, what's wrong? You good? Come on. Like, it's a privilege to be able to go to work. You know, I'm saying and do something that you love to do and do art. And let's make it fun. Let's have a good time. I'm always an advocate of that. And so I lead with love. I lead with happiness and not taking anything too serious. But yeah, we're lovers on the set. That's that's the only thing I can allow.

To listen to these chats check out the Tamia Talks podcast here or on Spotify and Apple Music.