Meagan Good Talks Role On 'Deception,' Love Triangles & 'Scandal'
With her NBC series Deception premiering tonight (Jan. 7), actress Meagan Good breaks down the new role, Talks Doing Her Own Stunts, Love Triangles, camaraderie among black women in hollywood And Being Hooked On Scandal
VIBE: You play a detective on Deception. What’s your character’s background story?
Meagan Good: I play Joanna Locasto. I’m undercover, and the premise of this show is following this young woman that was raised in this really rich family that's sort of like the Hiltons. My mother was their live-in nanny and I grew up in their house from ages four to 17. They had a daughter whose name is Vivian, who was my best friend in the world. When I was 17, we had this odd falling out, my mother and I moved to San Francisco, and I grew up to be a San Francisco police officer and she grew up to be a socialite. The show opens up with me being recruited by a former flame of mine played by Laz Alonso, who joined the FBI. Vivian has been murdered and they want me to go undercover as Joanna.
So your character’s family grew up in the socialite world?
Yeah, the show has a little of everything. You know she’s a cop/detective but lives in the world of her being undercover in this family—this very fabulous family who’s very rich and always in the tabloids and the media. And I kind of get swept into that world as I’m trying to do my job. I’m always straddling the fence between my job as a detective, my responsibility as a friend to solve this murder, and my love for the family because they’re the only family I’ve ever really had.
Playing a detective, you must do a lot of physical activity on camera.
Yeah, there’s definitely the cop part of it, which is what really drew me into the script. I really wanted to get out of the box of all the characters I had been playing before. I wanted to do some tough stuff, some dirty work, some action. I wanted to be physical and do my own stunts. So I’ve been able to do that with this show. I beat up a lot of guys, and beat up people when it’s necessary to get the truth. She’s extremely tough but she’s vulnerable and a real person, but it’s no holds bar for her.
What was the hardest thing about the stunt training?
On the pilot, I actually hurt my back. A lot of the stunts that were going on, I was traveling back and forth, so once I got back home and we were waiting to see if we got picked up, I was in the gym training everyday, doing back strengthening, working out with my trainer Augustina, really going hard in the paint and it really has made a tremendous difference in my body and my endurance and just being able to keep up.
Do you get pretty bruised up?
Yeah, but we try to keep it as real as possible. I’m 5’2. I’m kind of a little woman, so we needed to play into the awkwardness and the funny of: Okay, here’s this 5’2 woman and she sees a man who is a potential danger to her or someone she cares about, she doesn’t run the opposite way, she’s going to run head first into the situation. I like that the writers really made it to where when you see the physicality of it, it’s believable and realistic.
There’s one other black woman leading a primetime show. Have you thought about the importance of that and you helping to bring a little more color?
I’m the second black woman in 30 years to have a program on NBC. Before me was Diahann Carroll. So I understand the importance of it, and I’m thankful that NBC wrote this character as an African-American or Latina. They were very specific about what they wanted. And when you get into the meat of the show, even with me being an African-American woman, they don’t make it about me being African-American. It’s colorless. And that to me is amazing. I’ll deal with stuff that was written for black folks and the point is that you’re black. The point with this [show] is that I’m a human being and it doesn’t matter what nationality I was. But the character was written for a black actress. I thought that was dope and that was another thing that attracted me to it. It’s a diverse cast and I don’t know, I’m just really proud of this show.
Have you been keeping up with Scandal?
Oh yeah, I’m a huge fan of Kerry’s. I love all of her work. She’s very sweet. Before I even met her, she saw the film I did “Brick” and she wrote me a letter from one actress to another saying, “I thought you were really great in that,” and was basically watching for me. She wanted me to do well. That doesn’t happen often, especially with the fact that there aren’t a lot of black actresses in Hollywood that are doing well. Oftentimes people get the mentality of competition and I don’t believe in competition. What’s mine is mine and no one can take it from me and what someone else’s is someone else’s and I can’t take it from them. I feel the same way about Gabrielle, Taraji, and all of us uplifting each other.
What people love most about Scandal is the drama and the twists. Can people expect something similar with Deception?
There’s one other black woman leading a primetime show. Have you thought about the importance of that and you helping to bring a little more color?
I’m the second black woman in 30 years to have a program on NBC. Before me was Diahann Carroll. So I understand the importance of it, and I’m thankful that NBC wrote this character as an African-American or Latina. They were very specific about what they wanted. And when you get into the meat of the show, even with me being an African-American woman, they don’t make it about me being African-American. It’s colorless. And that to me is amazing. I’ll deal with stuff that was written for black folks and the point is that you’re black. The point with this [show] is that I’m a human being and it doesn’t matter what nationality I was. But the character was written for a black actress. I thought that was dope and that was another thing that attracted me to it. It’s a diverse cast and I don’t know, I’m just really proud of this show.
Have you been keeping up with Scandal?
Oh yeah, I’m a huge fan of Kerry’s. I love all of her work. She’s very sweet. Before I even met her, she saw the film I did “Brick” and she wrote me a letter from one actress to another saying, “I thought you were really great in that,” and was basically watching for me. She wanted me to do well. That doesn’t happen often, especially with the fact that there aren’t a lot of black actresses in Hollywood that are doing well. Oftentimes people get the mentality of competition and I don’t believe in competition. What’s mine is mine and no one can take it from me and what someone else’s is someone else’s and I can’t take it from them. I feel the same way about Gabrielle, Taraji, and all of us uplifting each other.
What people love most about Scandal is the drama and the twists. Can people expect something similar with Deception?
What people love most about Scandal is the drama and the twists. Can people expect something similar with Deception?
That’s what I definitely like about Scandal. And Deception has that, too, but it’s a completely different story line and it has totally different characters. There are many different things happening with all of the characters on the show. With me, Laz is my love interest, he was my partner for 4 or 5 years, we hooked up and it didn’t quite work out, but there’s still feelings there, we still care about each other, so we wanna see where it’s going to go. But I also have a relationship with Julian, who is Vivian’s older brother that was in the household all those years that I lived there. So he was my first and my “Mr. Dreamboat” guy that I’ve always wanted. And nothing ever came of it until we’re older and that attraction is still very much there. So there are a lot of different things like that going on.
How would you compare this to other cop/detective dramas like Law & Order or CSI?
I don’t think it’s like any of those shows, but then I can see the hint of the majority of those shows in it. I think that’s what makes it different because CSI is how CSI is, Scandal is how Scandal is, Revenge is how Revenge is. They’re all different and I think Deception has kind of a hint of everything in it. It’s definitely going to be one of those shows that people are gonna watch week to week to watch the drama unfold.
That’s what I definitely like about Scandal. And Deception has that, too, but it’s a completely different story line and it has totally different characters. There are many different things happening with all of the characters on the show. With me, Laz is my love interest, he was my partner for 4 or 5 years, we hooked up and it didn’t quite work out, but there’s still feelings there, we still care about each other, so we wanna see where it’s going to go. But I also have a relationship with Julian, who is Vivian’s older brother that was in the household all those years that I lived there. So he was my first and my “Mr. Dreamboat” guy that I’ve always wanted. And nothing ever came of it until we’re older and that attraction is still very much there. So there are a lot of different things like that going on.
How would you compare this to other cop/detective dramas like Law & Order or CSI?
I don’t think it’s like any of those shows, but then I can see the hint of the majority of those shows in it. I think that’s what makes it different because CSI is how CSI is, Scandal is how Scandal is, Revenge is how Revenge is. They’re all different and I think Deception has kind of a hint of everything in it. It’s definitely going to be one of those shows that people are gonna watch week to week to watch the drama unfold.
