Jasmine Kefa Jones Says Her “Blindspotting” Character Is A “Warrior and Hero”

It doesn’t usually happen that a small part of the films star in the Spinoff series. Jasmine Cefa Jones starred from the early stages of the film. blind spotWhich was developed by co-writers and stars David Diggs and Rafael Casal about 10 years before the film debuted at Sundance and was released by Lionsgate in 2018.

The dig comedy is a love letter to their homeland of the Gulf about two best friends navigating gentrification, police brutality and a sense of change. Tsefa Jones, who played with Diggs in the original Broadway company. hamilton, plays Ashley, the headstrong girlfriend of Kazal Miles. “I had some very important scenes that were very, very intense,” Jones said. A few days passed and he realized blind spot The era is over.

Then came a call from Diggs and Casal asking her to direct the TV spin-off that took place after the events of the movie and was still focused on Ashley’s point of view. The answer was obvious: “Absolutely, I’m not giving up on this.” Cefa Jones was hired as a producer alongside Diggs and Casal, who also plays the showman.

“It was one of the most beautiful and creative experiences I’ve ever had,” Cepha Jones told Starz of the half-hour comedy, which has been renewed for a second season. The series begins when Miles is arrested for a minor drug addiction and Ashley is forced to live with Miles’ mother, played by Helen Hunt, and her half-sister, played by Jalen Baron.

blind spot Expands the theatrical style of the film, including Ashley addresses the camera directly in verse and reveals what Tsefa Jones calls her character’s true self. “He pushes me like an artist every time,” he says of the soulful monologues a theater-trained actor tackles, much like Shakespeare.

“She’s a warrior and a hero,” Cefa Jones said of Ashley, who is also a mother of a child. “She represents a lot of women who feel like they have to do everything for themselves.” Ashley is gradually relegated to seeking help from the community around her as the story tackles acute social issues such as color, colloquialism and endemic violence and sex work in the prison system.

“What I love most about the art and this show is how we can interpret very important themes, but also make it fun and playful,” said Cefa Jones. “You want to see it through to the end, so you can go and start an argument. That’s why I’m doing this first.”

Cefa Jones was born in London and grew up in Brooklyn at home with models in her career; Her mother Kim Leslie is a jazz singer and her father It’s us Actor Ron Cepha Jones. He and his father made history when they both received the 2020 Primetime Emmy for Ron in an NBC drama Jasmine for her role in the television series Quibi. #Freerayshawn. “It was a wonderful time to share with my dad, who was the best mentor in my life,” he said. “It was a feeling: ‘Oh, now we’re partners. And see how we walk together. “

Ashley’s journey continues in season two. blind spot, which recently completed a major production run in Auckland and Los Angeles. “Let’s take this to another level,” Cefa Jones said of the improved narrative along the way. “The madness is really intensified. Have fun, no doubt.”

He wants to continue playing versatile characters he can sink his teeth into and who are more than just a supporting actor in men’s stories. “It’s important to me to show all the colors of what a woman can be,” she says. “We are not just a pillar on a man’s arm. We are people in this world who have many different sides.”

The story first appeared in a separate June issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.