<i>Forever</i>’s Lovie Simone Has Been Dreaming of This Moment for Years

Spoilers below.

After years of wanting to lead her own TV show, Lovie Simone has finally actualized that dream. The Bronx-born actress now stars in Netflix’s Forever, an adaptation of Judy Blume’s 1975 controversial novel about a teenage couple exploring their sexuality in New Jersey. Out today, the show—now set in California—stays true to many of the book’s central themes of adolescent angst and bodily autonomy, but with one major, obvious twist: the entire main cast is Black.

Created by Mara Brock Akil (Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane), the story follows childhood friends Keisha (Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.) as they attempt to navigate a complicated on-again, off-again relationship after reconnecting at a New Year’s Eve party during senior year. The story takes on a modern twist when we learn that Keisha, a track star who hopes to go to Howard University, gets involved in a sex tape scandal after her former boyfriend leaks an intimate video of them. While the show deals with heavy subject matter, it’s still full of heart and humor, in true Akil fashion. Rounding out the stellar cast are Karen Pittman, Wood Harris, Niles Fitch, and Xosha Roquemore.

Below, Simone shares what it was like to be number one on the call sheet, what her first role in OWN’s Greenleaf taught her about being on set, and why she hopes viewers are “gentle” with Keisha.

It was sent to my agent, then to my manager, and then to me. I read the script, and while I was memorizing the sides, I decided to get the book because I wanted to do a little more research. I read the entire thing in one sitting. I fell in love and was like, “Okay, I need to be in this.” And the rest is history.

The male and female characters’ personalities switch from book to show. In the show, Keisha has more of the essence of the guy’s character from the book. She’s now very direct and more experienced. But other than that, it's completely different and a reimagination of Judy Blume’s Forever.

I was a big fan of Mara before I auditioned. I’ve watched Love Is and Girlfriends three times over, so when I met her, I was starstruck. And I was a little scared because they tell you, “Never meet your idols,” but whoever said that was a liar because I love Mara. I really appreciated working with her. She was very clear about what she wanted out of the characters, and it was easy for us to pull that out of ourselves. She told me that although Keisha is a bit more advanced than Justin, she’s still a teenager at the end of the day. She still has an innocence and a youthfulness to her. That was very helpful to hear when I started getting into my character. Mara was very sweet, energetic, and really excited about the craft and about the work. It was really nice.

It was amazing. Regina was also there during the audition process. During the chemistry reads, it was her, Mara, some producers, and the casting directors. I had worked with Regina briefly on Greenleaf for the episode that she directed, and we connected back then. She’s become my big sister in this industry, so working with her on Forever was a full-circle moment for me. It was also really easy to work with her because she’s also an actress, so she knows how to direct you as an actor. It worked and blended so beautifully.

At first, I was really nervous, but once it started happening and the pre-production turned into production, which turned into post-production, I was like, “Wait a second, that was actually really fun.” I enjoyed the entire process. I’ve wanted to do this for my entire career. As the lead, I had a huge chunk of meat to work with as a creative and as an actor. And it was nice to play someone who wasn’t just a girlfriend.

Keisha is Lovie Simone’s first leading television role.

I like any character who’s misunderstood. And as an actress, I like being able to portray a range of different emotions on screen. It’s really about experiencing different sides of humanity. In Keisha, I saw a girl who was going through so much as a teenager and she also wants to be in love. And she’s very Scorpio-coded. She’s emotional and in her head all the time. She seemed so complex to me. I needed to play her because I love characters like that. And because I’m playing a high school student, I was able to take what I could remember from my teenage self and use that. I also have a younger brother and sister who are in high school, and I paid attention to what they’re going through and how they’re moving through the world.

Lovie Simone as Keisha in Forever.

I had a lot of empathy for her, and that situation informed a lot of her personality traits for me. Because she was violated in that way, of course she’s not going to be super outgoing. She might be friendly, but not too friendly. I felt for Keisha. Even when she’s keeping it a secret and refusing to report [Christian], she says it’s because she was protecting him, but I think she was just scared. She thought she had it all under control. She’s very plan-oriented, and this wasn’t part of her plan.

I let the moment be very natural and organic. Working with Xosha, it was very easy to tap into those scenes. We filmed that a bit later on, so by that time in the story, we had already gotten to know our characters so well. We understood their motives, and their personality quips became second nature. It was very easy to play that out with her. We had that cooperation and that partnership. But it was still challenging to go through that moment as the daughter in that situation. I loved the reveal because it was really nice to exist as Keisha post-scandal. The scandal took up so much of her life, and it was important to show that there is a life outside of that, too.

Xosha Roquemore (left) as Keisha’s mother, Shelly.

When we pick up at the beginning of the show, Keisha and Justin hadn’t seen each other in a really long time, so we actually couldn’t spend too much time together so that it didn’t feel like we had been together every day. We wanted them to be a little awkward and distant at the start, so when the relationship did progress, it felt authentic to ourselves and to our characters, who hadn’t seen each other since elementary school.

I think he brings her a sense of simplicity, and he admires her in a way that she’s not particularly used to. I think she’s tired of the way that guys have treated her in the past. His love looks different, and that’s what she’s looking for.

Michael Cooper Jr. stars opposite Simone as Justin Edwards.

Although he was an absent father, he’s a father nonetheless. There’s a sense of like, “What are you doing with my girl?” With the way Keisha’s life is going, he just wants to make sure she’s not getting distracted and keeping her dream alive. They’re similar in that regard.

In my head, Keisha’s life definitely took a turn. I don’t think Howard was what she expected, but not in a bad way. I think she would probably become a little more laid back. I do think that she would find her Black sisterhood and maybe join a sorority. She’d be a Delta; she doesn’t give AKA vibes. And I do think she and Justin will rekindle in the future. I don’t know what it looks like or what moment brings them together, but I do think they see each other again, and feelings pop back up.

Simone and Cooper celebrate Forever at a screening in Los Angeles.

I just love that I had the chance to. This doesn’t normally happen. Not everybody gets auditions that get greenlit to go to a streaming service. So I’m just happy that everything lined up the way that it did with such a wide variety of beautiful Black people.

I knew at a young age that I wanted to pursue it seriously, but it didn’t take off until I was around 16 or 17 years old. I started auditioning at nine and then got my first big role, Greenleaf, right after high school, and had to move to Georgia to film. That was very unexpected because I’m from New York, and New Yorkers are never gonna get our license, we’re never gonna get a car, and we’re never gonna leave New York. That’s what I thought my future looked like; I imagined acting in New York. And now, to this day, everybody knows me from that show. That was like my college. That was how I learned the ropes. It was nice being on a really big ensemble cast [which included Lynn Whitfield, Keith David, and Oprah Winfrey]. It was a good place to start because there wasn’t too much focus on me as a supporting character. I was able to learn how to maneuver on a set, and I got advice and lessons from all of these legends.

Simone learned from “legends” on the set of Greenleaf, where she had her breakout role.

I definitely wanted to do the Disney wand like Raven-Symoné. I didn’t know if it was going to be because of a show or a one-off movie, but I really wanted to be on Disney. And now, I don’t really know what I want to do. I don’t know until it comes across my desk and I say, “Whoa. I really want to be a part of this, like Forever.”

I know there are going to be different perspectives on Keisha. It’s so wild to me that there are going to be people who are probably going to be so mean to her, but I really do hope that they give her grace and realize that she’s a teenager. It’s her first time here in life, and she’s going through something that can be labeled as traumatic. So just be gentle with my girl.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.