'P-Valley' star Brandee Evans says 'bruises came with the territory' as she relives playing stripper Mercedes
Coming on July 12 is Starz's brand new drama 'P-Valley' centered around Black Southern strippers in the Mississippi Delta. Playing one of the lead characters is Brandee Evans. Evans plays Mercedes "The OG", the long-reigning queen of the strip club Pynk, owned by Uncle Clifford. It is her mesmerizing moves on the pole that makes her a one-of-a-kind original performer. Playing a mentor to the other girls at the club, she is also ready to call it quits and turn her side hustle as a youth dance-team coach into a full-time career.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) caught up with Evans to talk about the upcoming show and what it took to become Mercedes in an exclusive interview. In terms of emotional grounding and life experiences, Brandee Evans felt very close to the character of Mercedes.
"I absolutely drew on my own experiences. Mercedes is also raised as a 'PK' — a preacher's kid. I too was raised as a preacher's kid. I have also coached dance teams throughout my life and I've even had a toxic relationship with my mom growing up. So I was able to use that like therapy and pull from those real-life experiences. There are so many things that happen to Mercedes that have happened to me. Almost the only, only thing that Brandee [Evans] and Mercedes don't have in common is the fact that I've never worked in a club. But the other things, I can relate to them very seriously."
But immersing herself in the Black Southern stripper club culture meant starting to learn from scratch about the world, which meant getting reacquainted with her hometown Memphis, Tennessee in a whole new way. "I was raised very conservatively so I was new to all of this. I went to see clubs in Atlanta, LA, and Memphis — just to really delve into the world. But I had to learn how to be that 'OG' very fast. Our choreographer brought in a stripper called Spyda, who is known as the 'OG' of this world. She trained me on field trips to strip clubs and kind of taught me the ropes as well. She's amazing. She's the beast that I wanted to be as Mercedes."
While the physical aspect of being on the pole was a bruising experience, Evans wanted to do it all. "I did about 98% of my stunts. Starz did have body doubles for us, and I'm very thankful, but I'm a former dancer who has done competitive dancing. So the 'competition girl' in me wanted to do everything herself. So I did, I insisted on doing all the stunts, except the one Starz wouldn't allow me to do — falling head-first. But doing drops to the splits, sit-ups on the pole — all of those tricks — I am doing all of those and it was very hard. I was getting acupuncture and dry needling and massages [to recover]."
But the hurt she endured was worth it. "Every week, there were bruises, but the bruises came with the territory. I wanted that. Starz did not want that for me. While I wanted to be safe, I also wanted to be that character. And in order to be the OG, I had to have that pole burn. I had to know what it felt like to, you know, slam on the floor — to have that as a true feeling. I don't regret it. And honestly, I'll probably try to do it all again, in Season Two, if we get an opportunity."
While strippers have been featured on TV and films like 'Hustlers', increasingly being mainstreamed through the music business thanks to personalities like Cardi B and Blac Chyna, P-Valley promises to be something more raw and true. "It's going to be from a Black female's perspective, which I don't believe that we've seen authentically on TV yet. You're going to see people touch on stigmas and all the stereotypes we have in our society — around Black women, within different races and other ethnicities. Nicco-Annan (who plays Uncle Clifford) likes to say the revolution shall be televised. And finally, you all will be able to see that in the show."
According to Evans, the most revolutionary aspect of the show is how it sees this exploitative space as a space of liberation as well. "It's liberation versus exploitation. These women are athletes doing their jobs on their own terms, and I feel like it is the women who should get to decide if it's going to be empowering or exploitative."
Evans said showrunner and creator, Katori Hall, has written 'P-Valley' from a woman's gaze. "That's what made me want to be a part of it with Mercedes, you know? There's empowerment behind her struggle and everyone has a story that deserves to be told — the women's view of it. That's why we have eight female directors, which is amazing. So you see more than just the bodies. You see what's going on in these women's minds and their hearts and their souls, what they want to do beyond the pole."
She underlined how the show does a "very authentic job" in tackling some difficult subjects and "just putting it out there". This included the painful subject of 'colorism' within stripper culture, where lighter-skinned girls make more money. "A lot of things are very hard for us to hear or learn. Some people are learning new things right now, and it's difficult to digest. But we have to have these conversations and put it out there for us all to grow and be better. [In terms of color], I'm kind of in the middle in the black community, you know. We say light skin, brown skin, dark skin, and I was kinda in the middle. But I too have run into situations where I'm 'too dark' for a job, or they want a lighter skin girl. They usually say they want someone 'ethnically ambiguous' because they can pass off as White if I'm [being] honest. So it was a very touchy subject but a very real subject. It brought up some childhood memories as well, for all of us on the cast, you know, from all shades — I think all of us have dealt with it. Even across ethnicities. We had Gidget, who was our only White girl, who is from Alaska originally. So even with her, [skin color] was very sensitive, but it had to be discussed and explored. And I appreciate Katori for being strong enough and brave enough to tackle that truth."
Her final hope, when Season 1 airs, is that everyone stops judging a book by its cover. "I hope that everyone takes time to get to know someone, which is perfect in this time in the world that we're living in right now to say, 'let me actually see what they think and what they feel', 'what's going on in their hearts?' instead of just judging them because of what they do or how they look. Hopefully, this is a moment for the world to say, 'Hey, this is a human being'. The show helps humanize these women."
'P-Valley' premieres on July 12 at 9 pm ET on Starz.