Queen Sugar star Bianca Lawson on Darla, Ralph Angel wedding
Queen Sugar's Ralph Angel and Darla have been one of TV's big will-they-won't-they couples the past four seasons. Not so much will they get together, but will they stay together?
After that season 5 premiere proposal, the answer became yes — in more ways than one. Their big day has quickly arrived (Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET/PT on OWN), and in the midst of the pandemic nonetheless. But if there's a silver lining, it's that their ceremony is now "very simple and very intimate in a way so much more beautiful than had it been the huge pomp and circumstance that they were planning," star Bianca Lawson (Darla) told EW ahead of the wedding, which you can see exclusive photos of below.
"It ends up being about what's real and what's important and give it a real feeling of tight-knit love," Lawson said.
EW spoke with Lawson, who's in Louisiana filming season 6 of the OWN drama, to preview the ceremony, look back on Darla and Ralph Angel's (Kofi Siriboe) journey to get here, and what's to come. A baby, perhaps?
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you ever see this day coming for these two?
BIANCA LAWSON: My goodness, with all of their ups and downs… I had a feeling there was gonna maybe be a wedding this season but I didn't know until I saw it. But what's gonna be the end for these two, and the next chapter for these two? My mom and all her friends like, "Oh, I hope there's a wedding!" [Laughs] They really are so invested. I can't believe they've gotten through all the storms that they've gotten through, but they're here.
I'm happy to see these two happy because of everything they have gone through. It feels like they're now able to breathe and live in this commitment to each other rather than fighting to make it work. Does it feel like that for you now, playing out their scenes?
Oh, yeah! It's so interesting because you when you spend so many years with a character, and pretending with the other person's character, and going through the grieving stuff and the ups and downs, and the love, and the first meeting, and the fighting, you know it's not you but it's still in your body. There's another version of you that's been acting this out for five years, so I'm really happy for these two because you never really know.
I think about even shooting that pool scene where [Ralph Angel] comes and confronts [Darla] about [Blue's] paternity, and how intense and difficult that scene was to shoot, and to think that from there they're now here… [Laughs] Or in the first season when his dad's in the hospital and they're in the parking lot, just to think that their whole arc and all the ups and downs, for them to now be — well, they've been engaged a couple of times but they didn't get married; we've seen this before [Laughs] — but they will [get married]. Even when I arrived on set, on the plantation, and they had put up all of the wedding decorations, I was like, "Oh my god, this is beautiful! It's amazing!" When I was shooting the wedding and when the flower girls come out and they're like, "Hey, Bianca, you go [down the aisle]," I go out and everyone turns around and I'm in my wedding dress, you start to feel like you're at your own wedding. [Laughs]
It's kind of overwhelming because it's like, oh my god, they arrived here, they got here. Even just saying the vows, I had to stop practicing them because I would get emotional saying them. I was trying to sort of chew on, how does she feel in this moment? Because we've seen her reactions when they've been engaged a couple times and all the things that she's gone through and where they're at — is this overwhelming, or is this a very calm, peaceful space? Because they've grown so much and they're different people in a sense now, and their relationship is so much more grounded, and they've matured so much with each other. And then they've got Blue.
Oh, but there's another kind of big surprise beyond the wedding! I got a bit of an overview [of what's coming] but you never really know until you get the pages. They said, this is what I'm thinking of doing, but I haven't really decided yet. So I don't really know until I get the pages. But I think it's perfect
Tell me more about the ceremony. What do you love most about the wedding itself?
They were planning this really big deal thing, as we all do — you've been thinking about this forever, you want to get every little thing so perfect, little invitations so perfect and all this stuff — and then COVID happens. They're planning, planning, planning, and then in the moment it ends up being very simple and very intimate and, in a way, so much more beautiful than I think had it been like the huge big pomp and circumstance that they were planning. It ends up being about what's real and what's most important, so it just gives it a real feeling of really tight-knit love. They even had people on Zoom — they weren't really on Zoom [when we filmed] but when I did ADR they put them on the screen and I was like, "Oh my God, that is perfect and it feels like they were really there!" [Laughs]
Looking ahead, how are a married Darla and Ralph Angel different from the couple trying to make things work?
We shall see because we're now just beginning season 6. But it's interesting because it's not like they get married and life is as it is. They get married in the midst of a pandemic and it's just the beginning of seeing the video of the murder [of George Floyd], and so it's not like they're just in a normal world. There's so much coming at them right after the wedding, just like all the things are really coming at all of us in life, but I think there's something about the container of, "Okay, we're married, we're doing this, we're like really committed to each other." I mean, yes, one can always get divorced, but it's not a matter of having a fight and someone walking away — we've done this, and our child has seen us do this, and our child is so excited about this. No one's leaving quickly or easily. Maybe there's a calmness that comes with that, a sense of peace, because you're in it in it... they're not gonna have like a fight or something's gonna come out and then suddenly break up. I think a married Darla, there's a real sense of peace and groundedness. ... We're now in this thing together, this little family. I think that's maybe one of the gifts of really, truly committing to anything — it's done. Now we're thinking about us in terms of the future.
Does that "us" potentially include more children in the future? Is that something you would like to see for the two of them? Is it being discussed as a possible story line?
I would love for them to expand their family. I think it would be good for Blue. It'd be interesting because they're such different parents now than they were when Blue was born. They're both in completely different places. So I would like to see that, I think it'd be nice. I would like to have a little baby on set. [Laughs] So I think it's a possibility. But you never know.
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