Those wise words were uttered on the Season 5 finale of Queen Sugar earlier this year, when the character of Hollywood Desonier—played by actor Omar J. Dorsey—reminded viewers why he’s a paragon of mature masculinity. As a husband, uncle and friend, Hollywood’s an alpha male, yet he’s also a safe space to land. He’s a loving protector and teacher—and we’re here for it. “Hollywood doesn’t do anything malicious. He might do some lies by omission, but it’s not … in his mind, it’s righteous indignation,” Dorsey explained recently during an exclusive chat with Parade.com. “It’s for the greater good, he feels like he’s right about what he’s doing. You know, he might have to explain it a little later on, but he’s like, ‘Look, this is what it is.’” Hollywood’s caring yet candid demeanor is part of the glue that holds his family and community together, which is why Dorsey proudly claims it as “an amazing role to play.” Created and executive produced by Ava DuVernay alongside Oprah Winfrey, Queen Sugar airs on OWN and is based on the bestselling novel by Natalie Baszile. It follows the three African American siblings of the Bordelon family—Nova (Rutina Wesley) Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) and Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner)—who inherit an 800-acre sugar cane farm in rural Louisiana from their deceased father. Hollywood is married to the Bordelon siblings’ paternal Aunt Vi, portrayed by actress TinaLifford. With Hollywood and the Bordelons returning for Season 6 of QueenSugar on Tuesday, Sept. 7, Dorsey took a break from his busy schedule—he’ll also reprise his role of Sheriff Barker in next month’s Halloween Kills, and he was just cast in a recurring role on Starz’s upcoming Power prequel series, Power Book III: Raising Kanan—to talk about what he’s learned from playing Hollywood, what it means to return to the Halloween franchise, what co-star Jamie Lee Curtis thinks about his talents and (most importantly) which Black superhero he plans to dress up as—and go trick-or-treating with!—on Halloween.
Your QueenSugar character is a great example of what it looks like when a man avoids the pitfalls of toxic masculinity. What life lessons have you learned by how Hollywood handles himself?
A lot of it has to do with just listening. A thing about me is I’m a bit defensive. Somebody says something to me or they get mad or they try to say something to me, I’ll get on the defense instead of listening and trying to get to the root of what it is. That’s what Hollywood does.He’s like, ‘Listen this isn’t about me, there’s something else that’s going on right now. Let’s talk about that and get to the root of it.’ Playing that character has given me patience.
Was there a particularly great bonding moment on set this season?
Well, Hollywood is in a whole new space now. He’s opened up The Real Spot, his bar/barbershop/man-thing. So all of the guys on the show are coming to him. I really like that camaraderie. It’s a show for everybody, but it does center around these strong women. So now, what they’re doing is giving the men a little space to grow… We bring all of these guys together and they’re talking about their feelings [and] it’s helping out a lot with each other’s mental health. We’re having discussions about homosexuality in the Black community. We’re having discussions about men coming out of prison, and how do you deal with that? And trying to integrate back into society. We’re doing all of these amazing things, but it’s all of these men talking amongst each other. It’s like the knights of the round table. Me and Kofi always be about to fight, but it don’t matter. It’s like he’s my baby brother. I’m always cussing him out, but I love that boy with all my heart. We’ll beef and we’ll hug. I get on him, he gets on me, but we’re a family straight up.
Hollywood and Aunt Vi have one of the greatest love stories on TV. You and Tina Lifford look like you’re in love in real life.
I love that woman. I love her and she’s bad as hell. She’s like a model woman and funny as hell. Rutina is like my sister. I’ve known her way before Queen Sugar. Everybody’s family, Nick [Ashe, who plays Charley’s son Micah West] is like my son. He and I both lost family members last year. We both were relying on each other a whole lot. It’s an ensemble cast and I feel a responsibility to take care of everybody on set.
Any Season 6 spoilers you can share? You mentioned that Hollywood and Ralph Angel will be at odds, can you share more about that?
Decisions in life. ‘Cause what Ralph Angel will do sometimes is, he will do things without thinking and then everybody has to deal with the repercussions. Hollywood told him, “Man, you have to man up, you can’t blame everybody else for the things that go on in your life, you caused these things.”
Will we get a Season 7 of Queen Sugar?
I hope so; it would be beautiful. I haven’t heard anything, but the storyline has not ended. It’s still open. It’s Ava’s birthday [August 24]. Maybe I can call her and ask her!
Speaking of Ava, she clearly loves working with you since she also cast you in Selma and When They See Us. What do you love most about working with her?
Her sense of collaborative effort. She understands talent when nobody else does. She knows what people can do and while industries have to wait and see you do this, that and the other, Ava’s like, ‘No, this person, I can clearly give this person the range and they could run with it.’ From the first moment on Selma, I looked around the room and you’re talking about some of the greatest actors working today: Tessa Thompson, Andre Holland, Colman Domingo, Lorraine Toussaint, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Roger Mitchell. Some of the greats that we have working right now; people who are in the zeitgeist of this generation of Black actors. That was the first time we all got together like that. We all were doing separate things but she knew, she gave us that platform because she understands talent. It’s the collaborative effort that she does. She’s an amazing head coach and she’s an amazing general manager. She’s like Bill Belichick, she can put the team together and she can motivate you.
Feel free to break some news if you happen to know what her next project is going to be or your next project together!
She’s got a lot of things going on. She’s doing Naomi, which I think might be CW. She just finished doing DMZ, that’s HBO. My daughter’s working with her right now. She’s just tremendous at putting it together and she comes in there with this heart that’s so big. Her heart is huge. Don’t get it twisted, she’s a boss. I left her a five-minute voice message at midnight because that’s how much I love her. That’s how much I appreciate her, what she’s done for the world.
You reprise your role of Sheriff Barker in next month’s Halloween Kills with Jamie Lee Curtis. What is she like on set? Has she taught you any secrets when it comes to acting in horror movies?
No. I’m going to tell you what she told me. I ain’t trying to pat myself on the back, but it made me feel good. She said, ‘Omar, I didn’t get a chance to really talk to you after the premiere for the last one [Halloween 2018].’ She said, ‘Omar, you are such a good actor. Your nuances in all of this stuff, even your comedy.’ I wanted to cry when she told me that. This is Jamie Lee Curtis. This is Laurie Strode. This is Trading Places. This is True Lies. This is an icon we’re talking about! I just like sharing the screen with her. This next Halloween, it’s serious. If you think that last one was scary, this one here [whistles]. There’s a lot of kills in more interesting ways. Even in the trailer, when he comes out of the burning house, the first thing he does is get that axe and go to work on the firefighter.
What does it mean for you as a Black actor to be a part of a movie franchise that spans 43 years, especially in a genre where Black characters have traditionally gotten the short end of the stick?
It’s amazing because I did a screening in New York for the first Halloween [in 2018]. It was a whole bunch of Black folks. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, well, you’re going to die though.’ I was like, ‘Okay, we’ll see.’ But then, they watched it and they were like ‘Wait, you didn’t die?’ I was like, ‘Naw, that cowboy hat ain’t going nowhere.’ Yeah, so it’s really interesting to be the one who continues on to part two. It was only a few of us who continued. It was Laurie, her daughter and her grandchild and me. It sucked that we can’t do the Comic Cons or the Horror Cons or any of that stuff because I would really like to see how the fans of that horror genre will really take to the character.
Since you’re part of the Halloween cinematic universe, I have to ask what your plans are for your Halloween costume this year.
I’m going as Anthony Mackie’s Captain America [from Disney +’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier]. I told him, ‘I’m dressing up as you,’ He said, ‘I’m dressing up as you on Halloween. I’m wearing a cowboy hat and the suit.’ He’s going to dress up as my character in Halloween and I’m gonna dress up as him, as Captain America, and we’re going to go trick or treating. Next, We Asked First Wives Club’s Ryan Michelle Bathé About Her First Love, First Impression of Hubby Sterling K. Brown and More.
