Forever star Lovie Simone Interview
's novel Forever has been a favorite of young readers since its publication in 1975, yet didn't discover it herself until she was asked to audition for the lead role in a new Netflix adaptation. "I read the book in one sitting, and I was obsessed," Simone tells Gold Derby. "I was like, OK, now I'm really motivated to try and get this role." That reading did the trick, as she got the part and earned a Gotham Award nomination for it.
Created for television by , Forever centers on a budding romance between high school athletes Keisha Clark (Simone) and Justin Edwards (), who fall in love despite the protestations of their families and friends. In adapting the book, Akil moves the action to 2018 Los Angeles, adding social media into the already thorny adolescent relationship dynamics Blume originally explored. "That's where a lot of their problems and communication issues stem from," Simone says of this social media landscape and its effect of teenagers, and it's part of what both brings Keisha and Justin together and tears them apart.
At the same time, Simone was happy to act in something that took place in the recent past, because "those are times that are nostalgic, if we really think about it. It was a time before the pandemic, right before we all went through something that everyone was aware of and had to readjust their lives to." That, Simone feels, "was a very necessary time to highlight in life, and then seeing it through the lens of these teenagers in L.A. is also, I think, very beautiful."
The off-screen relationship between Simone and Cooper Jr. actually began long before the cameras started rolling. "On the way to the auditions, we sat next to each other on the plane," Simone reveals. "We didn't really know each other. We definitely found out who we were pretty fast, and we ended up talking and going over sides together. We did kind of build a rapport a little bit before going into the audition, so we were rooting for each other before we got into the room. All of the chemistry there," mixed with "the anxiety from just being in an audition, worked for us in a way."
Yet, when they first stepped foot on set, "We didn't really talk as much as we did prior to filming, just to create that antsiness and that anticipation" in their onscreen relationship. Simone credits her directors, particularly , with guiding her and her co-star through the stages of young love. "It was very easy having Regina King as a director," Simone declares. "Her being an actor" and "knowing how to communicate with actors made it easy for me to go through heavy emotions at the beginning, when my character is the most vulnerable that she ever is."
There were few bumps in the road during filming, except for near the end, when Simone admits, "What made it challenging was my personal feelings of heartbreak for the characters. The last scene was very hard for me to shoot, just because we had all of these moments happen in the story, and this was the last moment, so it was kind of sad." Yet the support of the cast and crew "made it easy to be in Keisha."
Above all, she credits Akil, who "really broke down how vulnerable Keisha was. When going into it at first, I thought there was a certain amount of defense that my character would be feeling that would cause her to act one way." Yet both what Akil had written on the page and what King communicated on set "made me empathize on a deeper level with somebody that was going through trauma."
Despite her youth, Simone is something of a veteran performer, with credits like Greenleaf, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, and Manhunt on her long resume. Forever is a special project for her, and she hopes that young viewers "take away grace" from it. "I hope they can give themselves, as well as other people around them, grace in any decision-making that's going on. I hope they take away that they have community that they can rely on," people who can "help support them."
Forever is streaming now on Netflix.
