E-mail a friendS. Epatha Merkerson
airdate June 20, 2007
Most people know S. Epatha Merkerson from NBC's long-running drama Law & Order. Others know her from Pee-wee's Playhouse, her first TV role. Merkerson has an impressive list of stage, TV and film credits. She won several awards, including an Emmy, for her role in HBO's Lackawanna Blues and received a Tony nod for her performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Piano Lesson. The Detroit native has a degree from Wayne State University and is an outspoken advocate for lung cancer research.
S. Epatha Merkerson explains how her hair allows her a little anonymity. (1:57)
S. Epatha Merkerson
Tavis: Pleased to welcome S. Epatha Merkerson back to this program. For 14 years now she's played Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on "Law & Order," the longest-running African-American character now on primetime television. "Law & Order" is back for a new season next year. On Monday of next week, you can catch her in the Lifetime movie, "Girl Positive." More on that in a moment.
She's also starring in the stage revival of "Come Back, Little Sheba." The play runs from June 24th through July 15th at the Kirk Douglas Theater if you're in the L.A. area. S. Epatha, nice to see you.
S. Epatha Merkerson: It's so good to be back.
Tavis: You've got a busy summer lined up.
Merkerson: I really do; but I'm loving it. I really am.
Tavis: Better be busy than not busy, huh?
Merkerson: Absolutely.
Tavis: But what about this - after doing this show all season long, why not just take some down time this summer and just go sleep somewhere?
Merkerson: Well, I did last year, so -
Tavis: Yeah, you slept last summer?
Merkerson: Yeah, yeah. Took little trips for myself and took my mother on a little cruise. So I like to try to do something every other year, because it allows me to sort of spread out, especially when it's on stage. It allows me to get some muscles working that I don't work on "Law & Order."
Tavis: So I can only imagine, but you tell me the kind of reception that you get after 14 seasons in primetime. You walk down the streets, and what happens?
Merkerson: It's amazing. Some people, because I look so different in person than Van Buren, some people know the face. So sometimes it's like, "Do you go to Ebenezer," or "Do you work at Wal-Mart?" I shopped at Wal-Mart. It's something like that, but real die hard fans, they know. And what surprises me more than anything is law enforcement.
I can't tell you how many times on the street a police officer, "Hey, Lou." Don't call me out, now. (Laughter) I just play one on TV. But it's fun, it's a lot of fun, and it makes me very proud that I'm recognized, and recognized in such a beautiful way.
Tavis: Since you went there, I'm just curious now, not that it matters. Do you feel protected by the fact that your hair style on TV is different than the way you wear your hair naturally, so that people don't immediately recognize you?
Merkerson: Well, it allows me a bit of anonymity.
Tavis: See, I don't have that advantage. My hair is my hair.
Merkerson: Plus you're tall, and (laughter) - but it does allow me a bit of anonymity, and I still take the subway in New York, which is cool. So it does, it allows a bit of that for me, yeah.
Tavis: So what do you make of 14 seasons, and now the longest-running Negro in primetime ever?
Merkerson: Okay, hello, I'm going to tell you this. Had I known -
Tavis: You got George Jefferson beat.
Merkerson: Had I known, I'd own half of Manhattan. I had no - who would have thunk it? And the time has gone by so quickly in retrospect. It just seems that those years have gone by so fast. But the funny thing is I've been through many things with crew and cast mates, births of children, the death of parents, and it's just been high school and college graduates. It's incredible, that length of time, what happens in the lifetime.
Tavis: But you obviously, as an actor, know how rare that is. It's, like, unheard of.
Merkerson: Absolutely, and -
Tavis: Fourteen seasons.
Merkerson: For the longest-running Negro, it is. It's amazing. I always say I'm a trivia question, you know what I'm saying? (Laughter)
Tavis: Not a bad - there are a lot of Negroes who are trivia questions. (Laughter) That's not a bad way to be one, though.
Merkerson: Okay?
Tavis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. O.J. is a trivia question.
Merkerson: Hello, hello.
Tavis: You know what I'm saying? Speaking of law and order.
Merkerson: Oh, yeah, but just speaking of. But this is a good way to be a trivia question.
Tavis: Not a bad way. Tell me about "Come Back, Little Sheba." You got so much going on.
Merkerson: Well, this is the most incredible play. William Inge wrote this play in the fifties, and Michael Pressman is our director, who was a "Law & Order" director. And we just happened to talk one day, and he's telling me he was thinking about doing this play, and then he sent me an email asking me, after we talked - it was, like, a week or two later - would you be interested in playing Lola?
And my response to that was hell, yeah. And it's a great play. It's about so many things. It's about alcoholism and lost youth and marriage and just love and loss. And it's really a sad play. William Inge was an interesting, interesting writer. He was a haunted man. Tortured. He was homosexual during a time where it wasn't really safe, and eventually killed himself.
But he was so successful. He wrote "Picnic," he wrote "Bus Stop," he got an Academy Award for "Splendor in the Grass" and critical acclaim. He was an incredible writer. And "Little Sheba" is one of my favorite plays.
Tavis: It occurred to me as you were talking about what "Come Back, Little Sheba's" about, you used two words, and I love the alliteration, love and loss. And I bet you - well, not all the money I have; I don't have that much - but I bet you some of my money that if I went back and pulled the clip, because I hear it in my head, if I pulled the clip of the last time you were here - you were here to talk about "Lackawanna Blues."
And when I asked you about "Lackawanna Blues," part of your answer was it was about love and loss. And indeed it was. So I'm wondering whether or not you are drawn to projects outside of "Law & Order" that happen to be about love and loss. They're two different things, but I just, yeah.
Merkerson: I never really thought of it, but I think that what I seek - what comes to me, because these things, I don't necessarily seek them out. They sort of come my way. It's just an opportunity to explore the human condition, and these things that I've been doing lately have afforded me the opportunity to do that. And what's so interesting about Lola Delaney is that this is a character completely opposite of me.
I could be a little loud and crazy, and this woman is really fragile. And it's been quite the challenge for me to find those moments, and literally having gone through that mad and crazy divorce, there were moments in that where I felt extremely fragile. And so you always have to find something that will allow you to channel whatever you need for this character.
And I'm telling you, I'm having an extraordinary experience doing this character. She is really unlike anything I've played and Alan Rosenberg, who's the president of SAG, is a marvelous, marvelous actor, and he's playing Doc. And there's this group of incredible L.A.-based actors that are just - they've not only made me feel at home, but they're just amazing actors, so.
Tavis: So how are you finding our city, since I know how much you love being at home in Harlem. (Laughter) L.A. and Harlem are two different places.
Merkerson: L.A. is working for me this time. I think I'm allowing it to work for me this time. Usually I know that I'm coming and I'm gone. But I have to be here a while, and I'm telling you it has a lot to do with the people that I'm working with. They have absolutely made me feel at home, and over at the Kirk Douglas Theater, as well. The crew, and I'm just - I'm feeling L.A.
Tavis: See, L.A.'s cool. It could be D.C. (Laughter)
Merkerson: I'm sending money to D.C., I done told you that. Leave me alone about D.C.
Tavis: That was just a little joke.
Merkerson: A little side joke.
Tavis: A little side joke, which I should inform just ever so slightly, since she mentioned it earlier. She went through a divorce that we can laugh about now, but it wasn't cute at the time.
Merkerson: It still isn't cute. (Laughter) Shoot, what you talking about?
Tavis: See, I invited S. Epatha, along with a bunch of other friends, to join us next week for the presidential forum that you know we're doing on PBS in primetime next Thursday in Washington.
Merkerson: But she's not feeling D.C.
Tavis: But she's not feeling D.C., she told me, (laughter) because she's sending money to D.C. Yeah, so we can't - D.C. is off limits right about now. Anyway, enough of that. If this isn't keeping you busy enough, now you got the Lifetime movie. Tell me about this.
Merkerson: Yes, "Girl Positive."
Tavis: "Girl Positive."
Merkerson: It's one of those scripts that I read that I felt wow, I really want to be a part of this. It's such an amazing story, and it really is what I think television can be at its height, which is entertaining but most importantly educational. And it's the story of a young girl, a teenager, who is infected by HIV and what she goes through to find out about it.
And I play a worker in a clinic in town, and she comes to our clinic. I'm working with Jenny Garth, who is just lovely, and Andrea Bowen from "Desperate Housewives" plays the young teenager, Rachel. And I have to tell you, reading it, I was moved by it. But after seeing it, I was moved even more. Because it's so important that kids understand that they're not going to live forever.
But they need to take care of themselves, if they're going to do some types of behavior, they need to know that it's important that they protect themselves, or something silly is abstaining, which is very difficult. But that you take responsibility for yourself. And what I loved about this film was how it used the technology of today.
I am really computer illiterate, and so I'm finding out about MySpace and blog and all of these things, and this film uses that to teach this story. Because I really believe that's what this film does, it teaches - it starts the education from the opening. And how children are accessing the Internet, you can talk to someone, you can write someone, and at the same time, you can get instant messaging.
And it's just fascinating to watch how Peter Werner and the editors put this film together, because it's very much in blog style, and then you go into the story. But it's so important that our young people understand that this is not something that's going away. That we need to be ever-present in how we deal in educating our children and letting them know the dangers.
Tavis: And the church said, "Amen." S. Epatha Merkerson is a busy sister. You can catch her just about anywhere. First of all I was laughing to myself when she was talking about how computer illiterate she was. When you've been on "Law & Order" for 14 seasons, you can get people to do that for you.
Merkerson: Yes. (Laughter) Show me how to blog.
Tavis: Fourteen seasons of "Law & Order" money and you can hire somebody to do your blogging for you. (Laughter) Anyway, if you're in L.A., anywhere near L.A., the Kirk Douglas Theater, "Come Back, Little Sheba" is the play that she's in. You can check her out on Lifetime in "Girl Positive," and just about any station somewhere, every hour of every day, you can see her on "Law & Order," to say nothing of season 15 coming. Always glad to have you.
Merkerson: Thank you.
Tavis: Good to see you.
Merkerson: Thank you so much.
Tavis: That's our show for tonight.
Back to June 20, 2007