“I love playing character roles. I’m a character actress,” said actress Liz Mikel, who played the character Corrina Williams in the critically-acclaimed television series Friday Night Lights. She starred as the mother of running back Brian “Smash” Williams (Gaius Charles) of the fictional Dillon High School Panthers football team.
Mikel, who is currently performing in the play O.P.C. at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, spoke to the Banner recently about her latest character, Sister Ro.
O.P.C. or Obsessive Political Correctness is a thought-provoking and contemporary comedy from Tony Award-winning playwright Eve Ensler, where America’s obsession with consumer consumption and the world of politics collide.
Mikel, who has been a part of O.P.C. since 2009, is excited to be able to finally perform in the full production. Prior to her performances she had read for Ensler on both the East and the West coasts.
“It has just been a thrill for me because Sister Ro plays a series of characters,” she said. “Sister Ro is one of three ensemble members that play various characters and propel the story forward. The fact that she gets to be a blue collar worker, she gets to be the fashion model, she gets to be a talk show host, and the journey of Sister Ro is something that is very appealing to me that I get to be.”
Mikel got her start as a performer in her hometown of Dallas, Texas, where she still resides when not on the road.
“I was able to be an artist in that city and I cut my teeth there, everything from theater to film to TV, all that happened for me at home,” she said.
The 6’1” actress has also worked with the Dallas Black Dance Theatre and is also a resident acting company member at the Dallas Theater Center.
“I wanted to be close to my home and to that base and my foundation. It just worked out,” said Mikel of living in the city she grew up in and being able to pursue an acting career on a national stage.
The role of Sister Ro came about when she met Ensler at a benefit in Austin for an event called Military V day. The event highlighted sexual abuse against women in the military. Mikel who was on Friday Night Lights at that time, was asked if she would come down and be a part of the performance. Mikel didn’t know that Ensler was present at the performance and recounted how at the end of the night Ensler came over and grabbed her and said, “Listen, I’m doing a 10th Anniversary blowout of this show in New Orleans to raise awareness over the travesty that is happening with Katrina. And people moving back to the Gulf South and in New Orleans. Would you be a part of it?,” Mikel recalls.
She readily agreed. When she arrived in New Orleans for the show there was a Who’s Who of actresses there to perform, including Rosario Dawson, Kerry Washington, Jane Fonda, Christine Lahti and Doris Roberts. One of the biggest stars of the night scheduled to be there — Oprah Winfrey — canceled the day of the event, and Mikel was given the opportunity to fill in and do the piece that Ensler had written especially for Winfrey, along with a monologue called The Angry Vagina, which Ensler had written for Mikel. A connection was forged between the two and “from then on it’s just been a fabulous journey working with her,” said Mikel of Ensler.
In addition to working in theater, Mikel has appeared in the 2014 film Get on Up based on the life of James Brown which starred Chadwick Boseman as Brown. Mikel portrayed Brown’s real-life “wardrobe lady,” Gertrude Sanders, in the film and did the role justice, according to James Brown’s grandson and nephews who worked on the film. They complimented Mikel about her portrayal, saying, “You don’t understand how close you are to Ms. Gertrude,” said the actress.
Mikel has also appeared in the TNT series Dallas and has had supporting roles in the films The Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring Ben Stiller and in Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, opposite Martin Lawrence.
Mikel’s role as Corrina Williams on Friday Night Lights has been such a blessing, the actress said. The character was based on her own experiences and strength as a mother.
“I’m still shocked at how it’s touched people,” she said. “People just walking down the street or on a train or people come up to me and say ‘you were one of the best mothers I’ve ever seen on TV.’ That has really changed me.”
As far as her career, she said, “It has been wonderful that doors have opened because of that and I ended up of course in Roscoe Jenkins and I don’t know if that was a direct result of being in Friday Night Lights, but I don’t think it hurt [she laughs heartily].”
O.P.C. is playing through Jan. 4, 2015 at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge. For tickets and show times, call 617.547.8300 or visit www.americanrepertorytheater.org.
