Interview: Demetria McKinney of Motherland: Fort Salem

Demetria McKinney is known for her time on Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, The Rickey Smiley Show, SyFy’s Superstition, and most recently, A House Divided. With those credits to her name, she is also an singer and songwritter and her two singles (“Happy” and “Easy) from her first album “Oficially Yours” charted at #4 at the Adult R&B Songs. Demetria is also starring on FreeForm’s Motherland: Fort Salem in which she plays as Anacostia Quartermaine who is the drill sergent of that military. I recently got the chance to speak with Demetria McKinney to talk about her role on the series in this exclusive interview!

How has life been for you within the last few years going in between music and acting?

DM: “As an artist, you want to give your full attention to whatever you’re doing. And I’ve been blessed in the sense that I’ve been working pretty consistently for the last 15 plus years so when it gets to getting into the studio, I want to make sure that I put down the music properly. If I’m playing Anacostia Quartermaine and I’m a drill sergeant and I’m yelling at soldiers all day, then I really don’t have a singing voice to sing at that moment. I’m writing down all of the lyrics to my music on my free time, but then being in Vancouver for 6 months, I can’t properly promote it. It’s been i kind of a test, but it’s like a champagne problem because on one hand, you’re winning, and you’re working, and you’re staying active in one part of your passion. And then, once I get the chance to kind of get a 10 minute break, I can really kind of concentrate on this over here. It’s been a balancing act I have to say.”

What kind of trainig did you had to endure to prepare yourself as a drill sergent? And will we see some of the characters go through PTSD since this series has a military theme to it?

DM: “My mother was in the military so the discipline and the militant nature that she possessed, I kind of honed in on that a bit. As far as the physicality as we were there a month early to do physical training, we have to learn how to use a weapon none of us had ever heard of before. We also had to go into vocal training because, the details that were given to us about our characters. I learned a lot of what I knew as a vocalist and really concentrate on the craft person the beauty of it. And then on top of that, I had to adjust changing my mind set because, this is set in an alternate-America in the present day where women are in power, and women are at war. Women are not necessarily raising the baby here as there is magic in that military too. there’s just so many differences from what I was used to in the conventional stories that we see here, and know that every day, that I really have to kind of re-route and that was a great trip. The dicipline that my mother had, was passed down to me and I use it for Anacosita!

but at the core They are still women, they were still human, they still wanted love, they still had their feelings, they still long for family, they still wanted that connective tissue to one another, they still had their history in the past. You will see everyone go through it in their own way in each episode. All of them going through all that stuff, without question there’s definitely some moments that you see them go through PTSD.”

Who designed your costume? And did you have any input on what you wanted Anacosita to look like?

DM: “It was a collaborative effor andt they definitely have a costume designer but I think that it was pretty cut and dry. It’s not your traditional whitch stories, so there was no gowns and cape, brooms and things like that. It was military style so we really wanted to capture that aesthetic. They really did a great job with that and just making sure that everything seemed correctional, practical, and functional, but still had that little bit of a twist to it when it was necessary. We wore hoods which I think is just kind of a departure from what you see in the military. But it’s kind of a cool interaction between the military, and witchcraft so they’ve really went out of their way here to make sure that we look as militant as we need to but we still have the space to have the magic.”

How did you react to when the show was pitched to you?

DM: “I thought to myself that I think I got the holy ghost (laughs). I’m very into the magic phenomenon. I love X-Men, I love Mystique, I love all of that. I also love that they have the reality of war on Motherland. Nothing could come at a better time like getting to be a part of something so innovative, and so very detached from the cliche war story. Im really honored because I actually get a chance to live in that world. It’s been a ride and it’s been a blessing.”

What kind of relationships or bonding with other characters can we expect from Anacosita?

DM: “I don’t think that she intends to getting really close to people. She intends on teaching them, she intends on protecting them through with the knowledge and preparation. There’s something about them (the soldiers/witches) that catches her, and a lot of other people that they’ve got a spark to them that they hadn’t seen in quite awhile. So I think that she unintentionally gets involved with them because, I think she also see bits and fractures of herself within each of them and you know, in an effort to really come serve what we have is a precious resource of the military. Like we need everybody here and I think that she gets close to them unintentionally and it leads to some other stuff to transpire. But that’s really really cool so you’ll see a little bit about it.”

What is your favorite episode that you have been part of that you have interracted with the cast the most?

DM: “I think it’s episode 7 because if I remember correctly, it’s one of the big turning points from my character and we start to see a little bit of the fabric that’s been kind of wrapped around her.Raelle is one of my favorite characters on the show and General Sarah Alder (played by Lynn Renee), she’s an absolute badass and she comes in and learns her mother tongue. She speak all these different languages, and she’s absolutely stunning and once you put the uniform on and they yell action, You see that side comes out of her. On top of that, I get to watch her transform into something that is completely opposite of her. Scylla, (who is played by Amalie Holm) she is just a siren and she has this magic and this death and it’s so dark, but it’s so beautiful when she plays as her. Everybody’s been amazing, but as far as my interaction with people, those be my 2 favorite to work with.”

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com

Interview: Ashley Nicole Williams on Her Role on FreeForm’s Motherland: Fort Salem

FreeForm’s upcoming drama series Motherland: Fort Salem is days away from making their premiere. Motherland is highly anticipated and the premise of the series involves a good blend of women who are training in the military while they are using magic. It is also set in the future and I recently got the chance to interview one of the stars of the series and she is Ashley Nicole Williams. We talk about her upbringing, how she got the chance to be on Motherland, her favorite memories in Vancoover from where the show was shot, and much more in this exclusive interview.

What was it like for you when you grew up in Dallas, TX? 

Ashley: “Dallas is definitely home. Even though I consider myself an L.A. girl now, I absolutely love Texas. So I was born and raised in Dallas. It’s not country, but it’s also like you have that Southern hospitality a little bit.”

You have been acting since you were younger and you also have brothers and a sister. How did they feel once you started to pursue a career in acting?

Ashley: “I have two older brothers and one older sister and I’ve been acting since I was 5. It’s been a long time coming for a really, really big role. But they were all just over the limit for me because, they know how hard I worked. And they’d been there throughout the journey and throughout the rejections. It was just exciting for everyone, the whole family. And of course, my parents, because they’ve been part of my journey in my whole life.”

How has your life been within the last few years while you are going back and forth between acting and modeling?

Ashley: “I modeled I’d say a little bit. But I’m also in college. I go to Baylor, I modeled before I went to Baylor and then a little bit throughout my freshman year. But it kind of got hard to do both school and modeling. So then I did school at Baylor up until my first semester of sophomore year. And then I moved to L.A and I then continued online classes. So I am going to be graduating in May on time, which is amazing. But I moved out to L.A. I lived here for a while and then we filmed in Vancouver and then I went right back to school. It was like my last week of filming overlapped with my first week of school. So I was thrown right back into it. But I’m getting the degree and getting it done and that’s really cool that I can do both.”

You are playing as Abigail on Motherland. Tell me more of who Abagial is and what can we expect from Abigail

Ashley: “Abigail is a very alpha-female driven queen bee intelligent. She comes from a very high power in the military families and she also comes from a long lineage of lieutenants and generals and she has a lot to prove and has a lot to live up to. Abigail is thinking “Hey, I’m the best. I trained my whole life in this way” and she needs to realize that she has to work with other people that she thinks is in her way to get to where she ultimately needs to be. Literally, when I read the script and the pilot they sent me over, I ran to my mom and told her that ‘I have to be part of this because this is so fraking cool’. I had an instant shock to it and I cannot wait for everyone to see what Abigail will do on Motherland.”

Since Demetria is playing as a Anacostia, who is the sergent, will we see both of your characters in a power struggle since she is a high ranking member of that military?

Ashley: “Abigail definitely challenges Anacostia. I think they just dropped something else right now on the Motherland page. I saw it on Facebook, but it literally shows a sneak peek of one of our little towers. It’s about Anacostia. And you can see me charging at her with the the spear. Yeah, it’s definitely Abigail. She’s like, I am about whether I came for this. I know what I’m doing. Abigail is like ‘I know what I’m doing and why are you trying to tell me what to do?’ There definitely will be a power struggle during this season.”

Can you run down some of the stunt work you and the cast have done while you were all acting our your scenes?

Ashley: “We definitely had a stunt coordinator who we trained with, and so prior to filming the pilot, we trained for three weeks. As you see in some of the trailers with whips in our hands, that becomes our first weapon, which is called the surge. So definitely we had to train and learn how to use that. It’s freaking awesome and it was also hard because sometimes you hit yourself in the face and that’s not fun. But we definitely train and we have a lot of fight scenes during the week and on the weekends, we have a little break. We also learned the choreography, fight scenes and stuff later. So we did some training. And I hope it shows because that that was some fun!”

While you were in Vancouver, did you had time to explore the area when you were not on set?

Ashley: “Yes. So I went to Squamish, which is almost an hour away from Vancouver. Basically, it’s just like all these beautiful mountains and they have a gondola there too. You see all the water, the snow, and the beautiful landscapes and stuff like that. It blew me away and I am a sucker for beautiful views.”

Photo Credit: @ashleynicolewilliams

What are some challengers and obstacles will we see Abigail go through during the season?

Ashley: “She has her inner struggles as well as her outter struggles with her mom. And her mom, of course, puts that pressure on her in a sense. She keeps letting Abigail know that she cannot fail this family. If she failed the family, she’ll be the first to know that she will feel like a failure about how has to live up to her name. And I think also, that put a lot of pressure on Abigail herself, because if she fails, she also fails in herself. And I think that is kind of a perfectionist way of how she thinks. She put so much pressure on herself to be the best and I don’t think she necessarily believes that she is the best because she has a lot of experience, which is kind of where that persona and the big ego get put out there to the field because she’s still so unsure.”

Actress Ashley Nicole Williams arrives for the 2nd Annual Freeform Summit at the Goya Studios on March 27, 2019 in Los Angeles. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo credit should read VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images)

What are some goals you would like to accomplish within the next few years?

Ashley: “I definitely hope Motherland goes like a kajillion seasons if we could. I hope we go really far and I hope the world loves it as much as we do. And I also want to venture out into the movies and things of that nature. Maybe some drama and stuff like that. I love a good drama. I love the good cry being a good person. And in the meantime,when i’m just honing in on my craft and really working at it so I can get to where I want to be ultimately.”

Julian: “That’s really good because I hope I can see you within the next few years especially on the red carpet.”

Ashley: “Oh yes, that would be awesome. Then we’ll look at each other. We’ll be like, ‘you remember a few years ago when we did our first interview for Motherland season one?” (Laughs)

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com