00:00What is going on with you and that boyfriend?
00:02Because if you aren't treating him right,
00:04another older, curvier woman might.
00:08Luca is just an annoying pest who likes to interfere with me and Zoe.
00:11The only reason I gave her the internship was to help a talented friend.
00:14When I need him, Luca is there for me.
00:16To kiss in bed naked.
00:26Hi, Yara. I'm Rivera from Essence. How are you doing?
00:30I'm good. How are you?
00:31I'm doing well. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today.
00:34Being that you are a college student yourself,
00:37and you've been kind of on a parallel journey with Zoe Johnson this whole time,
00:41what inspiration do you draw from your own college experiences
00:44to bring to a show like Grown-ish,
00:47where we're going through a college experience with these kids?
00:50I mean, what's funny is I feel like it kind of happened in reverse
00:53in that I started feeling Grown-ish prior to going to college.
00:56And so Grown-ish was my first touch point with college life before I was sent off.
01:00And Zoe gave me a great roadmap of what not to do
01:03and let me have a pretty successful four years.
01:08But I really think art started imitating life even more closely
01:12in these past seasons and in this season right now,
01:15especially with just the juggling of responsibilities
01:18and this feeling that as much as I've grown up
01:20and I've been balancing a career and such with school,
01:24college is kind of like a fake adulthood.
01:27And I'm peering over into what real life looks like
01:30with no summer breaks or kind of arbitrary things getting in my way.
01:34And so I feel like a lot of these storylines about Zoe
01:37trying to figure out what's next has been so resonant,
01:40especially now that we're both seniors.
01:43Exactly.
01:44And so being that you are both seniors,
01:47what does that journey feel like,
01:48being that this character is closing such a big chapter of her life
01:53and moving on to kind of the unknown
01:55and you're somewhat doing the same thing?
01:57Yeah.
01:59I mean, it's definitely nerve-wracking at times.
02:03I think what drives both me and Zoe in a way that I'm proud of
02:06is that we do have things that we're passionate about.
02:08For Zoe, it's always been fashion.
02:11And so as much as she may be all over the place,
02:13it has been such a guiding force in her life
02:15and has helped dictate what decisions are important to her.
02:18So I have faith that she'll land somewhere she's supposed to be.
02:21And similarly, I hope the same faith applies to me,
02:24knowing that I love what I'm doing now
02:25and love just the television production space.
02:28And so that is my guiding light as I step out of college.
02:32Now for Zoe, her journey academically, professionally,
02:35and romantically have all been kind of intertwined.
02:39Yeah.
02:39A little too intertwined.
02:40A little too intertwined.
02:42I agree.
02:43But it is your character.
02:45And you could probably look at it a little bit more objectively.
02:47So from your standpoint, for Zoe,
02:49are you Team Erin or Team Luca?
02:53That is so hard.
02:54Okay.
02:54This is where I'm at right now.
02:56Without giving anything away.
02:57I've really enjoyed watching Zoe and Erin in a relationship
03:00because as much as they've had this on-again, off-again tension,
03:04they've literally never dated.
03:05And so this season is the first time both of them,
03:10after having so much love for each other,
03:12actually are going through the motions of what it's like
03:14to care that deeply about somebody
03:15and what that commitment looks like.
03:17And so I think that's allowed them to grow in interesting ways
03:20and created really fascinating season arcs.
03:23And then in terms of Luca, you know,
03:26I feel like that bond, it's hard to judge
03:28because their bond is so different
03:29and their bond is about this shared passion of fashion
03:32and how exciting it is to have that as a commonality
03:36with somebody that you care deeply about.
03:39So it's hard.
03:41It's really hard to say.
03:43I've just thoroughly enjoyed how this season
03:45has kind of teased out both relationships as they've evolved.
03:49Absolutely.
03:50It could go either way at this point.
03:52Yeah, I have to say my nana is Team Erin all the way.
03:57Thank you so much.
03:58I'm Team Zoe.
03:59I think she needs to be by herself for a while.
04:03Yeah.
04:04Well, thank you so much for your time today, Yara.
04:08All right.
04:09Awesome.
04:09Have a good one.
04:10Yeah, you too.
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