PLAYING HOUSE
Fact and fiction blur in new romantic drama shot at home in the midst of the pandemic
ART imitates life for Grammy- and Tony-winning “Hamilton” actor Leslie Odom Jr. and his wife, Nicolette Robinson (“The Affair”). The couple stars in Freeform’s timely “Love in the Time of Corona” (premiering Saturday at 8 p.m.), a “Love Actually”-esque limited series following several people experiencing different types of love during the pandemic.
“On a global level, this is such a unique moment for everyone,” Robinson, 32, told The Post. “We wanted to be able to time-capsule it, in a way. Because it felt like an important moment to remember the good and the bad and to try to come out of it changed.”
In “Love in the Time of Corona,” they play James (Odom) and Sade (Robinson), a married couple in the midst of deciding whether they want to have a second child during lockdown. They filmed the show in their real LA home, using social-distancing guidelines that included hiring Robinson’s sister as their production assistant — so that she was the only person who set foot in their house.
As it turns out, even Broadway and TV stars need time to make their homes camera-ready. “The one day before we were set to start shooting, our house was a mess,” said Odom. “Because I don’t know about you, but none of us knew how long quarantine was going to last, so we were like, ‘Let’s take this time to organize the cabinets and organize the shelves.’ Things come apart before you could put them back together, so the house was definitely not ready for prime time! But somehow, we got it together.”
In the original script, James and Sade met online and started dating during the quarantine. However, Robinson and Odom asked for the characters to be changed to a married couple. Robinson and Odom, 39, met in 2008 while she was auditioning for an LA production of the musical “Once on This Island,” on which Odom was assistant director alongside Billy Porter (who “takes full credit” for their partnership). The couple has been married since 2012 and had a daughter, Lucille Ruby, in 2017.
“We told [creator Joanna Johnson], ‘If you’re set on that particular story we understand, but if we’re going to be part of it, we’d like to make it more personal to us,’ ” said Odom. “Because we thought that what comes from the heart reaches the heart. We were having certain conversations at home, and we were offering that up to the show. If we allowed [the audience] to peek in a little bit into something that resembles our marriage, it might make it more relatable.”
For instance, on the show, James reacts to the February killing of Ahmaud Arbery, an African-American man who was fatally shot while jogging, sparking widespread conversations about racism.
“I think one of the most valuable contributions that Nicolette and I made to the script was making sure that aspect of this time was represented on the show as well,” he said, adding that they were “profoundly” affected by the killing of Arbery, as well as the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom were killed at the hands of police.
“It’s called ‘Love in the Time of Corona,’ because they wanted to turn the mirror to face us all and say, ‘We know there’s been anxiety and grief and trauma, but hasn’t there also been joy, connection? Hasn’t there been love?’ ”
The duo said the entire experience of filming the show has been beneficial to their relationship. “It’s a stressful time and so, by its nature, it’s going to either bring you closer together or pull you farther apart,” said Odom. Robinson added that their family has been able to spend more time together.
“Just two days before we started filming, I lost a very dear friend to the virus. Every single day, there is a different piece of news or a different worry,” she said. “Every day is different, and I think celebrating the wins and looking for the beauty in this time is just as important as acknowledging the tough parts as well. That’s why I’m so grateful to be part of this show. I think that’s part of the message.”