Hollywood pair tell own story in drama series
Mara Brock Akil has carved out a niche on the prime-time TV spectrum with her shows that explore the joys and complexities of being an AfricanAmerican woman in modern society.
The comedies “Girlfriends” and “The Game” and the drama “Being Mary Jane” all won loyal fan bases that celebrated Akil’s mix of humor, drama and bawdy sexual exploits in telling her perspective on the ways black women juggle their personal and professional lives.
Although Akil channeled some of her own experiences in writing and producing those shows, she needed a different approach when it came to “Love Is _,” a drama that premiered Tuesday on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.
The reason? The series is based on the real-life romance and 20-year marriage between her and her husband, producerdirector Salim Akil.
“I wanted to protect this work,” she said. “I wanted to get my husband and my story right.” Part of getting it right was sitting in the director’s chair — for the season opener and finale.
“Love Is _” stars Michele Weaver and William Catlett as Nuri and Yasir, respectively, characters based on the 1997 versions of the Akils, when they started dating. The story is told through a mix of flashbacks and present-day jumps, with the first season chronicling the courtship phase.
The show is loosely autobiographical, though Akil is quick to distinguish the “truth” from the “facts”: “The essence is true and the facts are manipulated. Because at the end of the day we have to tell a story. And as unique • "Love Is _" is shown at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on OWN.
and wonderful as our story is, it could get boring if you go literal. (Though) I can’t wait to get to the episode where I propose to him, because I did.”
Though Salim Akil, the showrunner of the CW's "Black Lightning," is an executive producer on the series, he wasn’t always in favor of inviting the world into their relationship.
“He’s a very private person, he’s an introvert,” Mara Brock Akil said. “I still don’t think he’s OK with it, but he’s supportive of me, and that’s what matters.”
So why did she feel compelled to dramatize their love story? “There’s two answers,” she said. “The more immediate (one) is that it’s an honest answer to a sincere question that I’ve been getting for the last 10 years.”
That would be: Can you have the perfect marriage, the perfect career, the perfect life?
“Love is achievable,” Akil said. “Everything you want is achievable if you define it and design it for yourself based upon your values and what’s important to you.”
The second answer, she said, is that “Love Is _” is “an extension of a conversation I’ve been having with black women for 20-plus years.” After getting her start writing on ’90s sitcoms, Akil sought to tell stories that explored the lives of black women in their 20s and 30s.
“‘Sex and the City’ was being very honest about what it was like to be a modern woman, (but) they left black women out of the conversation,” she said. “I saw it as an opportunity to seat us at the table.”