Sister act
Houston’s Tembi and Attica Locke create magic in Netflix series ‘From Scratch’
Tembi and Attica Locke know the sweetness of love — the kind of love that makes you stand taller and inspires you to do better than you ever thought you could.
They’ve experienced it in their own lives and even together as sisters. They are each other’s biggest cheerleaders and truest confidantes.
The Houston natives have poured that feeling into the new Netflix drama series “From Scratch,” based on Tembi Locke’s New York Times bestselling memoir, “From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily and Finding Home,” about her relationship with her Italian husband, who died of a rare form of cancer in 2012. Their
daughter, Zoela, was just 7 at the time.
“From Scratch” debuts Oct. 21.
The Locke sisters have carved out their lives in Hollywood. Tembi, 52, is an actress who has appeared in many TV roles and recently starred in Mindy Kaling’s Netflix series, “Never Have I Ever.” Attica, 48, is a Hollywood screenwriter and producer, notably on Fox’s “Empire,” who has written five novels.
They created the series and serve as executive producers, along with the series’ star, Dominican actress Zoe Saldaña, whose sisters, Mariel and Cisley Saldaña, are also producers on the series. The production company is Hello Sunshine, which was founded by Reese Witherspoon.
“From Scratch” is not only a romance set against the beauty and food of Italy, it’s also a statement about the power of love to transcend cultural and racial barriers.
Zoe Saldaña stars as a young American who travels to Italy to study art and falls in love with a Sicilian chef named Lino. Their relationship brings together two families — one Black from Houston and the other Italian — as they move through life and navigate Lino’s illness and ultimate death.
“When we were initially pitching the series, it was very powerful to have five women of color, two sets of sisters, walk into a room and say, ‘This is the story we want to make, and we want to center on a Black woman’s life, a journey that we have not seen on screen yet,’ ” Tembi said.
She had yet to finish writing the book when Attica, who was at the time a co-executive producer of the Emmy-nominated 2020 series “Little Fires Everywhere” and had released her novel “Heaven, My Home,” pitched it in a meeting with Witherspoon’s company.
Within a week, the sisters were in Hello Sunshine’s offices planning the series.
“That’s the power of a sister,” Tembi said. “The power of a sister who both clearly loves you, but also, and I’ll say this to the end of my days, who holds a vision for your life that is bigger than the one that you have for yourself.”
The sisters talk casually during this interview, as if they are in their own living room, snuggled on a sofa and catching up.
“Tembi, do you remember there was a period of time before I worked on ‘Empire’?” Attica asks. “I said Hollywood doesn’t want me, so I’m going to walk away. You said, ‘Hollywood is not done with you. You’re not done with it.’ You told me that, and then ‘Empire’ happened.”
The series, like the book, is Tembi’s own personal story, but with a Hollywood spin and spanning across eight hour-long episodes.
Much of the series has been re-created from Tembi’s memories. Some of the objects — bottles, place mats and tablecloths — were actually from her mother-in-law’s home in Italy. The show’s cast was hired over Zoom, and it was filmed in Florence and Los Angeles.
“We were Netflix’s first U.S. production after the pandemic started,” Attica said. “People were leaving the set to get vaccinated. Then we had the challenge of three languages (Italian, Sicilian and English), two countries and five cities. … So there were all kinds of logistical challenges.”
The characters in Tembi’s memoir have been changed for television. Saldaña plays Amahle “Amy” Wheeler in the lead role. Her onscreen sister, Zora, is played by Danielle Deadwyler. Her parents are played by Kellita Smith and Keith David, and Lino, the character based on Tembi’s late husband, Saro Gullo, is played by Eugenio Mastrandrea.
Tembi and Attica are the daughters of Houston attorney Gene Locke and Sherra
Aguirre, a retired business owner who wrote her own vegan cookbook in 2021. The sisters are both graduates of Alief Hastings High School. Attica lives in LA with her husband and daughter. Tembi has remarried, in a Zoom wedding with her father officiating.
Creating the series meant reliving the loss of Gullo, not just for Tembi but for the entire family, who also loved him dearly.
“I knew on a soul level what I was saying yes to, and I knew that to do the work we needed to do, it was going to ask of me to relive everything,” Tembi said. “I felt that my role essentially was to be the guardian of the essence of the story and with that would come all of the personal triggers.”
To take care of herself emotionally through the filming, Tembi put a team of people around her who could support her; her sister was always at her side.
“I don’t know why my story at this moment in time has moved through the channels to be present in this way. But my role was to help that manifest. So I would cry. I would go step away many times, but I also felt like I was doing it in community. I felt as though everyone was invested in this as much as I was, and that I wasn’t alone,” Tembi said.
“From Scratch” is also a rare find in on-screen romances. It’s a story about love with a Black woman at the core — a Black woman who travels across the world and finds love. It’s the “Eat Pray Love” story that many have longed to see.
“Tembi and I both, in our lifetimes, have been blessed with experiencing big love,” Attica said. “We have been loved deeply by people, and to see a Black woman, not only giving love but to see a Black woman as the recipient of the awe, love and respect from her partner is beautiful.”
The Locke sisters know they have created something special.
“I’m just so proud of it, “Attica said. “We did something kind of incredible. We couldn’t have done it without each other. It would not have been possible.”