INTERVIEW: Brian Jordan Jr. finds success on ‘Tyler Perry’s Sistas’
Photo: Brian Jordan Jr. stars in Tyler Perry’s Sistas on BET. Photo courtesy of BET / Provided by press site.
Brian Jordan Jr., the accomplished actor who is currently appearing on the hit BET show Tyler Perry’s Sistas, has had quite the pandemic year. The show decided to continue with filming during the health crisis, with many safety precautions in place. The dedication and talents of the cast and crew paid off; they were able to film two seasons during the pandemic and premiere those episodes on the network. It has certainly been a wild ride for Jordan and the company.
The actor’s journey to the TV series, which is overseen by multi-hyphenate Tyler Perry, has been a long one.
“I am originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I began my acting career there,” Jordan said in a recent phone interview. “And I left Baton Rouge to go to graduate school at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and [eventually] I left grad school. I did not finish. I left to attempt to have a Broadway career. I thought I was going to be a star. I realized that theater was a pile of work — and I loved it — but I wanted to have a wider reach in being able to exercise my talents more. And so I moved to Atlanta where I eventually got an audition with Tyler Perry for Sistas.”
On Sistas, Jordan plays Maurice Web, a gay banker who features prominently on the show. The series, according to press notes, follows a group of Black women as they navigate their social lives, careers and relationships, all while they search for love in their 30s. Developing the character has been great fun for Jordan, and he has learned a lot when researching the role and working with Perry.
“In developing the character, I learned so much about the LGBTQIA community,” he said. “It’s truly a beautiful world that I’ve become a part of in a way.”
To excel on the TV show, Jordan relies on his theatrical training. He said that the best actors are theatrical actors because the training is so intense, and their art needs to be immediate and withstand the scrutiny of a live audience. This makes theatre, in his mind, the gold standard of the industry.
“And so I believe that my success has come from my theatrical training,” he said. “You don’t get a second chance with theater, and you don’t get to rely on looks or charm. It’s literally about talent. It’s literally about skill and technique and academia, and so I believe wholeheartedly that my theatrical training is the reason why I’ve been successful 100 percent.”
Helping him on Sistas has been Perry, who is one of the most successful and celebrated artists, entertainers and entrepreneurs in the history of TV and film. Jordan appreciates the writer-director’s collaborative nature and the fact that Perry is an actor himself.
“We’re very, very collaborative, so he really allowed me to grow with Maurice,” Jordan said about Sistas, which is the #1 scripted cable series among African Americans. “He writes it, and he also directs the episodes. He has a very, very large hand in it, but it’s very collaborative. And I feel very comfortable bringing anything to Tyler, with his approval, to create the beautiful, hilarious character Maurice.”
The filming of the most recent episodes may have been collaborative, but they were not easy. Jordan said the filming for the third season took only 10 days, which is lightning quick compared to other productions. “It was hard,” he admitted. “It was very fast, and it was very draining. But it was also exhilarating because it leaves you 350 other days in a year to do other things. I’ve been able to make music, write and produce, so many other things this year alone.”
That music includes a new R&B single, with the expectation of more recordings in the future. He’s also the writer and executive producer of a new musical called Riley. These side projects are a possibility because Sistas films so fast, and he stays motivated as an artist during this TV experience — an experience that tests his memory, flexibility and talents.
“On average, productions may do on a good day six or seven pages of filming,” said Jordan, who also studied at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. “We literally average about 110 pages a day, so that’s the difference between what we’re doing and what other shows are doing.”
Jordan added: “Season two was shot in the literal height [of the pandemic], like June 2020, and we were required to live on base. We tested maybe six times before we got there, and we tested every other day when we were there. … Season two was really, really daunting and scary. We were the first production to go into filming and also finish in the height of the pandemic, and we also premiered our show in the same year. Everything came out in 2020. It was challenging in a new way because there were so many different things to adapt and adopt.”
Now Jordan’s hard work is being enjoyed by TV viewers, music lovers and soon theater appreciators around the country.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Sistas, featuring Brian Jordan Jr., airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on BET. Click here for more information on the show. Click here for more information on Jordan.
