OWN’s “Ambitions” is gearing up to return Tuesday, Nov. 12, for the midseason premiere, and according to star Brian White, it’s filled with drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
“The first season was just getting your appetite in,” White, who plays Evan Lancaster, tells Atlanta Black Star. “We’ve established the appetizer. The main course is coming — it is juicy. What [creator] Jamey Giddens and [producer] Will Packer were able to do with the script and the story and the narrative in the second half of the season is unbelievable. You think you couldn’t possibly have more to come. I mean, we’re just scratching the surface. … You’re not going to believe where the plot twists and turns go.”
The midseason finale of the Oprah Winfrey–owned network’s debut season saw Stephanie making a major effort to get an advantage over Amara, who was visibly shaken when she went to the hotel to discover Stephanie had slept with Titus. In the meantime, Daphne was discovered dead in bed when Evan was about to get some sexy time in with her. Another death occurred when Amara’s threats to Herschel Cooper, the clerk who took bribes from Greg Peters, shot himself in the skull. And, in a shocking moment, Senior wound up bleeding out on the road when he was shot and killed by an anonymous gunman.
It was a plot line that resonated with White, who not only lost his TV dad in Senior, but saw his real-life father pass away.
“I just lost my father last year in real life,” he says. “So to lose one on TV, it was an impactful experience. Having just lost my father, I was keenly in that space of loss and grief. Sometimes life imitates art and a storyline will come along that your body just responds to.”
White also explained that while working on NBC’s “Chicago Fire” that the brother of one of the actresses died of suicide. It was on the same day she filmed an episode about death.
“One of the special things about being on set is you’re reminded about how great human beings and people can be when you’re going through something like that on set and, all of a sudden, everyone’s around you embracing you and lifting you up,” he says. “Thanks, Dad, for the inspiration and thank these projects for the opportunity to have somewhere to vent that emotion, because it’s never good to hold emotion in. … It’s been a real blessing this year.”
