Jasmine Guy reflects on diverse career

By MOLLY SHALGOS

When it comes to versatility, there aren’t many actors out there who can top Jasmine Guy. From her memorable 1980s sitcom "A Different World," to her current role as bad-ass grim reaper Roxy in Showtime’s "Dead Like Me," she’s taken on a multitude of roles that challenge and expand her repertoire. In addition to her extensive career in film, theatre, and television, Guy can also add director, screenwriter, author, and dancer to her list of credits.

But none of that has quite prepared her for the challenge she’s currently facing: putting her Web site together.

"I was in my garage, going through all these boxes, and right now I’m doing all stills [photography], but eventually I’m gonna have media footage. I came across all my interviews - oh, my God, videos of Joan Rivers, and that shit is hilarious," she laughs gleefully.

I feel like a decidedly rinky dink reporter at this point. My little voice recorder and I are up against the likes of Joan Rivers and videos. How can I possibly compete with that?

"Oh, no, no, no!," Guy assures me. "It was so different, this was back when she had her talk show. She was trying to get me, but she couldn’t. Trying to get her little remarks in. She was a little catty, but not where she is now."

Of course, I have to know whether or not Ms. Rivers went off into one of her patented diatribes about Guy’s outfit in this interview, and it’s not without a hint of mischief that Guy replies, "You WAIT ‘til you see what SHE has on in my interview."

As for the rest of the currently under construction site, jasmineguy.org, Guy sighs, "I had NO idea." She admits to trying to build the page herself at first, but now there’s a team of five others working to get the page into shape.

Guy’s approach to Web site building could almost be seen as another extension of her approach to her long, healthy career. "You get pressure, because you’re doing one thing, and people always go, "What else are you doing?" so it’s very conscious for me to go, "Well, right now, this is what I’m doing. And this is enough."

It’s rare to hear an actor speak so candidly about keeping this kind of balance in their life, but Guy has accumulated enough wisdom and experience about this business to keep it all in perspective. "[People are] like, ‘Oh, brother, I just wanted to know what your next project was.’ I used to try to rattle off my next thing all the time, and if I didn’t have anything, I would feel inadequate. But it’s like - God! You’re on Broadway! Why do you have to have another project? You know?"
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Guy’s own stint on Broadway was her memorable run in Bob Fosse’s "Chicago," playing the indomitable Velma Kelly. "Yeah, it was an amazing role," she says fondly. "It’s one that kind of pulled everything together for me, the dancing, the singing, and the acting. And very smart, of course, we all know the genius of Fosse’s work. There’s nothing like working on a smart piece. You just go on the set, do what you’re supposed to do, and everything will work."

The group camaraderie involved in working on a piece like Chicago is something that’s very important to Guy. "I like the ensemble energy, and I like working with people," she admits when asked if she thinks she performs better in a group. "In some of my experiences [in film], I only worked with one actor, and even though when I saw the movie or saw the piece, it looked great, but I didn’t get the same feeling as when I was bouncing around to different people’s dressing rooms backstage, then going onstage and dancing together."

That sort of ensemble energy is one of the things she feels helps "Dead Like Me" work as well as it does. "We’re so different from each other, what age, what decade we [the reapers] died in. We’re from different times, different cultures, yet we have this thread of being the reapers. We’re the only ones we can really be intimate with. So I like what that brings to the show, you know, I look at Ellen [Muth] and Laura [Harris], and go "You know, I would probably NEVER have a scene with these guys." She laughs a little before adding, "Out in TV Land, why would they put us together? But here, you have all that opportunity to play against someone so different from you."

One of the things that helps keeps those scenes so strong is the show’s fresh writing. "The contrast would be a show that’s forced, really not funny, and you’re looking at it going "How am I gonna make that funny?" when it really inherently isn’t," she says with the knowledge of someone who’s had to deliver quite a few of those inherently un-funny lines in the past. "I think I prefer the realism that comes with the kind of work we’re doing on 'Dead Like Me.' And it’s still funny, and you don’t have to watch a show with a forced laugh track. It has more texture to it, and it’s a piece that’s very character driven. So I’m liking this kind of work, actually."

Guy’s character on "Dead Like Me," the gruff, no-nonsense meter maid, Roxy, is one of such well drawn out characters. In the pilot episode, the audience’s introduction to Roxy came in a voiceover from George (Ellen Muth), where she simply stated, "That’s Roxy. And she could kick your ass." Simple, direct, and still all you needed to know. Roxy went on to prove that she could, in fact, kick your ass multiple times in multiple episodes over the course of the season, but she also revealed a more vulnerable side as the episodes unfolded.

This was one of the things that originally drew Guy to the role. "I liked her gruffness, and that she was pretty much off to herself. But that she has to struggle to let people in, or allow herself to be close to people. That’s interesting to play, because I’m kind of the opposite. I was wondering what goes on with Roxy when she goes home. I see her as a very lonely person, and someone who has resigned herself to being a reaper, but hasn’t found any comfort with it, or any peace with it."

Thus far in season two, which premiered July 25, Roxy has already undergone one major change: her career. "She’s gonna be a cop," Guy says, sounding pleased with her character’s acceptance into the Police Academy. "Which I thought was a natural progression from Parking Enforcement Officer."

"The biggest thing about Roxy is that she likes order, that she sees life in black and white. And I think that’s her biggest struggle as well. There’s often gray, there’s often color that I think she’s not comfortable with. Whatever she’s up against, "Okay, this is right, and this is wrong," but you have to act somewhere in between that. That’s where we see her conflict. Her inner conflict," Guy explains.

One such moment that highlighted this inner conflict was when Roxy helped a man whose soul she was supposed to reap ‘skip’ his appointment with Death. I remark to Guy that I thought this was one of those great character-defining moments, and she agrees, saying, "That’s what I’m talking about. "It’s not right for me to do this, but it IS right. There are different kinds of right." And this man was so nice to her, made her laugh. You know, especially when she’s getting grief all day long!"

Ah, yes: Roxy’s first season job as a meter maid did bring about some memorable moments - one of which is when she illegally pulls a gun on a man attempting to weasel his way out of a meter violation ticket. "What do you do, you know?" Guy chuckles. "You can’t respond, they take complete advantage of you not being able to retaliate."

More of Guy’s favorite moments come when she’s working with fellow actor Callum Blue, who plays Mason, the resident reaper lovable slacker. "I love the scene with Roxy and Mason, and she’s telling him that she’s gonna get a pet bird. I love that scene, we had so much fun doing that and trying not to laugh, you know? Oh, my God, whenever I’m with Callum? We’re laughing constantly."

In terms of her hopes for the future, Guy simply states that she hopes the show is able to keep up the momentum it has built up. "I’m very proud that the writers haven’t taken off on the sci-fi aspect as much as the character driven pieces," she adds.

While "Dead Like Me" has never struck me as much of a science fiction show - no aliens, no spaceships, and only rarely do things get blown up - Guy surprisingly tells me, "We got a lot of sci-fi interviews with magazines I had never even heard of. They were, you know, element first. But you know, I don’t consider it - it doesn’t fit in that slot, I don’t think."

I remind her that Ellen Muth and Callum Blue were both added to the list of 20 Hottest People In Science Fiction last year, and she gleefully cackles, "Oh, yeah, that’s RIGHT! They were like, "Is that a compliment?" and I said, "Considering it’s your own face and everybody else probably has some kind of [alien] prosthetic…"

When she’s not in Vancouver filming, Guy keeps herself busy with other projects, such as her writing career. Her first book was an up close look at Afeni Shakur, mother of rapper and poet Tupac Shakur. Currently, Guy is at work on a work of fiction, which she’s hoping to take time off to concentrate on. She is also appearing in a documentary called ‘The N Word’, soon to be released to DVD.

And, of course, the continuing work on putting together a kicking Web site. "That really has been good for me. It’s like, "This is your life! The last 20 years", and I’m like…Wow. I did a lot. It didn’t feel like I was doing all this," she says, a note of amazement in her voice.

Finally, I reach for the one question I’m sure I have Joan Rivers scooped on: where does that motivation and ambition come from, to be able to do "all this"?

"I think it served me well when I was younger and just getting to New York, and it kept me focused and out of trouble. You know, getting sidetracked, because there were so many things now I see that I could have done, and I didn’t," she says. "But now, it’s working against me a little, because I need to stop and appreciate things. So I’m working on that."