An Interview with Tosin Morohunfola & Jay Walker from ‘Run the World’

Tosin Morohunfola and Jay Walker are a pair of talented, accomplished, and downright busy actors. Having graced our television screens often over the past few years. Currently they star as Ola and Jason on the STARZ series, Run the World, and we here at NTG were fortunate enough to sit down with both gentlemen to discuss the upcoming second season of the show. 
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John Betancourt: What does it mean to each of you, to be part of such an important and relevant show?

Tosin Morohunfola: It's great. I mean, this is like the modern, Living Single, this is like the modern Girlfriends, this is the modern, this is the black Sex in the City. Like, it's an iconic show about black women in Harlem, taking the world by storm, romantically, ambitiously, and doing it… fashionably. So, it's just beautiful. And it's fun. And it's funny, and it's real. And it's now, I just, I love being a part of it. It's a legacy making show, I think.

Jay Walker: I love that. I love that. I love the humanity of the show, because we get to see so many different, like you said, ambitious women and men struggling to figure things out. And that's, that's really what life is, is we do our best. And things often don't go the way that we expect them to. And in the course of figuring out how to proceed, we learn what's important to us. And we learn a lot about ourselves through adversity. And being able to explore all of those things, especially on a black TV show like this is so cool. To be able to see that represented on screen.

John Betancourt: Now this is a show where everyone is constantly in motion and constantly searching for something greater. What would you say your characters are searching for in season two?

Jay Walker: Jason is… Jason… he knows that he's in love with Renee. That… that has never changed. What he's searching for is… what is his purpose, if that is not an option? What does his life look like, without his partner? Who has been his partner since college? Who is he? He's really trying to figure out who he is as a man without Renee. So that's… he's got a big magnifying glass. Because it's a… it's a very serious search.

Tosin Morohunfola: And Ola is just searching for a woman that doesn't cheat. That's really all he's looking for. (Laughter from everyone) If he could just find one honest woman that would be all he… no. Ola is… is definitely, you know, outwardly he is searching for a true and genuine reconciliatory apology from Whitney. She cheated before they were supposed to get married. And he's still deeply hurt about that. But I think inwardly, and I don't know if he even fully knows this himself, but he needs to, to search for the part of him that doesn’t reduce someone's importance to one action. Doesn't reduce the most important woman and person in his life down to her worst mistake, but instead continues to elevate her to her highest attributes. So, I think that's an inner journey that he's just beginning. And yeah… I wish him the best. (More laughter)

John Betancourt: Of course, this show has so much depth to it, I was wondering what kind of deeper message or theme you hope the audiences takes away from this season.

Tosin Morohunfola: Well, I mean, one thing that's great is this, this show, is centered around these three women and their sisterhood and their bond. And that is the glue that connects and sustains you through the ups and downs of, of your pursuits of your romantic life, of your ambitions, of the way life can hit you down. But the thing that I think this season does an even better job of is upholding the brotherhood that the men have as well. And that you know, we have found a friendship me and Jay, Ola and Jason, have found a friendship. And it has grown over the course of this season and in between seasons and seeing that depicted, seeing that male vulnerability shared from black men, between black men and being able to be transparent and honest and hurt, and still be strong and masculine. That depiction is unique, that depiction is also what makes our part of the story like, addictive, because it's something that you don't see too often on television.

Jay Walker: Yeah, I mean, just to jump on that, I think you basically covered what I also think is one of the coolest things about this season. But it is making it okay for men to explore their feelings, and be honest with their feelings, and talk to their bros about their feelings. And to have that not be a sign of weakness but a sign of strength. The fact that we can kind of help redefine masculinity, by shining a light on that and showing how valuable it is to have those conversations that suck, they suck, they hurt, but we need to have them in order to grow, in order to not take that hurt out on other people that we care about. And I think showing that as a potential way forward for people is incredibly cool.

John Betancourt: Last question I have for you gentlemen today, what are you most proud of when it comes to your work on this show?

Tosin Morohunfola: This is not the most outward thing, like people can't see this as much. But I feel like in season one especially, I felt like I exercised a kind of like, really rigorous discipline as an actor, discipline to my craft, discipline to my approach. I kind of like feel like I finessed it and really honed in so much that nothing else mattered. And I was so proud of myself. It's one of those things that I don't know how much the audience sees it, but I have an internal pride about it. And then season two, relaxing into a little bit more of flow. It's hard to explain, but just like, you know, at the end of the day, we're actors, and we're telling stories, and we want to do it in a way that has the most integrity, and but also has a flow to it. And I felt proud of that.

Jay Walker: I mean, there's definitely in both season one and two, what helps the discipline aspect because I agree with you 100%, I felt the exact same way, especially season one, because it was like, “Oh, we're doing… first of all, we're doing sex scenes? In this?” This is the first time that I've ever done that. So yeah, like wanting to be in good physical shape?

Tosin Morohunfola: Yeah. We gotta look good. We gotta look good.

Jay Walker: That was… that was a lot. We did a whole lot of work, but just needing to be in that mindset. And then following through and delivering and making. Having made it work. I was like, “Okay, that's something. I can do that now. I proved to myself now that I'm capable.” And then season two was like Tosin said, you could relax into it more. It was like, “Okay, this is where we live.” And I'm very proud of the fact that that it could feel normal, in a way. It was like, “Okay, this is just this is this is where we're operating now. Yeah, this is where we're operating.”

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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