Dawnn Lewis — Exclusive Portraits

By:

Elissa Anderson

November 6, 2019 4:20PM EST

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Dawnn Lewis Visits HollywoodLife

Dawnn Lewis Visits HollywoodLife — Icon Dawnn Lewis visited HollywoodLife to talk about her latest acting role, on Broadway in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, in which she stars as Tina’s mother, Zelma. A New York-native Dawnn got her star in the entertainment industry in the sitcom A Different World in 1987, starring as Jaleesa Vinson for six seasons. She went on to star in the sitcom Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper and notably played Melba Early in the film adaptation of Dreamgirls. Dawnn also had several recurring and guest-starring roles on shows like Secret Life Of The American Teenager, One Tree Hill and Days Of Our Lives. Now, she takes her talents to the Broadway stage as Zelma, Tina Turner’s estranged mother.

Click through our gallery for EXCLUSIVE photos of Dawnn Lewis at HollywoodLife.com!

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On Playing Zelma Currie

On Playing Zelma Currie — “I try to bring that to Zelma when I portray her within the show because everybody has challenges. No one is all bad. No one is all good. There are different facets and sides, so wherever I’m able, I try to incorporate that into the various lines and opportunities that I get.”

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On Her Own Experience With Abuse

On Her Own Experience With Abuse — “Gratefully because of examples like Tina, examples like my mom, I knew that there was no way I’m staying here. This is not what I signed on for. And I think he was counting on the fact of me being embarrassed because we just got married or whatever. I was like, nah, dude, I’m out. I’m out. So we were together for a few months and it was like … see you. Bye. Officer, arrest him. Arrest him.”

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Why Right Now Was A Great Time For A Tina Turner Musical

Why Right Now Was A Great Time For A Tina Turner Musical — “I believe that now the telling of this story is going to have genuine traction. It won’t be that this is the exception. It won’t be some silly woman’s tale. It’ll represent a voice, in a positive way, of enough is enough. We’re not going to participate in your dirty little secret anymore. Anymore. And more and more women are finding the courage and the opportunity and the support to say, ‘I am not going to be a part of, to empower or to be a victim of this dirty little environment anymore.”

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On Working With Adrienne Warren

On Working With Adrienne Warren — “Now this relationship between Tina and Zelma is not the loving, hugging relationship that Adrienne & I have, now it’s this contention, this agitation between us. You just kind of have to close your eyes, open them again and see Tina, close your eyes, open them again and see Zelma. And not how we’ve come to know each other.”

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On Tina Turner’s Cultural Impact

On Tina Turner’s Cultural Impact — “I personally don’t believe you really can take steps forward until you know where you’ve already gone so that you’re not chasing your own tail. You’re not going in circles, you’re not reinventing the wheel. There’s certain work and certain barriers and certain doors that have already been kicked wide open. So to have this opportunity and this story now, So it behooves me to recognize somebody else made it possible for me to do this, and now it’s my opportunity and my responsibility to carry the torch and move it forward so that the next young person can then take it to the next level.”

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On Zelma & Tina’s Relationship

On Zelma & Tina’s Relationship — “it was very contemptuous, I would say. You know how you can love someone but don’t know how to express it and even in your love, it can be based in fear, it can be based in resentment, all those different kinds of things? My understanding of their relationship, that’s what it was. You love your mother because she’s your mother, but you also resent the way that you were treated or not interacted with; and as a mother you love your child because it’s your child, but at the same time you can resent them for what their presence caused you not to have in your life. Unfortunately that seems to be the heart of what their relationship was, right up until the very end.”

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Dawnn Lewis

Dawnn Lewis — Be sure to see Tina: The Tina Turner Musical on Broadway in NYC!

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