Written By: Jayme Face
You’ve seen Jasmin Savoy Brown in HBO’s The Leftovers. You’ve heard her voice on Lego Star Wars: All Stars and now she’s on the popular For the People!
Photo Credit: Arturo Benavides
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about For the People and your character, Allison Adams?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: For the People is a show that focuses on 6 lawyers, 3 prosecutors and 3 public defenders, in the Southern District of New York which as we know are very important people. Those are the people today who are quite literally saving our lives and fighting for our democracy every day. These young lawyers are new to this district and are young people figuring out their lives, figuring out the political justice system and how to fight for our democracy. It’s very timely. I play Allison Adams; she is one of the public defenders. She is roommates and best friends with Sandra Bell played by Britt Robertson. They are two very different women who love each other and love their work so much and they have a very strong friendship.
upfrontNY: What can we expect from this new season?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: I think this season there is even more energy focused on the cases and just the intensity and the reality of those cases. I think people will really enjoy that and the first two episodes we’ve had have been awesome! I really loved the second episode that aired; it focused on a family that ICE was trying to deport. It was very emotional and very relevant and that’s what a lot of the cases and episodes will look like this season.
upfrontNY: Being on this show do you feel it has changed your views on politics at all or given you more insight?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: Absolutely. Before I did the show I had lost faith in our political justice system because of the way the last presidential election went. I think there was a lot of crap that happened there for example the electoral college is pointless and we don’t really need it anymore and just all of this stuff that happened and led us to where we are now in our democracy. It made me lose some faith in our justice system and our government, but doing this show and all the research that has gone into it and the people that I’ve met like the real public defenders in the Southern District of New York; it’s given me a new prospective. It’s shown me that yeah things are messed up and we have some things backwards, but we have people fighting diligently every minute of every day to make things better and they go unnoticed most of the time.
upfrontNY: It’s a huge hit, what do you think resonates with audiences?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: I think that people relate to the characters. I think that Paul Davies and all of our writers have done a great job of making these real human complex characters that are just that. They are human. They are real. They are relatable.They are flawed, but they are so passionate about these current events that I feel a lot of Americans feel passionate about. I think we’ve seen a rise in people becoming politically active in the last few years. It was even reflected in our most recent election when so many women ran for and were elected to congress and so many people of color. I think people are hungry for more intelligent and humane conversation about that and our show offers that. It offers new perspectives and new ways to consider things and it shows every side every time. When there’s a case it doesn’t just show here’s, the defenders defending, the good person and there’s the bad guy over there. They show every perspective, both sides of the law and it causes you to have to stop and think and remember that nothing in life is one sided.
upfrontNY: Can you also tell us about lending your voice to Disney XD’s Lego Star Wars: All Stars?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: That was so cool! I grew up loving Star Wars and I’ve dreamed of being in one of the Star Wars movies. Never thought it would happen and then this came along and it was the coolest thing ever!
upfrontNY: Can you tell us anything about the album you’re working on?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: That’s a little bit of a ways away. I’m still in the writing process, but a theme of it in a way will be mental health which sounds so serious, but anxiety and depression are something I struggle with. I have been able to deal with that by kind of turning some of the insanity in my head sometimes into music and I hope people will be able to relate with that.
upfrontNY: You are an alum of New York’s Cap21, where is some place you loved to go when you were in New York?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: Oh, Man. I mean I totally love shows. I love Broadway. I love any theatre. I spent a lot of time in Times Square watching shows. I would get up at 5 am and I would sneak out of the dorm because we weren’t supposed to leave until like 7. We’d go get in line and wait so we could get the cheap tickets and I loved that. That’s really what I spent most of my time doing then.
upfrontNY: Is there any shows now that you really want to see?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: I would love to see The Prom.I actually just listened to the music for that the other day. I don’t know everything that’s on right now, but that and my friend Ben Rappaport is in a play Off- Broadway on Cherry Lane. I want to see Harry Potter for the second time because it was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen; it was amazing.
upfrontNY: You support a few different causes such as mental health can you tell us more about your passion and involvement?
Jasmin Savoy Brown: Well I’ve dealt with anxiety and depression for a long time and so have a lot of people around me older than me and my age. That was something I saw in my community for a long time and I didn’t see a lot of people talking about it. There is this stigma about going to therapy or about sharing when things are hard. I’m from Oregon and the suicide rate there is very high compared to other places in the country, not as high as Alaska, but because it’s so rainy and depressing. Seasonal depression is real and I’ve known a number of people who took their own lives. I wonder if there wasn’t such a stigma assigned to getting help and just talking about it they would still be here. That’s part of the reason that I just want to be really vocal about it because every single person deals with anxiety or depression or other mental health things just on different scales. There’s not a single person who doesn’t deal with it, so I don’t know why we aren’t talking about it way more.
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