The actors discuss the challenges and rewards of expanding the Black Mafia Family story in the hit crime drama’s second season.
BMF returns for season 2 on Starz January 6, building upon the true-life saga of the Flenory brothers’ now-infamous Black Mafia Family drug empire. Returning for season two portraying his father “Big Meech,” Demetrius Flenory, Jr. is having a rare opportunity to learn more about and reenact some of the highs and lows of his father’s life, deepening his knowledge of stories he’s heard bits and pieces of throughout his childhood.
Though he’s playing the role he was quite literally born to play, Flenory acknowledges that it was quite a challenge to take on as a new actor carrying a new show in the lead role.
“I feel like the approach has been more pressure this year, because I know I have to be better,” Flenory tells ESSENCE. “I know I have to prove to all the people that thought season one was luck that I’m a natural, and I’m reall who I say I am.
“Season 2, everything is elevated. From the dialogue in scenes, to the action, everything. People will be able to see more of my acting ability, my nuances, things that I incorporate, my reach.”
For Myles Truitt, a veteran actor, the role of B-Mickie has been a welcome challenge. As the character has had to mature from a small-time drug runner to now a killer and potential police informant, it’s given the actor lots to chew on in season 2.
“It was fun trying to figure out the ways I can play off of the storyline of mine and Meech’s brotherhood and the loyalty and the trials and tribulations that we go through to get what we were trying to get and then also a person that is trying to get me and to get to a person through me – while holding two homicides, a gun, and my mother’s life over my head,” Truitt says.
“So it was difficult but also fun as an actor, being able to play a character that’s also playing two different characters. It was depth inside of depth, so I loved the experience.”
BMF season 2 premieres January 6 on STARZ at 8pm.