Austin Friday Nights to L.A. Bright Lights: A Conversation with Angela Rawna

The power and drama of NBC's "Friday Night Lights" has the ability to turn people who don't watch sports into a football fan for at least an hour a week

I’m not a sports fan.  Although sports is one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world, found in each and every culture and country, sports has just never interested me at all.  However, I must admit that I am a sucker for a great sports story.  From Pride of the Yankees to Rocky to The Blind Side, the passion and drama that surrounds athletics has always had a way of drawing me in.  That was why I had no problem getting sucked into the drama of Friday Night Lights.  When I was given the opportunity to talk to actress Angela Rawna, who portrays Regina Howard on the Emmy nominated NBC drama, I had never seen an episode of the series before, despite the fact that it is about to go into its fifth season.  However, after obtaining a copy of the entire fourth season, in which Angela Rawna joined the cast as a supporting character, I was hooked.  In fact, I managed to watch all thirteen episodes within a four day period!  It  quickly stopped being research.  It was an addiction.  It hardly mattered if I was a sports fan or not.  Through the drama and passion of Coach Eric Taylor, his team of underdogs on the East Dillon Lions, and the entire town of Dillon, Texas, I found myself cheering out loud as the Lions tried to prove their worth on the football field against Coach Taylor’s former team, the Dillon Panthers.  Through Friday Night Lights, I, for at least an hour, became a football fan.

However, Friday Night Lights is about far more then just football, and Angela Rawna’s performance is an example of the real life drama that elevates the series.  Playing the part of Regina Howard, the mother of troubled quarterback Vince Howard, Angela Rawna portrays a good woman who has fallen on hard times.  Although she loves her son, via circumstances not yet known to the viewers, Regina is addicted to drugs and alcohol.  Through Season Four, we get a sense of the world that Vince lives in as he struggles to stay out of trouble and get the help that his mother needs, so that they can both live a better life. 

As Regina Howard, Angela Rawna manages to paint a new and more realistic portrait of a woman struggling with drug addiction.  A sympathetic character, Regina is a victim of the substances that tempt her.  However, as we follow her story, we begin to find hope in Regina’s future.  Developing this character led Angela Rawna to become no stranger to the realities of drug addiction.  She was reluctant to take the part at first, due to the potential negative stereotype of a low income African American single mother on drugs. However, Angela was permitted to enter a rehab center in Austin, Texas, where she visited and interviewed real life drug addicts attempting to turn their lives around.  By talking to these women, Angela was better able to understand them and create a character on Friday Night Lights that breaks stereotypes, crafting a sensitive and realistic depiction of an addict.  Via Regina Howard, Angela Rawna portrays a different face of drug addiction than is typically shown to the television public.

A native of Texas, Angela Rawna has been appearing in films for a better part of a decade.  Although her role on Friday Night Lights has proved to be a groundbreaking one, Angela has also appeared in A Scanner Darkly with Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr., The Return with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Elvis and Annabelle with Blake Lively, Joe Mantegna, Mary Steenburgen and Keith Carradine.

Currently setting herself up in Los Angeles, due to the new opportunities that her role on Friday Night Lights has brought her, I spoke to Angela when she was between looking for an apartment and finding new LA based representation.  Both bright and enthusiastic, Angela Rawna is on the cusp of great things and promises to be one of pop culture’s newest character actresses.

CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT PRESENTS

AUSTIN FRIDAY NIGHTS TO L.A. BRIGHT LIGHTS: 

A CONVERSATION WITH ANGELA RAWNA

I reached Angela via telephone in Los Angeles in July 2010.

Sam:  Now I’m going to be honest with you Angela.  Up until four days ago, I had never seen Friday Night Lights.  However, in the last four days I watched the entire fourth season and have been completely captivated by it.  It is such a remarkable program!

Angela Rawna:  You know, some people I’ve met have said, “That’s just a football show”, and I say “No, it’s more then football.”  It shows these unique characters and what they’re going through on a daily basis, and football is in the context, or the backdrop.  But it really is about the humanity of these characters.  It really is a great show and we are lucky to have made it for five seasons.  We’re on Friday nights and that Friday night time slot is a tough one.  To last this long and to get the acclaim that we have gotten – [I am] so proud of all the people who are apart of this show.  I really am.

Sam:  Well, I’m not a sports guy.  I don’t like sports at all and football is dull to me.  However, the passion and the drama behind the game and within the characters on this show became so real to me, that even I found that I was caught up in following the wins and losses of Coach Taylor and his players.  I was getting emotionally wrapped up in the games.  I could suddenly understand the appeal that football has on small town America.

Angela:  It’s amazing how a sport can bring, as we say in Texas, both sides of the track together.  We have people one side of the track, and a group of people on the other side, and on Friday night, when it’s football season ,in a small town in Texas, everyone is watching.

Sam:  Friday Night Lights really captures that aspect of Americana beautifully.  How did you get involved with Friday Night Lights?

In Season 4 of "Friday Night Lights" Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) moves from coaching the championship Dillon Panthers to coaching underdogs East Dillon Lions

Angela:  Initially, I got the call from my agent that there was a new role available.  There was a new twist to the season.  Starting Season Four, there was going to be some changes to the show with Coach Taylor leaving the Panthers, because he was fired, and going over to another school.  They were bringing in a whole fresh crew of people. 

Sam:  They film the show somewhere around where you live, don’t they?

Angela:  Yes, they do.  I live in Austin and the show, from my house in Austin, is only a twenty five minute drive away.  Drive into the city and go to the east side of Austin and that’s where most of our work takes place.  We don’t have studios, so we don’t shoot on a studio lot.  We literally shoot in the city of Austin and use the backdrop of the city as our scenes. 

Sam:  I read that, at first, you had to do some soul searching about taking the part of Regina Howard.

Angela Rawna as Regina Howard on "Friday Night Lights"

Angela:  I did, because initially when I got the breakdown of the character I was really apprehensive because of the stereotype : an African American mother on drugs.  That kind of thing.  I didn’t want to just fall in line of perpetuating that stereotype, but as time went on and it became clear to me that the writers were going to take her in a direction that I was really pleased with.  In addition, I got into the rehab center at Austin Recovery and I got to see how many people, regardless of race or color or religion or socio-economic status, drug addiction and alcoholism affects every color and every race and every creed and every gender.  So the media, at times, puts a slant on what drug addiction looks like, based on one specific skin tone, this isn’t what really happens in the real world.  That put me more at ease.  I was bringing into it my own prejudice of what I thought drug addition looked like as well.  I don’t want to give too much away regarding Season 5, but I was pleased to see how the writers took Regina forward.

Sam:  When I was watching Season Four, I liked the fact that the writers didn’t write Regina as a terrible or hopeless character.  In the beginning, she is spaced out and sketchy, but at no point is she a bad person.  She seems to honestly want to be a supportive and good mother, but due to her addiction is unable to be that.  She comes off as a sympathetic character that the audience feels compassion for, which is unlike what most other series do with characters suffering of drug addiction. 

Regina Howard with TV son Michael B. Jordan. As Regina Howard, Angela Rawna shows a more realistic and human side to drug addiction

Angela:  I appreciate you recognizing that and picking up on that.  I specifically got that from my research, when I went into rehab to talk to these women who were affected by drugs and alcohol and going through the twelve steps actively.  A lot of those women who I met with and interviewed are really great women.  They are not the menacing/hiding in the shadows type of people.  A lot of these women were very educated, and had degrees and just fell on hard times, and unfortunately turned to a substance that was hard to break.  Once I saw that in the rehab environment, it definitely played on how I would play Regina and the back story in creating her in my mind and on paper, in order to bring her to life.

Sam:  What is your own version of that back story for Regina Howard?

Angela Rawna with Jurnee Smullet. In order to create the role of Regina Howard, Angela Rawna entered Austin rehab facilities to meet with real life women recovering from drug addiction

Angela:  Basically, in my mind, and going into the research environment in the rehab center, is what I saw in building my back story for my character, was that I wanted her to have a previous life of absolute hope, where she thought the sky was the limit.  She had big dreams and big hopes, for not only herself but her own child and whoever, at that time, she was with.  I really focused on her hopes and her dreams and that she wasn’t a deadbeat person.  She actually even went to a small community college, but was unable to go further with her degree program because she came upon some hard times.  That’s how I wanted to look at her.  I didn’t want her to be a stereotype; that she was just a loser.  I didn’t want her to be played that way, because we’ve seen that so many times.  I wanted to make her as real and as normal as possible, in the sense that this could be your mother, or could be a friend of yours that, for some reason, went off track.  She’s a good person and she’s fighting hard to get back on the right track.

Sam:  Well, I have had people in my life that have been drug addicts.  I guess I currently have people I care about who are very addicted to drugs now. The truth of the matter is that they are good people and they either get help, or they don’t get help, but it never seems to be as cut and dry as they make it look in Hollywood, and I felt that your portrayal of a drug addict was a very realistic portrait of the reality of drug addiction.  As I watched your story, I came to the conclusion that Regina is a good character, a character I like and one that I came to care about.

Angela:  Well thank you.

Sam:  Now Friday Night Lights has an incredibly talented cast.  A very good looking cast.  In fact, I think I have a crush on the entire cast!  I really do.  What was it like working with these people?

“Are you positive that this is not a fluke? Is everyone on this show just nice and we all like each other and everyone just gets along?”

Angela: Oh my God.  Like you, I have a crush on everyone in this cast as well.  Being that I was a new team player coming [onto a show] that has been up and running for three seasons, I was a little nervous, of course, as anyone would coming on a new team.  But I was accepted into the family both behind the scenes and in front of the camera in an enormous way, which really blew my mind.  The friendship and the love behind the scenes is so genuine and true.  I remember one day, on the set, I was in the make up trailer and talking to the lead make up artist and I said to her, “Are you positive that this is not a fluke?  Is everyone on this show nice and they all like each other and everyone gets along?”  She said, “Honey, what you see is what you get!”  Honestly, no joke. After shooting Season Four and Season Five, from Kyle Chandler to Connie Britton, the two leads on the show, to my son Michael B. Jordan, the writers, the directors;  it was just an enormous and wonderful family.  I don’t know if I’ll ever get another opportunity to be on a show that is so loving and caring.  You work as an actor going on a set and doing some gritty scenes it helps to know that everyone is in your corner and they got your back.

Sam:  So, Season Five has been filmed?

Angela:  Yes.  We just wrapped Season Five up last Saturday and had the wrap party on Sunday night.

Sam:  And Season Five is the final season, correct?

In 2010 "Friday Nights Lights" stars Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton were nominated for Emmy Awards for their roles as Eric and Tammi Taylor

Angela:  Okay, don’t even get me started because I’ll probably start crying on the phone with you.  From what we know, this is supposed to be it for the show.  We’re supposed to be done.  Now anything can happen.  I’m sure you’re aware that Kyle and Connie, the casting department and one of the writers, were nominated for Emmys for this year. So that’s four big Emmy nods that we’ve gotten. So maybe the powers that be might change their minds and say, “Let’s do a Season Six”, which I know from talking to some of the cast and crew behind the scenes, [we] would be more then happy to come back.  But honestly, at this time, we don’t know.  At the wrap party we were all melancholy at times, and it was quite emotional for a lot of us, because we said goodbye, and hopefully we’ll be able to say hello again.

Sam:  Will we see more of Regina in Season Five?

Angela:  Yes, you will.  Regina will return in Season Five and she’ll be really interesting to watch.  There is a lot going on in Season Five with her family and I will say this: In Season 5 her husband appears. 

Sam:  Now before you were an actress you were originally in athletics.  What made you change over to acting?

Originally involved in college athletics, Angela Rawna started in independent films

Angela:  Yes.  I was really into athletics in college.  Sports were a big priority in my life and, honestly acting was nowhere near my radar.  I really thought I was going to be a competitive volleyball player but, obviously, I wasn’t that good; but at the time you couldn’t tell me any different.  As I kind of went through that whole process of my life and ended up moving into Austin, I was able to get into the film environment.  Basically, what happened was I used to be a swim suit model and fitness competitor back in the day, and at an event I was at, this guy approached me backstage and handed me his business card for an independent film that was going to be shooting in the area.  Well lo and behold, he ended up being legit and I did my first indie film.  I really got hooked and immersed myself in training and studying with people in the local area, with different coaches that have come out of Juilliard and live in the Austin area now.  The next thing you know, I kept going and going.  Some of my earliest work came through director Richard Linklater, who I have a wonderful affection for.  He is a wonderful director.

Sam:  You are working with Linklater right now on Boyhood, which is an ambitious twelve year project.

Angela:  Yeah.  We are shooting that.  We are on hiatus from that right now.  Richard is being quite secretive about the project.  The only thing I can tell you is that I play opposite Patricia Arquette, and I play her best friend in the film and it is one of those types of projects that we are literally shooting it year by year.

Sam:  How did you get involved with Richard Linklater?

Angela:  He saw me in a play in Austin, Texas.  I was doing a play called Sonny’s Last Shot, and the writer of the play, Lawrence Wright, who is also a Pulitzer Prize winner, knows Richard very well and invited him to see the play.  That’s how Richard and I were introduced.  He saw my performance in that play and then I was being brought in to audition for some of his stuff. 

Sam:  You do a lot of theatre?

Angela:  I try to do at least one play a year because, I’ll be honest with you, I’m terrified of stage work because, obviously, it’s live.  But in order to keep my senses, and to be aware and have that kind of fear, I try to do a play at least once a year.  If I’m not shooting a film or doing a TV show, then I’m on stage.

Sam:  Well, live theatre keeps you on your toes.

Angela:  Exactly.  It keeps me on my toes.

Sam:  So by living in Austin, is it difficult to maintain a career so far away from Los Angeles?

Angela:  Luckily, so far in my career, I’ve been able to work at home.  I don’t know how I’ve been so lucky, but I’ve been able to shoot all my projects in Austin.  But now with the attention from Friday Night Lights and some doors that are opening here, I’ve decided to come out to LA.  I guess, in a weird way, with Texas not having a true coast, I’m going to try to do a back and forth thing and I’m actually looking for housing today.  Basically, I’ll have two dwellings and I’ll navigate the two.

Sam:  You have another film project in the works called All the Same Dust.  What can you tell us about that film?

Angela Rawna and Michael Costello are currently putting together funding for their independent film project "All the Same Dust"

Angela:  All the Same Dust is an independent film.  It is written by my acting coach, [who] I have been studying with for ten years.  He wrote a beautiful script, which he wrote to give him and I an opportunity to work together on something besides prepping me for auditions.  The script takes a look at our society, now that an African American president is in the White House.  How have race relations affected families that are struggling with identity within their own family unit.  The script hones in on a particular family… a bi-racial couple, and looks at the two families on both sides to see what race looks like each character.  It’s a small independent film, which we are still fund raising in this crazy economy, but we are halfway there.  I am crossing my fingers that we will be shooting later this year.

Sam:  That sounds fascinating, and it is a timely subject that I don’t feel that has been looked at.  With the economic crisis and the fighting in the Middle East, it is a subject that seems to go overlooked.

Angela:  I totally agree with you.  Michael was quite secretive about it.  I didn’t know he was writing a script on the side, when he handed it to me and said, “I’ve been thinking of working on a project with you in mind and have written a script and I want you to take a look at it.  No hard feelings if you’re not interested, but I’m hoping that you are.”  When I read it I was captivated, and I said, “Wow.  We’ve got to make this movie.”  I’m kind of wearing two hats.  Once it’s up and going, I’ll be starring in the film, but right now we’re fund raising.  I’m executive producer.  I’m seeing both sides of the coin here.  I’ve never done something like this before.  It’s really fun and it’s challenging and it has its good days and bad days, but I’m learning a lot.

Sam:  So, today you are in LA where you are looking to establish yourself.  Outside of Friday Night Lights, Boyhood and All the Same Dust, what is next for you?  What does the immediate future hold?

Angela:  Right now I’m taking meetings from a management aspect.  I don’t have a manager and I really want to secure one in Los Angeles.  I am looking for someone that will come on board and help guide my career.  I’m hoping that some doors will open.  From a PR standpoint, I’ve been walking carpets and getting seen a bit, and doing that whole press junket type of stuff.  We’ll just see how it goes, however there is a major play that I am really wanting to do next year.  I just got the script and I’ll have to crack it open while I’m here in Los Angeles.

Sam:  Will that be in Los Angeles or Austin?

Angela:  It will be, ironically, in Austin.  It’s a New York writer, but maybe if I do well then we can end up in New York doing an off Broadway revival.  Who knows?

Sam:  Well Angela, good luck in Los Angeles this week, and I look forward to seeing more of you in the future.  I’ll be watching.

Angela:  I’ll hold you to that, my dear.  Thank you.

Talking to Angela Rawna was an absolute delight.  Completely different then her character on Friday Night Lights, Angela managed to captivate me with her charm and openness during our visit.  In the wake of her break on Friday Night Lights, I am sure that there is much more to be seen from Angela Rawna and wish her the best of luck in LA.  She certainly deserves it.

POP CULTURE ADDICT NOTE:  I would like to thank Angela Rawna’s publicist Charles Sherman for arranging this interview.  Thank you for again for your coninuting support Charles.