There are so many options and genres of shows that we can watch and when it comes to streaming, the possibilities are beyond endless. With so much going on, we do love our feel good shows that take us away from our day-to-day! Earlier this summer, we took some time to talk with Jermelle Simon of NETFLIX's The Upshaws which is one of the top rated shows on the platform who just finished Season 3 earlier this year and Season 4 drops this month! We wanted to talk about his career, his experience on the stage, his Denzel Washington story, being on The Upshaws, and his focus on fitness as a means to make sure that you put yourself first!
This article has heavy spoilers and we talk about a number of plot points, cliffhangers, and arcs from the first 3 seasons of this show. If you have yet to watch and want to be spoiler free, binge the episodes now and then come back to enjoy this article. We have a light discussion on Season 4 as well; however, that discussion is spolier free.
This interview was conducted in May 2023, prior to the start of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike which began on July 14.
ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize that you wanted to be an actor?
JERMELLE SIMON: I don’t know if I ever realized it! I just remember being in the 3rd grade and we had to do a play as part of our curriculum and I remember having that feeling like, “man, I love to pretend, I love to be someone else.” It’s fun and interesting to me and obviously, I couldn’t express it at 8 or 9 or whatever that age is when you’re in the 3rd grade. That feeling just kind of kept growing and I kept craving it and by 5th grade, I was in Drama Club and I think that that is when it hit. I was in the 5th grade, I started to understand it a little bit more. I thought that everyone liked it at first, you know what I mean? I thought it was so great and then I realized that I was the only other one doing it.
AM: I love that! Before we delve into The Upshaws, what is your process in terms of how you prepare for your roles in general and how do you sync in with your characters?
JS: I think just understanding the story. So reading the script and understanding what story the writer is trying to tell. What’s my role in the story? Am I an antagonist, the protagonist, am I comedic relief? You know, it’s about understanding my role in the entire script and then I think that with years of people watching, the stories that are on television, I think that we have always seen those characters before. Maybe I have an aunt or an uncle or even with me having children, with my role now, it was easy to dive into the father aspect, because I have 3 children. Sometimes it’s based off of experience and sometimes it’s based off of people watching, and having a huge imagination!
AM: Exaclty!
JS: I think that that helps a lot too. Repetition – I think that I read that a lot of actors read a script over 100 times. You know it front and back. I can’t build up enough stamina to read it 100 times, but I have read a script 10 times and I know that that’s enough for me. This way, I know that I know the story front and back. I think that it’s one of those magical things where you sleep on it and then it just clicks! I don’t know, it’s a hard thing to explain, but it will click especially after you understand the story. So I think that the most important thing is to understand the story that you’re telling and the part that you play in the story that you’re telling.
AM: We read that you also have experience on the stage. You were in August Wilson’s (The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Radio Golf) Fences for 8 weeks where you played Cory. But you actually got the opportunity to audition for Denzel Washington (Training Day, American Gangster, Equalizer franchise) at his home to play that character in the film adaptation. What was that experience like?
JS: You know what’s so wild? That story still anchors me in those times where I’m feeling inadequate. You know even when I am on a hit show like on Netflix, you’re still human and there are those moments where you don’t feel as confident and you don’t feel as talented. I just think that any artist kind of feels that way. I always go back to, man, I was at Denzel Washington’s house with Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder, DC’s Suicide Squad franchise, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes), Denzel Washington, the whole cast! In order to get to that space, this kind of has to be for you. That always reminds me that this is for me.
To this day, I think that it was one of the most extraordinary things that has ever happened to me. To the point that sometimes I don’t even believe that it happened!
AM: We have to admit that when we read that, we were like, he’s in this man’s house with all of these people – that is a moment. There are times regardless of your vertical or career that you can have amazing things happen, but in the course of things, you ask yourself is this it? You question that which you have excelled at for a number of reasons. But then you think about moments that took place that like you said, you wonder if that happened and you grasp it and realize that you are where you need to be and it gives you that fuel for whatever it is that you do in life.
JS: Yes! That’s what it is. It fills you up! Those are constantly in your memory bank and it’s always one of those things that I can always go back to regardless. If I ever work with them again – I just recently saw Viola Davis at the NAACP Image Awards and I saw her before that at an Oscar Gifting Suite and each time I see her, I forget that she knows me and that she remembers me! That’s still so shocking to me, because I will say, “oh, I worked with you” and she’ll say, “I know." Then I remind myself that I don’t have to say that every time that I see her because I’m just in such a shock that she remembers that.
It was like a 6 week process. I was in the running, I was in the top 3. It was a journey for sure that still gives me high vibrations. In this industry, you need as much as you can because it’s such an up and down thing. Like right now, we’re in the writer’s strike and they should get the things that they deserve and that means that everything has to kind of shut down. So, I’m not working right now and you just go through so many things being an actor in this industry. It comes with so much and so the things that you can hang onto that help you feel confident to feel better, because you still have to go through everyday life. I was just telling a friend today that sometimes it’s difficult because even on the days that you don’t want to perform, you have to and it’s like sometimes you have to be someone else and you do that when you’re on a show. I have to – my job is to become a whole different person. That takes so much energy and me and Kim Fields (Living Single, Insecure, All the Queen’s Men), we were just talking about that the other week. It’s like, our job is to become these people and I don’t think that people realize how that can be exhausting because that takes all of you. To do it justice, to do it right, you have to give all of you because people can sense when you’re not. I know that that’s a long answer!
AM: You’re absolutely right in what you shared. Even in life sometimes in general. I’m a big believer in dramaturgical behavior in the sense that we have many masks that we wear, even if it’s authentic to us. How you are with your best friend might be different from your mom and when you’re in those circles like that, it can be exhausting!
JS: Yes! That’s so true. Because even how I am as a father is completely different then how I am as a friend or how I am as an actor. You know, I try to blend it all. Even when I first started giving interviews, especially when I was doing press for this, I felt that I needed to say this answer and needed to say whatever. Now, I’m learning to just be me and people are appreciating that more and I’m always thinking that I over share and talk too much and then people will be like, “no, we love that!”
AM: Exactly!
JS: I would apologize and I know I did it a few times here and you and other people have been like, we want to hear you, we want to hear who you are. That’s ok and people love authenticity! That’s what makes you who you are and everyone is different and can bring something different to the table and it’s all equally important. So I’m just now learning that on my 3rd season of the show. I think that everything happens so fast and all at once and I had to catch up to it.
AM: You know what, sometimes it’s just a process!
How did you find out about The Upshaws, the character, and what drew you to want to be part of it?
JS: I felt like it was just like any other day where your manager or agent sends you an audition and when you’re on the come up, you’ll kind of do any role to kind of get on. Because I think it’s like so many different worlds and realms that factor in. Like you have the time when no one knows you yet and so you audition for everything, you’re doing commercials and anything that you can to make the dollar because LA is expensive. Then not only that, but you just love acting and the craft, so anytime that you can play, you do it!
So that’s how it started. It was any other audition and I was like here I go, I’m going to give it all I’ve got. Every audition I give it all I’ve got. But I did look at it and I saw Netflix and that was like a dream of mine. I think that a lot of actors have that dream. I mean. Netflix is a powerhouse and they’re the largest streaming platform in the world! It’s international and it’s all the things! So I saw that – then sometimes you can see that and then it can play with your confidence a little bit. So you start to second guess yourself – am I right for this – is it too big for me? Even though you want it, it’s intimidating because it’s Netflix. Then I see Mike Epps (Uncle Buck series, The Hangover, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins), Kim Fields, Wanda Sykes (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Black-ish) and I’m like – I had to let it go. I let those parts go – the parts that scared me like those names, the platform.
I released it and then it goes back to that Denzel story. I had such an intense scene with him but in that scene, I had to let go of the fact that it was Denzel. I know what I’m doing when it comes to acting and I just had to go for what I know and I know how to embody this Cory character. I don’t care who it is, you lose yourself in that moment.
So I did that same kind of thing when I auditioned for this show. I released Netflix and I released the names. So I did that and I have had many auditions, but this one, I knew that my first audition that if I got a callback for it, then this would be mine. The process is that you go for your initial one, then they call you back and then they might call you back for the 3rd time. Maybe a 4th time and then you test. But I knew that if I got a call back for this one, it’s over!
AM: You’re like, it’s mine!
JS: I get the callback and immediately, I stop second guessing myself. This is how far I went into it. I already knew what I was going to post. It was a meme and he was in the car, his name is Desi Banks and he’s an online comedian. He’s in the car with the top down saying, “yes sir!!!” He’s hyped because something happened. I couldn’t obviously say what it was, but I wanted to do something that was real low key and then people would be wondering. I had everything planned out and I think that I felt it before everything happened. It’s really important to manifest things that I already feel about the thing before the thing even comes and not to wait for the thing to come to then feel it. I feel that people do it backwards. So that was the first time that I've done that where I was already embodying the role and what it would feel like. So I go from that to the callback, 2 days later after the first audition and the callback was at 6pm and my manager called me at 11pm. He told me that I was the choice, we had to go through network approval and he let me know that I had pretty much booked it. What do they say? The rest is history! I didn’t know that it was going to be history like this! I didn’t really realize what I was going to be getting into.
AM: Yeah! I know that the 3rd season was released earlier this year and the 4th season drops in August – doing 2 seasons in the same year!
JS: Yeah, going so fast!
AM: I mean that’s amazing! Before we get into the upcoming season, for our readers who may not have seen this show yet, what is The Upshaws and tell us about your character, Bernard Jr.
JS: The Upshaws is about a Black family based out of Indiana and it’s your Norman Lear (Good Times, All in the Family, The Jeffersons) style sitcom. It’s a bit edgy, we talk about really relatable things, and we bring hilarity to everyday life. I feel like it’s a family that talks about real topics that people really go through. You have a mom, you have a dad, younger children in high school, you have me who my character is the oldest of the Upshaw family. Bennie Upshaw (Mike Epps) has 4 children – Bernard Upshaw Jr., it’s Kelvin (Diamond Lyons), Aaliyah (Khali Daniya-Renee Spraggins), and Maya (Journey Christine). Kelvin is a side kid that Bennie had when he was on a break with Regina, my mom who is played by Kim Fields. You have a show where again, we talk about real life things and we bring light to it, we bring laughter to it, and I think that in the world that we live in now, we need more comfort shows, we need more laughter. I agree that we need all the other things, but laughter is really good for the soul. It’s medicine. So we definitely bring the laughter in each episode and each one has an unexpected twist or turn. Each finale has this cliffhanger that has you on the edge of your seat.
So I think that we’re onto something and that’s why it’s so successful. We have such great writers that are always even for us, that it’s about expecting the unexpected. We go in week after week never knowing what our characters are going to do. I think that that’s the fun part of The Upshaws, it’s always pushing the envelope – we curse. Traditionally, your sitcoms that run on a network, they couldn’t say certain words. We have the freedom to do a lot more things so we can talk about a lot more topics. I think that it makes us that much more relatable.
As far as my character, I play Bernard Upshaw Jr., the oldest of the Upshaw kids. The series starts off with Bernard holding onto this secret and trying to figure his life out. His secret is his sexuality, so he is gay, he doesn’t necessarily know how to come out to his parents so it’s weighing heavy on him and as you can see during the first season, in my opinion he’s very moody and you can just tell that there is something going on. He also has a very challenging relationship with his father who is Bennie Upshaw played by Mike Epps. Bennie and Regina had him when they were kids in high school so he wasn’t there for him as much as he could have been because he was also growing up too. So it was a little bit of a strained relationship with his father because of that as well as with himself because he wasn’t living in his own truth.
As the series continues, you get to see him come out. You see him live out loud, you get to see him become a father. Not to give it all away to those who haven’t seen it – ha!
AM: We have a significant spoiler alert! People need catch up before reading this!
JS: You get to see him become a father, you get to see him date. I think that now in the upcoming season, you get to see him do more of that. You get to dive deeper into who he is as a person because there are levels to everything. We go through different phases in our lives and we just keep growing and growing. You get to see Bernard grow in all of these areas as a partner, a father, and as a family member. So yeah, you get to see him become more and more into the higher version of himself. From Season 1 – Season 3 or from part 1 to part 4, it’s 2 different Bernards.
AM: Which is amazing because like you were talking about, you’re playing so many different complexities and dynamics, we see him struggling with himself and being able to come out and live his truth, then there’s his daughter and what family means and that complexity, and then understanding the relationship with the father dynamic of his dad and himself. Then there’s families you claim versus those you have paradigm as well. Having all of that there, what does it mean to have this form of representation? Growing up as a kid, we had The Cosby Show and other kinds of shows, but this is another kind of representation that is also real and a different dynamic. So what does that mean to you to be able to present that to people?
JS: I love it! I went into this as an actor portraying a role and not really realizing at first, the impact that this show has on people. I think that to be part of something where people feel seen, people feel heard, - so many people reach out and say, “this is such an authentic representation of Black people.” It’s so comforting, this makes me laugh, this is not watered down and I think at first, that was so much pressure to me, because I felt like we had to get it right! It’s like, no, that’s the point.
It’s effortless. The chemistry works it just flows and I think that again at first, it was a lot of pressure. Because even for me and the representation to the gay community, I didn’t really know because I get the question a lot. I didn’t exactly sign up to be a role model, but after the impact and after so many DMs and thank you’s, I realized that it was so important to see yourself because representation shapes how people will react to you. This is how people learn how to live in this world. It’s such a huge responsibility to do it right and I think that I’m just so proud of us for being perfectly imperfect because that is what is needed to be shown on television. Everyone is not the Cosby’s, everyone is not the Winslows.
AM: Yup!
JS: Now we have The Upshaws. I wouldn’t even call it a dysfunctional family, it’s real life. It’s things that happen in real life. I feel super proud to be in a position where me living my dreams helps someone to heal, grow, feel seen, and heard. I feel extremely proud of our writer’s of our castmates, and Netflix for getting it right.
Even for me, for me being on the show, it doesn’t stop it from being my comfort show. A lot of people can’t watch their work. I can put The Upshaws on and I don’t know. It’s one of my comfort shows and it’s always weird to say because it can seem so egotistical when I’m putting on my own show while I’m cleaning up. Me and my son have this thing because I let him watch the show – he loves it. I make breakfast Saturday morning and we sit and he picks his favorite episode of the show because it is our comfort show you know? He gets to see himself you know? I think that that’s just really important for you to be able to see yourself and we provide that for people in a way that some people have not seen before.
AM: What can you tell us, if anything about the upcoming season or what we should keep an eye out for?
JS: I really do think that it’s full of unexpected surprises. I think that in this sitcom world, you can do so many things. We have always had our groove and our chemistry, but you have to remember that part 1, we were all kind of strangers to one another and we still had that chemistry. Now, 3 years later, we’re still working together and I said this in another interview – you can’t tell me that these people aren’t my family. This is legit my family. So going to work, with my family – you can expect this season to have more chemistry and I think that we take more risks because we’re more comfortable with each other. The writers know how to write for us. They always knew but we collaborate now. It’s a well-oiled machine. I think that we have upped the ante with the twists and turns that we have. Our finale is bizarre. It’s really going to keep you on the edge of your seat. Just like in the previous seasons, but I think that it’s like 2.0 now!
AM: Oh wow. I can only imagine.
JS: We watch the show. We’re filming it every week. So we never know what to expect. So when we see it, it’s like how the viewers are doing it when they’re bingeing. For ever how many weeks we do it, we have to put that time into it and we see it weekly. I have to ask myself, “I wonder what Bernard is going to do next?” I’m rooting for him and I want to see what happens. I have to wait week by week! It’s exciting.
AM: Are there any other upcoming projects that we should keep an eye out for that you can share?
JS: Right now, I’m still auditioning. My main focus right now is The Upshaws, but I’m putting it out there that I am going to do a film this summer. Don’t know which one, but it’s going to be something, I already feel it. You know, when we have our next conversation, we can talk about it.
AM: You are passionate about fitness and you have a fitness app. Tell us about this as in looking at your IG, you’re not just acting, you have other things that you are also involved in.
JS: Yes, I have a fitness line called Jrambo Bands which are resistance bands that come in a 3-pack. They’re 5lbs, 10lbs, and 20lbs. It’s like all of your at home essentials for people who feel that maybe the gym isn’t convenient or they are too intimidated so they can work from home. I have ab belts that’s a belt you put on that’s similar to a waist trainer so it can assist you in being able to lose the water weight. This way you can have a more defined stomach. I recently came out with gym bags which is an all in one that you can use as a carryon for your flights or as an everyday bag. It’s my Jrambo bags and it should be out soon.
I’m just building that because I have such an extreme passion for fitness because a couple of years ago, I started training with a trainer. I loved the results, but I love how it made me feel and I think with me being an actor, you need all the confidence that you can get. It gave me such confidence because I was connected with myself, being disciplined, stretching myself far beyond what I could be, and it gave me that superhuman kind of feeling. I wanted everyone to feel that way. Everyone deserves to feel like, “man, I’m really doing this!” Because you’re constantly when you’re working out and are part of that lifestyle, you’re constantly choosing yourself.
AM: That’s right!
JS: I think that that is important in any kind of career – any position in life. If you’re constantly choosing yourself, you can’t fail. So I wanted to spread that feeling to a lot of people and I started off doing classes. I became a personal trainer, but I have way too much energy as you can tell to be with just one person! So my classes are Jrambo HIIT which is high intensity interval training. Jrambo - long story short – comes from one day I walked into a gym and I sweat a lot when I work out. So I put a bandana on my head and they said Jermabo and I said, “what – I like that, but let me change it to Jrambo,” and it just sort of stuck.
AM: Love it!
JS: So it’s my Sasha Fierce like Beyoncé! So I use that and everything is Jrambo Bands, Jrambo Bags, Jrambo Abs and that’s where that came from! My classes, once I got the show, I couldn’t teach my classes so I developed that app. So the app where I train people with the classes is Jrambo HIITs.com. I come from South Carolina where it’s Soul Food capitol to me. So I’ve learned how to eat now. I fell in love with wellness and health and wellness in general. That keeps me busy when acting is not. I think that people should have multiple passions and multiple things that make you feel alive!
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | PG 134 + 137 Russell Baer | PG 138 Max Hemphill | PG 142 - 147 Netflix |
Read the AUG ISSUE #92 of Athleisure Mag and see THE VISION | Jermelle Simon in mag.
