“Queen Sugar’s” Nic Ashe on What’s Next for Micah, Deep Healing for the Black Community, and More
by J.C. Williams
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November 11, 2021

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“Queen Sugar’s” Nic Ashe on What’s Next for Micah, Deep Healing for the Black Community, and More

Courtesy of Skip Bolen/2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Courtesy of Skip Bolen/2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

For six seasons, OWN’s “Queen Sugar” has illustrated the Black experience in ways that showcase not only our history, but also our complexity. With stories spanning addiction, intergenerational love, the fight for Black liberation and more, “Queen Sugar” beautifully paints the portrait of our shared experiences.

At the age of 19, Nicholas Ashe began the work of bringing Micah West to life as the son of pro-basketball player Davis West and female juggernaut Charley Bordelon West. Over the past five seasons, Nic has leveraged his own talent to illustrate hard-hitting realities that Black boys and young men face everyday, including police brutality, exploring self-identity, and searching for a greater purpose. This season, Nic is helping us interrogate the intersection of masculinity and intimacy. How Black men build deep connection and friendship across lines of difference. Recently, Nic joined us for a conversation tackling just that and giving some insight as to where he and his character share a common goal – liberation through love.

Black Love:

So you started playing Micah West on “Queen Sugar” when you yourself were about 20. What does that character mean to you?

Nic:

So much, so much. I suppose when the series comes to an end, I’ll be better able to reflect on what this time and this character has meant. But, quite beautifully, Micah mirrors my experience with coming to terms with my identity, with my Blackness, in this more recent season with my mental wellness, with my mindfulness. He was sort of experiencing those things, or being confronted with those things for the first time, and I was too.

Like we said, I was 20, I’d just moved out of my mom’s house to go do this new project in New Orleans, and living on my own, meeting new people, going to bars, being in that environment was so new. So a lot of this, you see in season one, a lot of this doe-eyed experience that you see of this young Micah character growing into this more outspoken, focused, fierce, intelligent student, that was happening off-camera too.

Black Love:

So a part of that growth is that on the show, you portray a straight Black man, but in real life, you are openly queer. What has that experience been like for you?

Nic:

Courtesy of Skip Bolen/2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Courtesy of Skip Bolen/2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

It’s been interesting. For those first couple of seasons, I wasn’t openly queer, and something happened with the work we were doing. On the show, some stories were really resonating with people and their lived experiences, but I was just the young character on the show, and at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, which meant so much to me and to my character, as we saw in season five, something felt like, Nic, you need to use your voice and your platform to advocate for people who look and love like you.

So to do that work off the screen was so rewarding, and allowed me to be more authentic, as opposed to being afraid of my more effeminate parts showing on-screen. I got to use those things, and show a more intimate side of this character, as opposed to hiding and robbing him of those things, you know? So it really was a reciprocal experience, that as I got to know and accept more about myself, I got to know and accept more about Micah.

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Black Love:

What has your own journey been like as it relates to sexual identity?

Nic:

I always use this quote to talk to this, but have you ever seen Paris Is Burning? In Paris Is Burning, they say something to the effect of “You’re Black, and now you’ve got the nerve to also be gay.” I felt for so long that I had these strikes against me, and growing up, I would oftentimes wish that this thing that was so natural to me and innate in me wouldn’t exist.

And then when I started acting and performing and finding success, I was like, oh, there’s no one doing the things that I want to do who looks like me, who loves like me, so I think it’s best if I suppress these things. 

I remember even in a meeting at the top of filming this lovely series, we went through interview prep and I specifically remember them talking about pivoting. They’re like, if somebody asks you about politics, you say, “Oh, well, you know, that’s what I love about “Queen Sugar.” It’s a really political show!” You take what they’ve given you that you don’t want to speak to, and you shift the focus. I remember them suggesting we do that with our sexuality and our love life. To take this question that was deeply personal, and not necessarily engage with it, but pivot and get back to the show.

I think that what I internalized early in exploring my sexuality was that it was something that should be kept secret, and that if exposed, would fetter my success. I’m so happy to be wrong about that. So happy to have these mockingjays, these titans, Billy Porter, Jeremy Pope, RuPaul, Lil Nas X, and a bevy of queer women as well, but I’m talking about as far as what I do. To see them winning, and winning for being authentic. For their authenticity to be rewarded, was hand in hand with what was happening in the Black Lives Matter movement, where we didn’t have to keep this trauma, this pain, this hurt buried, that we could unearth it, and at best, repurpose it. 

So despite now being lauded as this openly queer actor, I’m still navigating this, and I’m curious about how this affects the roles that I play next. Am I now going to be pigeonholed as a gay man who can only play gay roles? Or will I find more characters like Micah, who are a variety of adjectives before we even talk about their sexuality?

Black Love:

So this season on the show, Micah and Isaiah are building this really strong friendship. Now that’s kind of different for Micah, in a way, because Isaiah’s sexuality is just not so defined. So it’s been kicking up some internal dialogue for Micah on the inside. What’s going through Micah’s mind?

Nic:

Courtesy of Skip Bolen/2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Courtesy of Skip Bolen/2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

I think a lot of college students have this experience, right? Where they’re plucked from something that they’ve been immersed in for some 18+ years that’s so familiar to them. Where this is the way things work. This is the way men function here. Then they go to college, and they meet men who wear nail polish, and they meet men who wear heels, and they meet people who don’t even adhere to pronouns. And they’re just like, it’s exciting in their brain synapses, and there’s something called a twin flame. I don’t know if you’ve learned about this or heard about it, but you meet someone who mirrors you so much that they trigger you, almost, that they excite things and they reflect things of you and refract things that make you consider not only your life, but yourself in your life in a different way. That’s what Micah’s been presented with in Isaiah. 

He’s wondering, and I’m so thankful that he has the freedom to wonder this without any shame. It’s the first time we see this character who isn’t really conflicted about it, but genuinely curious about if this is love. Is this a love connection as I’ve known it with Keke and with my previous partners, or is this a new love that he’s never known? You know, Micah is an only child, so is this a more fraternal, brotherly type of thing? I spent a lot of time in high school and upon graduating exercising that discernment myself. I was like, wait a minute, am I in love with this person, or is this just my friend? Yeah, because it’s so exciting to really be seen and I feel like Isaiah really sees Micah.

It takes a certain type of intimacy to get on the floor in your dorm room, kick off your shoes and meditate with someone. You’ve got to feel really safe to do that, you know? And he feels heard. 

Black Love:

What does that mean to you in your own life? Have you seen this show up in other ways?

Nic:

I certainly live it, but when we put these images on television, right? I think of television as a tool, so I think that we’re showing audiences that this is real, this is possible, there is no secret line crossing. I was talking about this recently, actually, when we first started doing press for this season, if you look at the initial trailer for “Queen Sugar,” you see Nova being Nova, you see Ralph Angel being all sexy, and then you see Micah walking down a sidewalk in New Orleans with a guy. Every comment wasn’t talking about Charley or Blue, the comments were all, “Oh, I knew Micah was gay! I knew it, I saw it coming, that boy got long eyelashes and everything!” 

So I talked to our team when we were doing press, I was like, I think I hope the conversation that we can elicit from people who are new to the show or from people who have been watching since 2016 is what was so inherently gay, right, about these two Black men just walking down the sidewalk? Just looking at each other as they spoke. There’s another scene where I’m shirtless in bed with a woman, but we didn’t want to talk about that. There was something so salacious about this brewing friendship.

I hope that the conversation has shifted to that, and that makes people interrogate, what is it that I assume about these images that I see? Why does this feel dangerous, or somehow inform his manhood or his sexual orientation? You know what I mean?

Black Love:

And what does the end goal look like for you? I mean, as far as just like Black men, Black love, community, etc. What is that end goal for you?

Nic:

I really want deep healing for my community, because I would be nothing without it. You know what I mean? There are times I’ve been deeply unhappy and depressed, and wondering does this get better? Will my life get better? Are there things to look forward to? And I am so lucky to have had a partner and a family and a community of friends and artists at the ready to tell me and show me how it can get better.

I want that for everybody because not everybody makes it to the other side. They’re caught up in negative emotions that can cause them to make negative, irrevocable life decisions. 

I really hope the work that I do, and the work that we’ve done on “Queen Sugar” helps people intercept that negative thinking and choice making, and helps them better align with their higher selves, helps them make better choices for themselves, for their families and communities. I really want that deep healing, and I’m just doing my part as an artist. I’m making sure the projects that I align with have some sort of greater purpose, but I want for all of us to investigate the purposes within each of our professions, you know? How can we advocate for and uplift us? Because as Monique said, “I love us for real.” And as Issa Rae said, “I’m rooting for everybody Black.”

Black Love:

So what’s next for Micah West?

Nic:

Courtesy of Skip Bolen/2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Courtesy of Skip Bolen/2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

If I had to guess though, if they said, “Nic, season 15 of ‘Queen Sugar,’ where’s Micah?” I really see Micah doing the work I hope to do, which is advocating for people who look and love like him within his community. Micah is brilliant, and he’s enrolled at Xavier by taking classes at Harvard University. So I really feel some sort of grassroots politics road is in store for him. I don’t think that he’ll ever stop being curious about who he is, either, all the while. I think he has finally learned, the way I have, that life is just revelation after revelation. It’s just a constant unfolding, and I think he gives himself permission to just ebb and flow with that.

I mean, that’s why they pay Anthony Sparks and all these people the big money to come up with the ideas and make it juicy and drama-filled. But I hope that Micah is smiled upon for years to come by my ancestors who are watching up in heaven, and for future generations to say, “’Yall, ‘Queen Sugar’ was out here spitting facts!” I feel like we’ve really had our finger on the pulse, and I just hope that Micah, no matter where his journey goes, is regarded in that way, as being like a beacon of what Black male youth can be.

To catch up on “Queen Sugar,” find seasons 1 through 5 on Hulu now and tune in for the season 6 finale airing Tuesday, November 16th on OWN. 

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