Bathé is also a fan fave as savvy-sassy attorney Ari on BET+’s First Wives Club, which just dropped its second season on July 15. On the series, Ari is kept busy balancing her career, her long-distance marriage to her politician husband and her beloved female friendships. Likewise, in real life, Bathé showers each of her fellow castmates with queen-like reverence, proving—as costars Jill Scott, Michelle Buteau and Michelle Mitchenor did when they also recently spoke to Parade.com—that the sisterhood viewers see onscreen is just as real and special behind the scenes. In honor of the show’s ethos, we asked the busy Bathé (who also happens to be married to This Is Us’ Sterling K. Brown) to open up about some of the important lessons she’s learned from her major life firsts.
Since you’re one of the stars of First Wives Club, let’s talk about some of the big firsts in your life. What were your first impressions of your First Wives Club castmates?
You know, what’s funny is that when we did our table reads, at the very end, we kind of looked around and we were like … “We have something really special here.” It was like this really special moment, everybody just kind of looked at each other and you could feel it; it was like a crackle in the air. We realized there was so much diversity within our cast in terms of who was being represented, it was like this gamut. I’ve got to go back to the first season for first impressions of Jill and my Michelle [Buteau]—I call her “myMichelle”because she belongs to me, me, me; I share her with the world. Literally right before I met [costar Jill Scott], I was in my green room and I had to psych myself up. I was like, Okay, first of all, Ryan, what you not gon’ do is act a fool. You’re not gon’ giggle and act a fool and be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Jill Scott!’ No, none of that. We’re also not gonna be so reserved that she’s gon’ think that we have a problem. I was like, Ryan Michelle Bathé you go out there and you act like a normal human being! I love her. I love her. I love her, love her, love her. I went back to my parents’ house and I found at least four separate articles that I had cut out from four separate magazines about Jill Scott. My love is deep and real and goes back to the beginning. So, when I walked out of that green room, I had my game face on… and then she was just as lovely as lovely can be and as Jill as you would think she would be, she was real cool. And Buteau. She wears her heart on her sleeve, just like me. She was like, “Oh, my God, boo!” And I was like, “Yes, I’m your boo and you’re my Michelle” It was literally like that—from jump. Michelle Mitchenor is a Delta [Sigma Theta], she’s my soror. I’ve worked with other Deltas obviously, in different capacities, like maybe somebody’s a producer, or maybe somebody’s a writer, maybe somebody works behind the scenes, but to be able to meet a fellow Delta who’s also an actor and be able to work together and work as peers, as colleague, as friends, that’s also very, very, very special.
Among the ladies, who’s the first you would call in case of emergency?
Michelle Buteau. My Michelle. Because low-key, as comedic as she is, that girl is… I mean, I’m like, “Are you sure you’re not a Virgo?” She’s that girl who will have everything organized. So if something goes down, that’s who I’m calling. If I need a body buried, I’m calling Jill.
Let’s get into your past relationships and marriage. What did your first boyfriend and first breakup teach you about marriage?
I’ll be honest with you. My first breakup and my first boyfriend didn’t teach me much about marriage. I think I was taught a lot about relationships and how to be a girlfriend. It was like, Go to college and try to forget him! I will say though, I have been incredibly blessed with decent human beings, we’ve all had our moments obviously, but they’ve all been incredibly, profoundly decent human beings. If my first boyfriend did anything, it was [that he] set a tone of what I expected. I just expected a certain level from then on out and I do think that has served me very well.
What was the first thing you noticed about Sterling?
I saw his audition for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone [as an undergraduate at Stanford University]. And I was riveted. I had never seen anybody so young do what he was doing. I was floored. And that’s my first memory of Sterling.
First Wives Club is one of the first movie-to-TV spinoffs in which the characters were recast to feature actors and actresses of color, which we’re seeing more and more of with projects like Taraji P. Henson’s What Women Want remake and the upcoming Little Mermaid remake. Any other movies or shows you’d love to see recast in this way?
One of my favorite movies is Pride and Prejudice. And if somebody could figure out how to make a Pride and Prejudice—like maybe set it in the Harlem Renaissance, or set it in like D.C., because D.C. has those very, sort of like moneyed groups of Black people. Maybe something like that. I would love to see Pride and Prejudice remade and set within one of our historical Black eras where there was money. What if it was set in Greenwood? Tulsa right before the massacre? It’s not about the massacre, it’s totally Pride and Prejudice, but we just do it like maybe 10 years before the massacre or five years before? Wouldn’t that be dope? That would be dope. Next, Busy Philipps Reveals What It Takes to Be BFF Michelle Williams’ Wingwoman and Why Girls5eva Came Along at the Right Time
