TAGGED AS: Awards, Awards Tour, Interview, Oscars, Q&A
Emmy nominee Karen Pittman sits down with Rotten Tomatoes Awards Editor Jacqueline Coley to reflect on her journey through The Morning Show, dive into her latest role in Netflix’s FOREVER, and explore how her background in opera continues to influence her craft. In a candid conversation, Pittman opens up about the artistic passions that fuel her performances and the narratives she’s eager to champion next.
Be sure to check out the fourth season of The Morning Show, which is now streaming on Apple TV+, and we’ll see you on the next stop of the Awards Tour.
Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes: I’m so glad that you’re having this moment with Morning Show as well because I think your career is actually one that like a lot of people in Hollywood don’t realize how much they are envious of now in this weird moment that we have because I’ve just looked at like Law and Order and Yellowstone and you did genre, And Just Like That… and Homeland….You’ve honestly done that sort of like guest spot, do a few things here, and it’s only been recently that you’ve gotten more of this sort of like steady work. But I think that’s a testament to you as an actor because that is a very hard career to create…So, I just want to ask you, how did you keep that going?
Karen Pittman: I had great representatives in that they were able to carve out spaces where I could be seen…It’s a different industry right now. I also actually created a lot of work that ended up coming to the surface during the pandemic. So I had been really a journeyman actor and doing meaningful work on television…I find that I’m attracted to very specific collaborators and there are very specific collaborators that are attracted to me. I’m not often seen for, you know, stereotypical African-American women. And if I am, I really do have to know who is creating and collaborating with me, who are the artists, who are the writers. I’ve been asked for many years to do mother characters. It took a long time for me to decide to do something like FOREVER because I knew it was going to be a nuanced portrayal of a woman…It’s extraordinarily difficult. Many people want the instant gratification of seeing themselves on camera. They want fame, but they don’t want to put in the work and take the time to curate a career, to curate people that you work with and stories that you tell. There is extraordinary integrity in a humble beginning.
Season 4 of The Morning Show is now streaming on Apple TV+
