While many fans know him for spreading holiday cheer in real life, Sterling K. Brown is also gearing up for the highly anticipated second season of Paradise on Hulu. Brown stars as Special Agent Xavier Collins and also serves as an executive producer on the show.
“In an ideal world, he finds his wife, because I think that’s the only thing that would get him to leave his children,” Brown said in a recent interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act about his partnership with Shipt. “A lot of people ask, ‘So you just gonna leave your kids in the bunker?’ I’m like, well, I found a sister to take care of them, so I felt like they were left in good hands. But truth be told, if it weren’t for the possibility of being reconnected with his partner, nothing would have separated him from those children. But the idea of his family being together once again is very exciting for me. I hope the audience feels the same level of enthusiasm. And we don’t know what’s going to happen. I guess Sterling knows, but, you know, Xavier doesn’t know.”
He added, “And the possibility of being disappointed is so real. It’s only when you’re willing to risk something that the stakes are this high, and I don’t think the stakes have been this high for him in a long time. For the past three years, in the bunker, he sort of settled into a life of disappointment and trying to shield that disappointment from his children because he misses his woman. He misses her so much. That’s what the season is about. We are going to encounter people, right? And they’re going to be just like in any situation; I think that these massive tragedies bring out the best in humanity, and they bring out the worst in humanity. We’re going to see a little bit of both when Xavier gets into the outside world. We’re also going to see what happens to the bunker. Remember, the main power player, Sinatra, just took a bullet to the chest or whatever from my girl Jane. Is she okay? How does that sort of turn the power dynamic over in that place?”
“I will say this,” Brown said. “There will be a moment in which the outside and the inside collide.”
Sterling K. Brown knows a thing or two about spreading holiday cheer
As families prepare to enjoy celebrations this fall and winter, the actor is celebrating the beauty of connection, tradition, and the love shared among family and friends.
What puts him in the holiday mood?
For Brown, the one thing that is sure to bring him cheer throughout the holiday season is the thing that reminds him most of home — a slice of sweet potato pie.
“My grandmother was known for the sweet potato pie, and then she passed, and my mother sort of took up the mantle and made the sweet potato pie,” he said during an interview with Blavity. “Now my wife [makes it]. She had an aunt who made an excellent sweet potato pie as well.”
Brown added, “It just feels like home instantaneously. It brings me to this happy place. The holidays are not the holidays without some sweet potato pie.”
On passing down holiday traditions
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Brown’s family traditions are rooted in the South, thanks to his family’s migration from Mississippi and Arkansas.
“There are things that, like, need to be on the table,” he said. “If there’s no mac and cheese, I don’t know what’s happening. If there are no greens, no sweet potatoes. … So, there’s sweet potato pie and there are sweet potatoes, and my dad used to kill what they call candied yams, even though yams are only really in Africa. You know what I’m saying?”
“There’s just certain things that are absolute musts in terms of that,” Brown continued. “The other things are just like the holiday traditions of opening the presents with the kids. Every once in a while, we take the football outside. I will get out there and throw the ball with the fellas. I don’t make them dodge traffic the way that I did growing up back in the day. But, just the little things like that to try to stay connected, I try to amend as I pass things along with a little bit more safety than I had when I was a kid myself.”
Staying connected with family and the sense of home
Staying connected with family and the sense of home that is often craved the most during the holidays are reasons Brown is partnering with Shipt ahead of the season.
“The partnership focuses on connection. My wife, my two boys and I, who live out in Los Angeles, have a wonderful time during the holidays with each other, but oftentimes we miss our extended family,” he said. “So, the idea that we could find a way to be connected to our families in St. Louis, on the East Coast, etc., with this gifting option that Shipt has, where I can send them something, whether it be groceries or anything else that they need in their day-to-day life during the holidays to let them know that I’m thinking of them, that I’m still connected to them.”
“Holidays are a time for community. It is a time for connection,” Brown continued. “And sometimes we feel very isolated, and so this option through Shipt lets them know that I love them, that I’m thinking about them, and I get to include a little card, a little message, and everybody feels connected. That’s very important during the holidays.”