Crystle Stewart wasn’t planning on playing Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black‘s Mallory Bellarie, but as a woman who’s always up for a challenge, she accepted, and boy, is she (and her flawless bob) delivering!

Tyler Perry‘s latest Netflix drama first picked up steam when the inaugural season’s first half was released in late 2024, and the Bellarie family is back and messier than ever for the second installment of its first season.

Stewart stars in the series as Mallory Bellarie, a successful businesswoman and self-made entrepreneur who is the face of the Bellarie company after marrying into the family fortune. While managing her empire, she juggles the dysfunctions within her family and is willing to do anything to protect her image and riches.

Why is Mallory a character outside of her norm?

“It’s completely different. … Just reading the script alone,” Stewart told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I could do it. And I’ve never played a role that intense, and it’s so opposite from how I truly am. I know it’s acting, but sometimes you can pull from, you know, different things, situations in life, and things like that. Mallory is just a completely different beast from other characters that I’ve played. For Better or Worse was a comedy. Leslie was very sweet and kind and bubbly and wouldn’t hurt anyone, and all the other shows…. House of Payne was a comedy as well. I did Acrimony, but it still wasn’t as intense as Beauty in Black.”

She continued, “It was a completely different role, but I was up for the challenge. I could pull from just different experiences in life and try to watch, you know, a few people, like, ‘OK, how did they navigate a role like this as a villain?’ … So pulling from some past experiences that made me a bit angry in life, to get that out and looking at some Black actresses that play a villain, or these strong, powerful roles that you have to sink some teeth into. It was definitely very different from me.”

The reason why she believes people should hold empathy for the character

Mallory Bellarie is no saint; however, Stewart reminded us that there’s a fine line between balancing the dark with the light, taking it back to a key fact about the person she portrays in the series that may make folks second-guess before they judge her for her actions.

“She’s still a bit of a b***h; even me watching, I’m like, ‘Mallory is something else,'” Stewart said. “I don’t know if people remember in the beginning; it’s like the first scene, first episode — Mallory has been interviewed by a woman, and she tells everyone how she came from foster care, you know, and that Horace found her in a modeling search.”

Stewart added, “Sometimes foster care isn’t the easiest system to go through. So I think, you know, the audience can maybe only imagine what Mallory went through to make her so tough. Because I think people were asking, ‘Why is she so…. mean?’ They love it for some reason, but they do want to know why she is that way. Where is this anger coming from or this fiery attitude? And it’s because of some things that she went through in her past, and I feel that’ll come out if we have more seasons to come. Hopefully, that side of her, the audience will be able to see why she is that way. Why is she so strong and vindictive at the same time?”

The bob eats, but it’s also intentional

One thing about Mallory Bellarie is that the hair slays, and going with the longer blunt-cut bob was a calculated move Stewart and her hairstylist made.

“The bob. The long bob. Something I wanted to do different, I actually talked to them about it coming in because I like beauty and fashion and styling, and I love just makeovers and things like that. So when I looked at the character, I was like, I don’t think she needs this long, flowy hair that I always used to wear in other shows and just myself, you know, period,” Stewart explained. “The original idea was a short bob. I was like, let’s just cut it. … But I felt that the character can evolve into that. … We decided on a long bob, and it’s been a hit.”

What’s it like working alongside legends like Debbie Morgan, Richard Lawson and Ricco Ross?

While Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black features new talent, it is just as packed with powerhouse actors who have more than cemented their status as legends in the game, something that Stewart admits is one of the most exhilarating parts of showing up to set each day.

“Just riding on the van with Debbi Morgan… You learn so much from these people who have been in the game for so long. I would just pick, in that ride, it’s about an hour-long because we have to shoot somewhere off the studio campus, and just picking her brain, like, ‘How was this experience? What about this? And, how did you get into that role?'” Stewart recalled. “So working with her, Richard Lawson is amazing. He’s very motivational, just in life in general; that’s his personality, so he always brings, you know, good vibes to the set, and then Ricco Ross as well, is a vet like in the sci-fi world and things, and they’re just kind people, and they’re always willing to lend, you know, a helping hand or let you kind of roll and do your thing too. So it was just an honor and privilege to work with them, and I definitely learned a lot from how they portray their characters, which, they’re killing it.”

Season 1 of Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black is now on Netflix. It has been renewed for Season 2.