She’s had a four-decade career with many powerful roles, but it seems none more iconic than her Living Single character, Maxine Shaw.

According to Alexander, the character fully developed out of the chemistry she was able to have with her castmates.

“I thought immediately that I admired every one of the cast. We got together and all of us just started laughing and having fun,” she said. “And there are all sorts of magical things that can happen when you’re that young — you just start to play. And then the chemistry starts.”

Aside from cast chemistry, Alexander said that the show’s writer and producer Yvette Lee Bowser also gave the actors the room to fully explore their roles.

Alexander said the way Max walked was inspired by Sherman Hemsley and her clapback style came by way of Marla Gibbs.

“I watched all those people and loved them,” she said. “I appreciate that somehow they gave me the courage to try things but also the attitude I needed. I always say that Maxine Shaw is the house that Fox built, not just because I was on Fox. I really wasn’t talking about them so much as Redd Foxx, Michael J. Fox – those people I admire in comedy, you can see that in their DNA.”

The fictional lawyer-turned-alderwoman quickly became a real-life inspiration for many women, those like Stacey Abrams, who according to Alexander, said Shaw was the reason she got into politics.

“Shout out to people like Stacey Abrams and Marilyn Mosby and Mayor de Blasio and his wife and others who have come up to me and said because of that character, they went into politics or they became a lawyer or they became CEOs or leaders. And here I am with a high school degree, although I did get into NYU, I just kept acting, ‘cause I thought it was the best way to help my family. I’m glad that it resonated. And to all the young people who now are finding it because it’s being played and come up now and give me so much hugs and love, thank you, I don’t take that for granted.”

Erika-Alexander

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