Government Cheese takes a different approach to showcase life for a Black family living in California during the late 1960s. Its surrealism reminds us of the magic many possessed during that time, despite some of the world forces, such as racism, that they were up against.

According to the official show synopsis for the Apple TV+, “Government Cheese is a surrealist family comedy set in 1969 San Fernando Valley that tells the story of the Chambers, a quirky family pursuing lofty and seemingly impossible dreams, beautifully unfettered by the realities of the world. When Hampton Chambers (David Oyelowo) is released from prison, his long-awaited family reunion doesn’t go quite as he’d planned. During his absence, Hampton’s wife, Astoria (Simone Missick), and sons, Einstein (Evan Ellison) and Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), have formed an unconventional family unit, and Hampton’s return spins their world into chaos.”

‘Refreshing to explore a story not rooted in trauma or politics,’ says Simone Missick

“I think that it was so exciting to be able to approach these characters in this story without having to navigate that balance,” Missick said of how refreshing it was to explore a story that was not rooted in trauma or politics.

“You were able to just explore them as people, their humanity, their joys, what their desires were, as opposed to looking at it with the lens of what was happening at that time. We’ve seen those stories so much. Those stories have value, and they’re valid, but this was just a story about a family and about people wanting more for themselves and their lives, and it was fun for David and I, who at first were trying to figure it out, and then once we realized, ‘Oh no, we can just completely give in to the story without those other things,’ it was beautiful.”

Oyelowo, who starred as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, noted he’s arguably built his career portraying characters during this period exhibiting the struggle and enjoyed being able to explore the dreams of a Black man during that period, dreams that could appear pretty selfish, as his Government Cheese character will stop at nothing to make them come true.

“What was really amazing was to have a more celebratory opportunity, especially as it pertains to a Black family and you talk about and themes — the likes of which are faith and aspiration and invention and the American Dream through the lens of a Black family in a part of America that I don’t think we’ve seen much of on film or television, i.e., the San Fernando Valley in LA at that time. So all of those things were incredibly refreshing, and we hope that will be the case for the audience.”

Bokeem Woodbine on Bootsy

When asked to describe his colorful character, Bootsy, Bokeem Woodbine said his catchphrase would be something like, “Smoke this; it’ll help you relax.”

“Bootsy is a bit of a foil, but also an instigator,” he continued. “And what I mean by that is he understands that sometimes in life, you have to give people a little bit of a push, you know? It’s one thing to have an aspiration, a dream, and, you know, ambition, but if you’re not willing to take certain risks, and if you’re just so confident that walking in a straight line is going to get you where you need to go, you might need a friend to give you a push and understand that sometimes life zigzags. … In order to get where you need to go, you can’t always take the straight and narrow path, and sometimes you need a friend who has that kind of, you know, grand vision to inspire you to do what you got to do. Sometimes you got to do the wrong thing to do the right thing. There’s a right way to do the wrong thing. Bootsy is the kind of person that thinks that he knows what Hampton needs to do in order to get what he really wants out of life.”

“Personally, I feel like there’s so little surrealism in Black cinema,” Woodbine said. “Oftentimes, the topics that we deal with onscreen are grounded in stark reality. We rarely deal with this kind of existentialist surrealism, and I think it works so well for us because, I mean, I believe we are magic, so why shouldn’t we express that? And magic isn’t always grounded in a didactic day-to-day reality. Sometimes our imaginations take us to places that ultimately our bodies follow just because we have conceived it.”

He added, “Think about how creative we are, what we’ve been able to make out of nothing. So how come that’s not always reflected in our stories that we tell using the visual medium and the visual art form? So I think that this is a great, groundbreaking foray into that.”

Government Cheese is now streaming on Apple TV+. Check out the full cast interview below:

Evan Ellison

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