SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Season 3, Episode 12 of All American: Homecoming.
Monday’s penultimate episode of All American: Homecoming seemed, in many ways, to be about healing.
After standing up to a major recording artist about his work, Cam (Mitchell Edwards) is looking for new opportunities, and Keisha (Netta Walker) wants to help. But, since their breakup, Cam hasn’t been willing to even stay in the same room as Keisha, let alone allow her to give him any sort of aid. So, she enlists Lando’s help to set up an intimate venue at Bringston for Cam to perform some of his music.
“I think we both knew that they had really deep love for each other,” Walker told Deadline. “But this particular episode, I was really proud of her for, even in this adversity between the two of them, being there for someone that she loves whenever they don’t necessarily want her to be there. I think that really speaks to who she is and how she sees Cam.”
Meanwhile, Keisha is also lending support to Simone (Geffri Maya) as she tries to rekindle her relationship with Lando (Martin Bobb-Semple), and she’s trying to navigate a new normal with JR (Sylvester Powell) after the kiss that ended both their relationships.
Walker spoke with Deadline about the episode and teased the upcoming finale of All American: Homecoming.
DEADLINE: This is the penultimate episode of the season. How are you feeling about everything officially coming to an end?
NETTA WALKER: It’s definitely bittersweet. I’m very proud of what we got to do this season, and it definitely felt like one of the most exciting seasons I personally have gotten to shoot. It’s been weird as it’s been airing, recognizing that this era of life has passed as quickly as it has, and this wonderful experience is ending. It’s really, really strange. I feel like the last few seasons, we’ve at least kind of prepped and hoped for coming back, but it’s been odd, that’s for sure. I’m very thankful that we got to end it on this note, though.
DEADLINE: It’s been an intense season for Keisha and Cam. What was your reaction to finding out what would be going down with them?
WALKER: What was so cool about the show is we always got a phone call with [showrunners] Marqui and NK right before we started getting the scripts. So I got a bit of a low down of what was to come. I got really excited. I love, as an actor, playing high stakes, and when I heard a bit about this love triangle, I was really excited one to get to play a dynamic where you get to experience two different types of love at one time, and in this particular era of life for these characters.
I was just really excited to tell more of the story about Simone’s journey and how that affects the relationships around her. Specifically Keisha, just her response to having to be present for a friend in a way that she’s never had to be present, especially after this journey with her mother. It was really exciting to get to dive into what that feels like for Keisha and how that affects her relationships, and I think it directly affected her relationship with Cam.
DEADLINE: Keisha has been pulled in a lot of different directions this season, and while she certainly missteps, she handles things with much more maturity than I think she previously might have. How do you think she’s grown since Season 1 to be able to go through this trying time?
WALKER: I feel like Keisha Season 1, if she was given this information, would have been far more chaotic and without remorse. I feel like at this point in Keisha life, she’s really understanding that there are consequences to her actions and that she is not the only person in the world. Earlier on, Keisha was definitely much younger and much more willing to just throw caution to the wind and do whatever, and I think in this particular circumstance, she does understand that there are really heavy repercussions that are about to happen in her life.
I do think she could have handled it a bit better, but I don’t know if she had the tools. Knowing your friend is going through cancer treatments after losing a parent, and then also not feeling connected to your partner and finding that connection in someone else in this particular time in life is really confusing and really complicated to juggle, and I think she handles it the best that she can.
DEADLINE: You have a few intense scenes with Mitchell Edwards this season, including the one in this episode where Keisha opens up to him about her tendency to self-sabotage in an effort to contextualize the kiss with JR. How was that to film with Mitchell?
WALKER: I just think Mitchell is one of the most special people I’ve ever met and one of the most talented people I’ve been given the chance to work with. So he makes it very easy, and we’ve cultivated a relationship over the last three years where we’ve been able to have really fun and challenging dialogues about where our characters are and the journeys they’re going through. I wouldn’t change that for the world. It’s been really special. I’m very thankful for the relationship that we got to cultivate. It was really exciting going into the season, recognizing that we get to have some serious conflict. It was funny, because when we got the breakup episode, it was really bittersweet for both of us, because we’re like, ‘Oh, how exciting that we get to play a scene so heartbreaking with someone that we really trust,’ and to know that I was going to be held in these moments with him. Shooting was so hard, because it was a full day of going through all of the breakup moments in that episode — a lot of crying, and it ended with that scene, and afterwards, we both had a big cry and a hug, and really mourned for Cam and Keisha. We’re hopeful that they would find their way back to each other, because we do really love them for each other.
I’m just really thankful that it was him, and I’m thankful that I got to spend so much time with Sylvester as well, because that was another relationship that I never was given the opportunity to cultivate in the past seasons that we worked on this. Both of them are just so special, and it felt really safe, and that’s all you could ever want with the scene partner. I’m so thankful that I got to excavate all of that with Mitchell. He’s so talented, so gifted, and so giving as a scene partner. So I wouldn’t change it for the world.
DEADLINE: I was happy to see in this episode that maybe there is a path forward for Cam and Keisha. How did you feel about Keisha’s gesture, helping him officially get signed, and seemingly wanting nothing in return?
WALKER: I loved seeing how deeply she really does love him. I think we both knew that they had really deep love for each other. But this particular episode, I was really proud of her for, even in this adversity between the two of them, being there for someone that she loves whenever they don’t necessarily want her to be there. I think that really speaks to who she is and how she sees Cam. She really believes in him and really wants the best for him, and that was very exciting for me as an actor to see because, of course, I felt a little disappointed in her for cheating and not being completely honest, but both of them made mistakes that led up to that moment. Seeing in this episode that she wasn’t going to stop fighting for this person she loves, even if it doesn’t create an outcome that she necessarily wants…she doesn’t want to abandon someone she loves in a time of need, and I think that really speaks to her character, and speaks to the love that they have. I was really happy to see that. I think they’re a very special couple who’ve gone through quite a lot, but that love is still very present between the two of them.
DEADLINE: I also find it interesting that, rather than anyone taking sides, the friend group has really rallied behind everyone involved.
WALKER: How special to get to witness that. I think that in circumstances like this, we as humans are so quick to cut people off or create judgments in circumstances, and I think it just speaks to how deeply this group of friends love each other. That’s so rare to get to see in this capacity. I’m really happy that we didn’t create tensions within the group of friends that divided them, because that’s not exactly the world that I think I would want to see [for] this group of young, Black people discovering who they are. It’s really special to get to see them cast aside judgment and decide that, amongst these mistakes their friends have made, they still love them and they will support them through it all, and that sides are not needed to be taken, but that humans make mistakes and life is really messy, and it can get really cloudy, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your relationships between the people that you care about in order to continue on living.
DEADLINE: Keisha also says in this episode she’s been asked to tour as a backup dancer. After everything that went down with her awful dance teacher, how validating is that for her?
WALKER: It was so exciting, the validation of getting that after everything she has been through. I just am proud of her. I’m very proud of Keisha’s journey, and I think that the conversations we had around Dr. Pace were so necessary, and in the world of young artists, I feel like her achieving the thing that she’s always wanted to achieve made all of that struggle worth it, in a way. I’m just really proud of her after all of that, after all of Dr Pace’s terrible, terrible circumstances she put Keisha under, it all paid off. And I think it was always going to pay off for her, because she’s such a hard worker and she’s so dedicated, and you got to get through hard times in order to get to what you want. I think that that’s the perfect example of that. I hope that provides hope for young people who are going through really hard times when pursuing their love in whatever art form they’re actually pursuing, that you can still make it to the other side no matter how many times people try to tear you down.
DEADLINE: You mentioned this a bit, but I have really enjoyed seeing the cast branch out this season as the characters interact with each other in different ways. You and Sylvester have such great scenes together. How did that add to the experience in this final season?
WALKER: It’s so exciting. Watching the show, you get to watch your peers do wonderful work and admire them. I’ve always admired Sylvester’s work. When I got the word from NK and Marqui that we would be having this journey together, I was so unbelievably excited, and the experience proved to be worth that excitement. He’s just so phenomenal. He’s a phenomenal scene partner, and so professional and so fun, and we really got to explore what it means to do this job together. There’s a couple of scenes I got to shoot with Lando [Martin Bobb-Semple] this season that are really special.
I feel like you get to be on set with people a lot, and you love them as human beings, and then you realize, ‘Wait, we’ve never actually gotten to shoot a scene.’ Then when you do get that opportunity, you’re like, ‘Oh, I love you as a scene partner. How special.’ It just helps you expand who you are as an actor as well, because you get to have all these different opportunities and watch people work from different perspectives and see their processes and have different conversations about character and how the scene plays out. It felt very lucky to really expand on who we got to work with this season. I wish that I got more scenes with both of them and with the other cast mates in the earlier seasons. But it was really cool to get to find all of this with Sylvester. He’s just so talented and special, and he made it easy.
DEADLINE: What do you think really drove Keisha to confide in JR about her street dancing and hide that from Cam, and from her other friends, in the first place? She says the kiss came from a place of self sabotage, but even before that, Keisha was leaning on JR so much.
WALKER: It was really fun to reflect on Season 1 and how she was so adamant to Simone about emotional cheating…and then going on to do it, which I think just makes her so human. We’re human beings, and the cognitive dissonance can be so strong when you are going through an era of time where you feel so lost. I feel like in this particular season — recognizing that Keisha was feeling lost in what she wanted to do, getting denied from colleges, not feeling connected to her partner, and her best friend being diagnosed with cancer after her mother — all of those circumstances would make her lean heavily on someone who she felt understood her, as well as the trauma bond that she had with JR after donating her bone marrow to him. They really saved each other in a way. I felt, as an actor, it’s my job to find a way to make that feel grounded. Personally, when I read the script and was given the information about it, I was like, ‘Yeah, of course, that’s what happens to her.’
Whenever you don’t feel supported or understood by your partner or the people around you, and you’re going through really hard times, you’re going to lean on the person you feel like actually knows you and doesn’t judge you, and JR was that person for her. So I really understood where she was coming from. She makes mistakes. Humans make mistakes. There’s also truths that we don’t tell ourselves in those moments that feel really critical. I think in this point in her life, she was feeling really down and didn’t realize that she had succumbed to emotional cheating, even though she was so adamantly against it in the past. I think that’s just again, the beauty of being human. We make mistakes, and we forget where we are and who we are in moments where we feel really lost. This season, she felt very lost, and then she found street dance, and the only person she felt like she could trust with that was JR. I think it’s vice versa with JR and how he’s trying to save the baseball team. He really dives into that with her, because he doesn’t feel judged.
DEADLINE: What can audiences look forward to from the finale?
WALKER: Oh, it’s tough. I wish that it didn’t come to a conclusion, but I think that they will be pleasantly surprised by how the storylines wrap up. I feel like the audiences will agree with how this ends. It’s still so sad that it is, but I think they’ll look forward to the conclusion of JR, Cam and Keisha especially, and fight for our girl, Simone. I’m excited for people to see how Simone’s storyline wraps up as well. It’s bittersweet. I’m very thankful that we got to do these three seasons, but admittedly, it’s sad to see it go.
DEADLINE: What’s next for you?
WALKER: I am very excited about this journey into writing. I am back in Chicago writing plays and getting my plays workshopped. I’ll be back in LA in October to pitch a series with the American Cinematheque. So it’s been cool journeying into what it means to be a writer and maybe a possible showrunner. I feel like the three seasons of All American: Homecoming were so special because I got to shadow NK and Marqui and so many of the directors, and really just see what it looks like behind the scenes. I’ve always loved being an actor, but there’s something so special about getting to learn firsthand from what a set looks like with this particular show. I can’t wait to step into, hopefully, shoes that mirror NK’s at some point. I’m just very inspired by her and will continue to look to her for mentorship in the next stages of my life. I’m very inspired by like Michaela Coel and Phoebe Waller Bridge and Richard Gadd, and I’m excited to journey into that element of my career, to be a playwright and take plays and turn them into TV series, and hopefully also be in those things that I create.
