After a year that saw her star rise exponentially (she’s one of the leads on OWN’s “The Haves and Have Nots,” and she co-starred in Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas), Sumpter admits that she’s adjusting to fame. She sees that more people recognize her on the street — and also understands why certain production studios are more receptive to her now.
“It definitely helps [you get into] the room when you become more visible,” she says of the treatment she gets from industry insiders now. “You get more opportunities and different scripts to read. It’s definitely a small change.” But she’s quick to add that she still feels unaffected by her career’s upswing. “I don’t really look around and smell all the roses. I have so much further to go and I want to do so much more. I’m still like ‘Oh, you know me?’” she says, laughing again. “I enjoy it and I appreciate the people who do follow me and have been following me for a while. But I’m in no way satisfied. I don’t feel there’s an arrival point.”
But being Tika Sumpter means a significant male fan base. The beauty with the 1,000-watt smile has yet to have any unsavory experiences with overzealous male fans, and she says she just enjoys that the guys enjoy her work so much.
“My fans are really awesome. I haven’t had to do anything crazy yet [laughs]. I respect them, they respect me. I can still walk around freely. People are very respectful. If they want to take a picture, they can sit down and we can chat. I’m not on that Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie level yet. It’s always nice when men are like ‘We love you.’ I love it. Women as well. I’m just grateful for their support and love.
“People [say] ‘Omigosh, you’re so nice,’” she adds, slightly bemused that the public would expect her to be anything but. “I’m a pretty chill person. Maybe it’s because of [her character] Candace [Young] on ‘The Haves and Have Nots’ — they expect me to be a little mean. Or maybe it’s just celebrity.”
