If you haven’t seen Michole Briana White on BMF, you are missing one of the greatest TV moms ever. Michole plays the matriarch of the Flennory family on “BMF,” Lucille Flenory. You couldn’t tell, but Michole didn’t even know the history or really anything about BMF before she auditioned. She still was able to embody the role of Lucille perfectly, even admitting that her and the real Lucille Flennory are so close now that Lucille sends Michole bible verses all the time. She is in town prepping for her live performance Sunday Jan. 19 at City Winery Atlanta, and she stopped at Rolling Out to talk some “BMF” and her musical side.
How did you get the role of Lucille?
Kim Coleman, who’s the casting director, called me in. I totally connected to Lucille from the beginning, and there was a lot of depth to the role and stuff. So I put my all into it and auditioned, I put myself on tape for the audition. And then Russell Hornsby and I have been friends for many years, and we did several August Wilson plays together, but no huge history. And he called me about the role. We were talking about one of our dear friends that passed away and by the end of our conversation, he said, you know, by the way, I heard you had a really great audition for “BMF.” I was like, oh, “BMF?” I had auditioned for so many things that I kind of forgot. He told me that he was doing it, and we got to read together for my audition, which was amazing. Him and Tasha Smith fought for me to be a part of it, and that’s how I got the role.
How are Lil Meech and Da’Vinchi off camera?
They’re wonderful. Like, they’re a mess but I love them so much. I really, really do. It’s funny because when I first got to set and stuff, they both showed up saying, hey, Ma. Especially Meech. He was like, “hey, Ma, how you doing? You want to go over anything?” I was like, wow. I don’t think I’ve ever really had anybody call me Ma or Mom or. So that was, like. It was weird at first, but it’s so endearing. And I love them both so, so much. They’re, like, complete opposites, and so there’s so many special things about each of them, and. And I really love them. It’s like a real family that we have on set.
When are we getting season 4 and what can we expect from it?
Season four is fire. It’s, like, so exciting. It’s much more of a roller coaster ride than we’ve had before. Way more than season three. Way, way more than season three. And especially for Lucille because she is wilding out. At first while filming, I was like oh no why would she do this? No, she would not do that. And I was so upset sometimes while filming. But it was super fun to play her this season.
Why are you looking forward to your performance at The City Winery Sunday Jan. 19? Are you nervous?
I love music and I love singing. It’s another part of my life that I’m beginning to now let people know about. But it’s different though when I’m singing. There’s much more of a vulnerability there for me because there’s no real script. It’s not a character. So, yeah, it is scary for me sometimes because it’s really vulnerable to put myself out there, but it takes a lot of courage for me to do that, to just show up as myself. It’s much more comfortable to have the script or to know I have words that are going to be put together well. But it’s hard sometimes to just show up as me and be okay with that, and so I’m finding my way with that in the music, and I’m really excited about it.
