Exclusive: P-Valley star explains "female perspective" of strip club drama
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P-Valley star Elarica Johnson has spoken to Digital Spy about the vital importance of viewing the strip club drama through a "female perspective:".
The STARZPLAY drama series, which comes from playwright Katori Hall, examines the dancers working the clubs in the Dirty Delta section of Mississippi, in addition to exploring the customers who pass through the clubs' doors.
Former EastEnders and Harry Potter star Elarica stars as dancer Autumn Night — one of several female characters who drive the narrative of P-Valley.
"The leads are all female, and they're really in-depth characters," she said of the show. "Katori has done the most amazing work by digging deep and fleshing out the stereotypes, and just putting raw characters in the show.
“I've seen plenty of scripts before on strip clubs and it's not been my kind of thing. But this isn't just a show about a strip club or strippers. It's way more than that because we're looking at the people, and their stories, and their journeys. It was also the truth behind the women, and just her writing in general, which is just incredible."
Elarica says she was interested in P-Valley because of the way it shines a female perspective on an area that is most often used to degrade women in fiction.
“I think it has a lot to do with the female gaze, and that's what Katori talks about," the actress noted. "She wanted to make sure that we had female directors on board, and her perspective as a woman, and the characters themselves.
"I think that made a huge difference from what we have seen before when it's come to strippers or strip clubs. It's the male gaze, their experience, or what they think the stripper life or strip clubs are about. And again, that's just seeing one side of things."
She went on: "But the female gaze that Katori talks about is so huge because it's a whole different world. We're talking about women here. We're talking about their lives and their struggles.
"And actually seeing it from a female perspective makes so much more sense than saying, 'Okay, these are the men that go into the clubs, and this is what they see, and this is what they think they know. Well, here is the truth. And here are these women'. We're being open and honest with their stories."
P-Valley airs on STARZPLAY in the UK and Starz in the US from July 12.
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