We fell in love with Jill Marie Jones on our favorite sitcom, Girlfriends, but she’s embodying another character with a mind of her own.
Meet Maggie, a woman who’s part of an experiment that swaps spouses in an effort to fix marriages, on Craig Ross Jr.’s Monogamy. During season two of the series, which airs of UMC (AMC Networks’ streaming service), the 45-year-old actress tells ESSENCE that her character is still dealing with the loss of her child and trying to keep her marriage afloat.
“Apparently I love playing crazy characters because Maggie is definitely with complications,” Jones admits. “She is somebody who has found her voice in the second season. First season, you could see that she didn’t really have…her voice; she didn’t feel strong enough to speak her truth.”
Not only that, Maggie was “covered up” in head wraps after she and her husband, played by Wesley Jonathan, “lost their child…and you see that in season two because we do a lot of flashbacks.”
Although fans will naturally want to compare Jones’ performance to her iconic stand-out performance in Girlfriends, a comparison of Maggie and Toni Childs might fall flat.
“Maggie is definitely not Toni Childs. She’s more grounded because Toni’s flying up there somewhere and she’s hurting,” Jones says. “I don’t even know if it’s a real world, you know?”
“So Maggie is definitely different. She definitely is more grounded and second season you see that she has more of a voice and she’s choosing her, and unfortunately it hurts her loved ones,” the actress adds.
Jones feels like it’s an honor to again work with Black creators. The popular series—also starring Brian White, Darius McCrary and Vanessa Simmons —was created by married couple Caryn Ward, who also stars, and Craig Ross, Jr.
“It’s almost like an unspoken language, which is lovely,” the actress says of working with the two. “And also they’re brilliant. The writing is on the wall; you see the episodes and they’re just so rich in our culture, but also too what’s beautiful is you don’t have to be Black to get these stories, you know what I mean? They’re human experiences that if you’ve ever been in love before you understand it. So I just think it’s just lovely to be a part of it.”
Season two of Craig Ross Jr.’s Monogamy is streaming now on UMC.