The votes are in, and fans want more. Netflix’s “Miss Governor” is coming back with Part 2 of the first season. Deco sat down with Miami’s own, Jo Marie Payton, and dished about playing Auntie Grandma on the hit series.
Well, if laughter can kill, then Terry Vaughn is the gal for the job.
Terry plays Mississippi’s first Black lieutenant governor in Tyler Perry’s “Miss Governor.”
Part of the job is keeping her feisty family in line, including Jo Marie Payton.
Jo Marie Payton: “I was going to play her grandmother, and then Mr. Perry said, ‘I don’t know about that, she don’t have any lines on her face. So you better change that.’ So I play her mother.”
Jo Marie Payton: “My character, well, everybody’s calling me Auntie Grandma now. They know that for years I did Harriette in, of course, ‘Family Matters.’”
Yes, as the iconic Harriette Winslow on the ’90s sitcom “Family Matters.”
And the secret to her youthful glow?
Jo Marie Payton: “It’s the man upstairs. You know what I tell people, ‘When He’s not finished with you, He’ll find a way to preserve you,’ so I guess he’s preserving this old girl.”
Funny mama is 305 through and through, and loves Caribbean food at Lorna’s in Miami Gardens.
Jo Marie Payton: “Lorna’s is not far from my house, and when I just want to kick back and have some really good – especially those conch fritters. Y’all, come on now, I got to talk about the conch fritters.”
Working on this project is quite the pleasure.
Jo Marie Payton: “It’s so wonderful to do it, not only with them, but to be in the direction of Mr. Tyler Perry, who I think is a genius. A little over the top, but over the top in a good way.”
Jo Marie Payton: “My idea was to come in and deal with the fact that it was a comedy that dealt with world politics. I said, ‘Who better to do it than somebody like me that can bring the funny into something that’s really serious? Because you can’t ignore it.’ It’s more palatable if you can smile about it, if you can laugh about it, because then it might make you think about it.”
You can catch Ms. Payton in the next eight episodes of Season 1, which is streaming now on Netflix.