In Conversation With 'The Boys' Susan Heyward
Susan was photographed and interviewed by Alison Engstrom. Hair by Cody Ainey and makeup by Shyanna Lundi.
How would you describe your journey to where you are now?
I would describe it as constant transformation. I'm very blessed, too. When I set an intention, I work hard for it, and I am blessed if it happens. I've learned that you can work hard, make sacrifices, and you can get lucky as well. Be prepared to take advantage of a lucky stroke. Then when the dream that you had comes true, you get to change the dream and have a new one, and start the process all over again.
I love that. What was your initial dream when you started?
I wanted to be in regional theater. I wanted to travel the country, perform in the coolest, most prestigious theaters, and do great classic roles. I'd been acting for a while, it had gotten me through school and kept me focused. Then I went to Carnegie Mellon where I got a scholarship to study it even more seriously. I saw a performance of Madea in Pittsburgh while I was going to college. I thought this liberal arts education was amazing and I could take it and do a lot of other things, but I wanted to be a professional actor. I wanted to do what I saw on that stage.
What was it that excited you?
It was her control of language. I was raised on TV, and there's a certain economy of language that you have to have when work is on screen— there's a punchiness to it. It's very lean and streamlined, which is great for that medium. But when you are in the theater, words get to flourish. They get to be extravagant. You get to have these muscular language skills that aren't always necessary if you're doing on-camera work. I love the sense of play and the sense of imagination. A bunch of strangers would come and sit down and decide, okay, we're all going to imagine this thing together. I fell in love with that sense of community and lust for language.
What do you think has been the key ingredient to your success?
My goal was to be in theater and pay my bills which in itself is hard to do. So the bills came and I needed to pay them. It was one more audition and one day closer to taking care of myself and being self-sufficient. There is also a spiritual thing along with it. If I open myself up to what's going on in my life to the creator who created me, usually the part that comes that I get cast in. There's alignment with what I'm going through in my life, too. I also have to say, I had so much help. It wasn't just a secret sauce thing. I had teachers who extended themselves, like my high school teacher, Danny Murray. When I was auditioning for colleges, I didn't think I could get into Carnegie Mellon. He worked with me extra hours after class, worked on my monologue, encouraged me, and made me feel like I was as ready as possible. So there’s been teachers, directors, playwrights, and actor friends. It takes a community of people to keep us going, it's definitely not something you can do alone.
Was there a moment when things shifted for you?
I thought I was really business savvy and I could continue my theater habit and use TV appearances to pay the bills. There was a moment in the industry where you could do theater pretty routinely and then have one or two commercials or television appearances, and that would be enough to live a solid life in LA or New York. And so that was the plan I had. I was blessed enough to understudy for for Condola Rashad in The Trip to Bountiful, starring Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams, and Cuba Gooding Jr. It was a moment where I thought, this is my dream. I'm doing it. I'm working with these incredible artists but there's still a certain economic pressure that I'm under and I have to make a change. So I started to pursue television, as a way to stay professional and not kill myself with survival jobs, in between theater shows. I did not expect what would happen and what would come after. I'm grateful for how that one decision has opened up so many other doors. There's a dream of the show and then there's the reality. I needed some supplementary income and it made me more open to television than I had been before that and changed everything.
Now talk about ‘The Boys’. Congratulations on season four and I know season five was announced, which is awesome. What have you loved the most about playing your character, Sister Sage?
One of the mantras I've had throughout my career is the goal to never play two similar characters back-to-back. So for instance, if I play a princess for a few months, the next role I need to play is someone with a different economic status, it can't be another princess. So Sage was unlike any other character. I loved that she's not concerned with being liked or being the moral center of the people around her. I think I have ended up in that position a lot of the time, especially as a black woman. I think we like to look to black women as moral guides, which is a beautiful thing, but I didn't want that to put me in a box creatively. I love the fact that she's got superpowers.
Are you working on anything else that people should know about?
Earlier this winter, I worked on an independent film called Silent Partner, which I'm excited about. They're still getting the rough cut together, but it's a legal drama. I play the wife of a lawyer who takes on a case that's morally challenging.
is there anything you specifically want to do in the future?
I love jumping across genres, fantasy kitchen sink drama, comedy, and thrillers. I feel like at the end of season four of The Boys, there were some serious horror elements, so I'd love to do more horror, too. I'm a nerd of the form but anything that has amazing collaborators and is going to challenge me and push me, I'm game.