Eight seasons is a long time, long enough to grow up, find your footing, and become something bigger than you ever imagined when you first walked on set. For Shamon Brown Jr. and Michael V. Epps, the two actors who brought Papa and Jake to life on Showtime’s The Chi, that journey has been equal parts personal and cultural.
The Quintessential Gentleman sat down with both of them to talk about what it meant to document their adolescence in real time, the responsibility of representing young Black men on screen, and what it felt like to walk onto set for the very last time.
“Being a young actor, you’re just happy to be on screen,” he said. “Like, hey, look, I’m on TV.” But what settled in over time was something deeper than visibility. “Something could be long but not necessarily impactful,” he added. “The fact that we are part of something so long and impactful, and we represented the childhood and boys to men of this show, it’s a beautiful thing.”
Epps zeroed in on the show’s willingness to tackle real issues as what has stayed with him most. He pointed specifically to a season four storyline addressing human trafficking. “That’s something that really goes on in the city, but it’s not really spoken about,” he said. “I love how they spread light and shine light on real things that don’t really get as much attention as they should.”
“To see it in real time is a different type of beautiful responsibility,” Brown said on what it meant to hear from young Black men who saw themselves in Papa and Jake. “To play such vulnerable, emotional, authentic characters that have so many layers to them, our characters come from two different sides of the track, but they’re able to be best friends and brothers. I want kids to be able to come together and share that same love towards each other, and break down that guard and barrier. It ultimately shows that we’re stronger together than apart.”
On the evolution from season one to the finale, both actors reflected on how much has changed and how much hasn’t. For Epps, the biggest shift has been confidence.
“First stepping onto that set, it’s kind of like a sense of anxiousness, but also nervousness,” he said. “I’m joining something bigger than myself, and I know they’re expecting more from me. From then to now, it’s more of a confidence that I’ve gathered. We’re eight seasons in, we made history, we’re a part of culture now.”
Brown Jr. remembered the early days feeling less like work and more like hanging out. “Before we even started our first day, we got to know each other for at least maybe one or two weeks,” he said. “By the time we came, it’s just like the same kids. Now we’re on set and now we’re kicking it.”
But when it came to that final day on set, the tone shifted. “It was surreal. It was like, here we go. We’re gonna start how we finish it. You gotta come in hot. We came in hot, and y’all gonna see the finished product this season.”
Check out the full interview.
