Actress Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blue fame) chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about her 2021 Daytime Emmy nomination for the digital series “The Gaze.”
The show, written and created by Larry Powell, earned a total of two Daytime Emmy nominations: “Outstanding Multiple Camera Editing for a Drama or Daytime Fiction Program” for editor Joey Scoma, and for “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Daytime Fiction Program” for Lawrence. The series was honored with a Webby Award for “Diversity and Inclusion” and it won for “Outstanding Comedic Digital Series” at the Micheaux Film Festival.
“Earning the Emmy nomination was so moving,” she said. “I was shooting in Calgary, where we went for COVID testing three times a week. I received a text from Larry Powell and it couldn’t be more perfect coming from him. He is the origin of this beautiful work that will last forever, but of the tribe that came together to make it. This series felt so important to me.”
“Although we filmed it in isolation, we didn’t feel isolated,” she said. “We were together for eight hours every day. It was like a regular production, we had a call time to set up our equipment since it was a learning curve for a lot of us, and some scenes required different setups.”
In “The Gaze,” Lawrence plays Miranda Cryer, their fearless leader, and director opposite Galen J. Williams, who plays Jerome Price.
She praised executive producer Angelica Robinson and Larry Powell for having “one of the most beautiful partnerships.” “It is a melding of their interests in the performing arts and their creative impulses that are so elevated. They are both organized doers and I don’t think we could have accomplished this without them,” she said. “They have such great qualities as shared organization skills, delegation, and patience with all of us.”
For young and aspiring actors, Lawrence said, “Stay flexible and be willing to let go of the idea of permanence, and understanding that being an artist means that you must evolve, absorb and shift.”
“Acting is about evolution and transformation. If you stay rigid in your expectations and even in your needs, you are limiting yourself. It is important to realize that you are a good fit for those realities,” she added.
She also encouraged aspiring actors to understand their own nervous systems and emotional pressures. “You must learn to handle your nervous system,” she said.
On the title of the current chapter of her life, she said with a sweet laugh, “Big little girl on the prairie.” “Now, I’m in Calgary, which is the prairie,” she said.
Lawrence defined the word success as “sharing.”
For her fans and supporters, she concluded about “The Gaze,” “Find your strength in vulnerability and have the confidence to make change.”
To learn more about “The Gaze,” check out its IMDb page, its official website, and its Facebook page.
