After a nearly two-year hiatus, MGM+’s acclaimed series, “Godfather of Harlem,” returned for its fourth season on Sunday, April 13th.
Created by Chris Brancato (Narcos, Hotel Cocaine), “Godfather of Harlem” gives viewers an inside look into the turbulent and unscrupulous underworld of Harlem during the 1960s by creating enthralling fictional storylines involving real-life figures and events.
Season 4 starts with historical context as it picks up on the aftermath of Malcolm X‘s assassination and the mobilization of the Black Panthers.
This season also features the series’ main character, Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (Forest Whitaker), locked in a power struggle with the New York Mafia families. And as the stakes get higher and bloodier, a new player is thrown into the fold.
Emmy-winning actor Rome Flynn joins the cast, stepping into the role of a young Frank Lucas, the notorious drug kingpin who would become one of Harlem’s most infamous figures.
Flynn embodies Lucas’s “by any means” attitude in the award-winning film American Gangster, which is based on the North Carolina native’s life and rise in the treacherous drug trade of the 1960s and 1970s. Lucas’s arrival in Harlem introduces a new dynamic and potential rivalry as he begins to carve out his path in the shadow of Bumpy’s legacy.
As the season is underway and the series dives into the nuanced stories of Harlem, the Black Wall Street Times spoke with Flynn about his portrayal of Lucas and its impact on the series.
Q&A with Rome Flynn
The Black Wall Street Times: In season 4, your portrayal of Lucas serves as an origin story. Can you discuss how his character evolves throughout this season? What challenges does he face, and how does he grow?
Rome Flynn: I think the lessons he learns are lessons that a young man would learn anywhere. It’s just that these circumstances are a lot more. So there are bigger consequences. Maybe you can relate to a young man trying to navigate and find his place in the world, trying to find a job, and making sure he comes home at the right time. But for him [Frank Lucas], it’s like trying to find the parallels between a young man in a much more severe situation.
What was your experience working alongside Forest Whitaker in his role as Bumpy Johnson?
RF: It’s been a dream come true, really. He’s one of the best actors in our business. He is one of the best actors of the past 40 years. So, having the opportunity to work alongside him has been a dream come true. As an actor, you want to seek out these opportunities to work with actors who have always been great, so you can figure out how to get there at some point.
You’ve mentioned that Frank Lucas is both ruthless and charming. How did you balance these traits in your performance, and what do you think makes him such a compelling character?
RF: There’s something freeing about a person who is unafraid and unapologetically themselves. I relate to that in a way. I want to be more like that at times in my life. But the charm is his ability to get what he wants from life. He knew he wasn’t afforded certain things, so just by nature, he had to figure out ways to get them. In my mind, I created scenarios where I felt he needed to be charming to eat, maybe even survive. So now we fast-forward to Harlem, and he’s still using those same things and the same tricks in his bag. He’s still maintaining that level of danger and ruthlessness because you have to watch over your shoulder.
Did you have any creative input in shaping your portrayal of Lucas? Did you feel any pressure?
RF: As an actor, you want to have the responsibility of trying to shape a character. Obviously, the bones are there with this character, so it’s just about how we want to tell the story and the details. I love that Chris [Brancato] leaned on me to help shape those things, from the accent to how I walked. He had complete confidence in me, supported me, and made me feel whatever I was doing was right, and he trusted my preparation. He trusted my work ethic, which got me here, so I credit him for giving me the space creatively to play such a complex character.
In your opinion, what makes Lucas such a polarizing figure on screen and in pop culture history?
RF: We haven’t seen a guy like Frank Lucas in our time. He’s one of a kind. We’ve seen guys who are drug kingpins, but the fact that he went directly to Asia and made the connection himself made him a visionary on how to get the job done, cutting costs and cutting out the middleman. He was equally charming as he was ruthless, allowing him to be in so many different spaces, but others couldn’t do that. And the culture attached itself to that.
