luxury locations issue 21

FEATURE

FRESH FROM HER TRIP TO THE TWIN ISLES, THE LEGENDARY ACTRESS TALKS EXCLUSIVELY TO LUXURY LOCATIONS MAGAZINE ABOUT HER GENRE-SPANNING CAREER, HER TURBULENT CHILDHOOD AND HER WORK HELPING VULNERABLE YOUNGSTERS BE THEIR ‘BEST SELVES’ DAWNN LEWIS: ‘I’M VERY MUCH IN LOVE WITH ANTIGUA’ F or a multi award-winning global star Dawnn Lewis is refreshingly candid. She’s unflinching when recounting who’s accrued as many headlines as accolades over a four-decade career,

why her Broadway role in ‘The Tina Turner Musical’ – arguably one of her toughest to date – struck a chord on account of her own experiences with domestic violence, both from witnessing it as a child to suffering herself at the hands of an abusive husband. And again when she laments the propensity with which the entertainment industry is comfortable with pointing out what it views as actors’ inadequacies. The latter may be one reason why she says she’s still “humbled by the accolades” that include a Grammy, multiple BMI and ASCAP awards, and induction to the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame. There have been a lot more too; a trio of recent submissions for Emmy considerations are but a minor illustration of the 61-year-old’s genre-spanning journey through music, the stage, the small screen and the big screen. There’s one for her role as Naima, Carl Carlson’s love interest in the latest season of ‘The Simpsons’. Another for her part as Prime Minister Ángela Honig in TV sitcom Young Rock, based on the life of professional wrestler and actor Dwayne Johnson. And a third for playing Corinne Allen, one of two protagonists in last December’s sobering festive movie ‘Blackjack Christmas’, which deals with somewhat un-festive themes of bereavement, addiction and sibling rivalry.

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