‘The Haves and the Have Nots’ Star Angela Robinson Talks the Ups — and Downs — of Being an Honest TV Villainess

(Photo: OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network)

First of all, let’s repeat to ourselves: yes, Angela Robinson plays a character who has tried to burn her husband alive and blackmailed her son for being gay, but her Veronica Harrington is just that — a character she plays on TV. Some viewers of The Haves and the Have Nots have taken OWN’s Tyler Perry-created primetime soap a tad too seriously, though…

“I had an experience with a fan who walked up, slapped me on the back. It wasn’t on the face. Somebody wrote that, but it wasn’t on the face. Slapped me on the back, and told me what a terrible mother I was, how I should get it together,” Gracie Award winner Robinson tells Yahoo TV. “She was very serious. I turned around, and she said, ‘You need to do better. You have a good husband, a good son.’ She’s going on and on, and I turned around, and I said, ‘Hi, I’m Angela, and I have no children.’"

Fortunately, to counter those scarier reactions, Robinson’s also gotten some positive and powerful responses from parents who had trouble accepting their own children’s sexuality, and, she says, that’s why it’s so important to be very honest in her portrayal of Veronica. She also talks about the real-life inspiration for Veronica, and how Perry has told her not to expect Veronica to become more mellow anytime soon as the show, which returns Tuesday, kicks off the second half of its fourth season.

The midseason finale in March ended with a big cliffhanger, as a gun was fired inside Veronica’s house. What can you hint about what’s to come?
I can just tell you that there’s going to be more drama, more intrigue, maybe some of the questions that viewers have will be answered, and then it’ll just create more questions.

I read a description of one of the upcoming episodes, “Criminology 101,” which airs June 28, and it was simply: “Veronica is malicious towards David.” I just thought, on any other show, that would tell you something, but here, it’s probably going to prove to be such an understatement.
[Laughs] That’s true, because [she’s] so far beyond malicious toward David. I think it’s borderline abusive.

In lesser hands, Veronica could come off as cartoonish in her villainy, but she’s more complex than that. How would you describe her?
I think she’s definitely a complex character. The way that she loves is very tough. She is one of the most controlling people that I’ve ever known. I just feel like I know her intimately, but I think it’s because of that control, because she has lost control, I think that’s why she lashes out so much. Because controlling people, people who are perfectionists like that, the last thing that you can take away from them is their control. I feel like she hasn’t been able to control her son, hasn’t been able to control her husband, and that’s really, literally, driving her crazy.

Is that motivated by her being afraid of losing what she has, what she’s fought and worked so hard to have in her life, to become one of the “Haves”?
Absolutely. She worked so hard to pull herself up out of the south side of Chicago, out of what was probably not the best of circumstances in her own childhood, that I think losing that, she can’t fathom it. The only way she knows to keep it is that everything stays perfect, that you get the perfect education, you have the perfect job, you study hard, you work hard, you marry the perfect man, and you have the perfect child.

Do you have to like a character that you play to play them, and do you like Veronica?
I do like Veronica. I think that on some level, you do. Intellectually, you can look at it and say, “Wow, this character’s losing it,” but you have to find a reason that she could be losing it. I say all the time to people that people who are crazy, people who are diabolical, people who are ruthless, they don’t know it. They don’t walk around saying, “I’m crazy. I’m diabolical. I’m ruthless.” And I prefer to play her as if I don’t know how crazy she is.

One of the most fascinating things about her and your performance is her ability to remain calm when no one else around her is. It’s what makes her so incredibly intimidating, but also compelling to watch. How do you do that when, again, all of the other characters are always at level 20? Even when she’s delivering her most delicious take downs, she’s so calm and cool.
You know what? I really don’t know where that came from, except I know that our show in general is high-drama. It’s so much drama. There’s always somebody crying and breaking down, and somebody either died or was in an accident. I made a choice early on not to be pulled into someone else’s performance or someone else’s delivery of what they felt grief was, or what happiness was, or sadness, and I always try to maintain a Veronica version of that so that I don’t fall into the drama and go with what’s happening, but [instead] create some type of tension to what’s happening. It was sort of a choice early on, and now I just enjoy it. Whenever it’s happening, Veronica’s going to go the other way.

I know Veronica. I do know someone intimately that I sort of based the character on. I can never say who, because she would have a fit, but this person is exactly that way. She is exactly that way, and so I sort of got that from her.

Has portraying Veronica given you any insight into how to deal with this real-life Veronica inspiration?
Absolutely, yes. I realize that that is an area where I have to give up control, because that person is not going to change. I have to accept them for who they are. In the beginning of doing this role, I kept coming back every season expecting Veronica to change, expecting Mr. Perry to write her nicer, more vulnerable, because her marriage is falling apart, because she can’t get her way with her son. But when I come back and I get the script, she’s more diabolical. I realized that people don’t change that fast. I think it’s true to life. Even with Veronica’s son being gay, and her being against that, I wanted her to get over that the first season. I was like, “Okay, I hope she comes back, and she embraces her son,” but then I talked to many of my gay friends who tell me it took some of their parents 20 years to come around. I realized people just don’t change as fast as I would like to see the character change. I enjoy the fact that this character is true to life.

Have you gotten reactions from parents of gay children who maybe see some of their behaviors mirrored in Veronica and have rethought their attitudes?
Yes, I have, which makes me very happy. I’ve had people, church people, who were adamantly against the gay lifestyle, and then they watch the show, and they tell me when they meet me, "I don’t like it either, but he’s your son. Ease up on him. You should love no matter what.” They’re saying things to me that I hope someone said to them at some point. That’s why I think it’s important to delve into a character totally and not sugarcoat it, because that’s the way people can really see themselves and say, “Wow, I don’t want to be like that.” That was what I had hoped would happen with Veronica. It’s happened. On several occasions, I’ve had people say that to me.

And then there are those occasional negative reactions when people seem to forget this is a fictional character. How did you deal with the woman who hit you on the back, for instance?
Once we had a conversation, it was fine. I certainly could’ve been upset about it, because she was so adamant and we were in a public place, but once we had a conversation, she was fine. I had a situation recently on Facebook where someone actually came on Facebook and threatened to kill me, because of the way [Veronica is] such a horrible person and the way she treats her son and all of that. I’ve had some situations, but all of that, to me, is confirmation that I’m doing my job. It’s also confirmation [of the power] of the writing in the storyline, because I’ve always felt that great art should make you feel something. It should make you feel good or make you feel bad or outraged. When it brings out those feelings, then I really feel good about the story that we’re telling.

That’s still got to be a little scary, though.
Absolutely. Yeah. We reported it and all of that. I don’t feel afraid. I feel like wow, that’s kind of crazy. It’s got Veronica beat.

Aside from those instances, can you imagine that anyone is having more fun in primetime than you are playing this character?
I can’t imagine it. I am having the time of my life. We were on set recently, and it was one of those Veronica scenes, and I came outside and Mr. Perry was sitting there. I said, “Mr. Perry, Veronica’s going to be nice next season, right?” He started laughing, and he said, “No, this is too much fun.” It really is. We have such a good time with the character. Mr. Perry keeps me laughing on set, because he treats me as if I were Veronica. He goes, “Oh, I can’t stand you!” I’m like, “Me? Ohhh, Veronica.” I think it’s very funny, because he’s the one that wrote her. Yeah, I’m just having such a great time. There’s just so few times in [a career] that you get to breathe life into such a complex, complicated character like this.

You also played Shug Avery in The Color Purple on Broadway, another fierce one-of-a-kind woman. Would you be bored at this point playing a calm, understated character?
I don’t know. I think I might be. But listen, I think I might be bored, but I’m willing to be bored for just a minute, just a little second, just so that everybody can know I have a little range [Laughs].

Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on OWN.