‘Sistas’ Actress Mignon Wants People to Heal or “You’re Just Going to Keep Living in the Same Cycle”

Tyler Perry’s comedy-drama series Sistas follows the lives of a friendship group, whose storylines are conversation-starters in person and online. The sister circle includes Andrea “Andy” Barnes (KJ Smith), Daniella “Danni” King (Mignon), Karen Mott (Ebony Obsidian) and Sabrina Hollins (Novi Brown), who are dealing with relationship issues, career choices and friendship drama that many can relate to.

This season, Danni is fresh out of a breakup with her on-again, off-again boyfriend Preston (Trinity Whiteside), facing her abuser and trying to confirm if one of her best friends is dead. But despite her trauma, one thing viewers can consistently expect Danni to provide is comedic relief. “People don’t always understand the method to her madness because I mean, just quite frankly, it’s kind of a luxury to be vulnerable,” Mignon says of her character. “It’s 100 percent a defense mechanism” from her deep pain.

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Mignon, who says her mom and aunt were major inspirations for her role, learned early on, from watching her grandmother, that Black women did not have space to safely process their feelings if they are sad. “But you’ll see them get mad, right?” she says. “You’ll see them get upset because that’s typically the response that gets a reaction from people. … There are studies that even show as early as 5 years old, Black girls are seen as less innocent as other 5-year-old girls. So what that tells us is that, maybe you don’t say it to us directly and maybe we don’t directly or consciously say [it, but the feeling is], ‘Oh, OK, my tears don’t matter.’”

Tears are rarely, if ever, seen from Danni, but beyond her humor, she copes by turning to substances and bringing strangers home. “Danni has an overall general wound of not being seen and understood and feeling wanted and feeling desired,” Mignon says. “Her dad is gone [on the road as a truck driver], so of course she doesn’t feel wanted from him, and then her mom is just kind of emotionally unavailable because she’s in so much pain because she feels alone, too.”

Whether dealing with a lack of autonomy, emotional instability or being jaded from the inconsistency in their love lives, each friend is overcoming her own struggle, causing all of them, at one point, to feel scared and misunderstood.

Danni’s relationship with Preston is proof that even within the women’s romantic relationships, their safety is called into question. According to Mignon, Preston is the “unhealed good guy,” as he’s currently engaged to someone else while he’s in love with Danni and actively trying to win her back. “You know that guy that you like and it’s like, ‘Wow, he’s a really good guy but he has some toxicity about him,’” Mignon says. “He’s out here doing the most just to get his needs met, and is going as far as ultimatums and manipulation and that’s never going to make someone feel safe enough to love you.”

The actress says her past experiences with high-school crushes, emotional struggles and bullying help her to get into character. And she relies on music to get into the state of mind to deal with the heaviness of Danni’s life.

“Scars to Your Beautiful,” by Alessia Cara is the song she has on repeat. “If you listen to the lyrics of that song, she just wants to be beautiful and that’s really something that Danni doesn’t really get to articulate.”

With Sistas shedding a light on many wounds of men and women from various backgrounds, Mignon says her goal is for people to heal. “You have to be healed enough to know you deserve better … because if you don’t, you’re just going to keep living in the same cycle.”

Sistas airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on BET.

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