‘The Fosters’ Star Sherri Saum: Have a Little Faith in Stef and Lena
‘The Fosters’ Star Sherri Saum: Have a Little Faith in Stef and Lena
As The Fosters summer finale approaches, one visitor — trouble — doesn’t look to be going anywhere anytime soon.
For starters, there’s the fact that Callie slept with her foster brother Brandon (after two and a half seasons of epic tension) just as she’s about to appear in court to be adopted by his parents (yikes!). And then we have our lead parental figures, Stef (Teri Polo) and Lena (Sherri Saum), and the frighteningly rocky road their relationship has taken over the past nine episodes.
Despite Stef finding out about Lena being kissed by her boss, fans shouldn’t worry too much about the state of their marriage, Saum tells Yahoo TV. “I definitely have hope for this couple,” she says. “I think that no matter what’s going on, they have a fierce love for each other.”
In fact, Saum is happy about the “realness” depicted in her fictional marriage. “It’s a really natural situation that can come up. When you have so many kids in the house and so many crises day after day, you neglect each other. It’s a recipe for the erosion of your marriage,” she says. “Everybody experiences this in some way or another, married or just boyfriend-girlfriend. I think it’s highly relatable.”
She also sees some of the hot-button issues touched upon during the show — from depression to sexuality — as one way she’s making a difference in people’s lives.
“Television is an incredible medium and it’s what we look to sometimes, for better or for worse. It just pulls that curtain back on all these things that people have deemed shameful or controversial,” she says. “To just give a voice to people who don’t have one — and in a very not after-school special kind of way but like a very ‘this is life’ kind of way — I think it’s incredibly healing. And even though it’s just a TV show, I think it’s incredibly powerful.”
The Fosters Season 3 summer finale airs Monday at 8 p.m. on ABC Family.
