Interview: Deborah Joy Winans Talks DON'T WASTE YOUR PRETTY, the Finale of GREENLEAF, Her Music Career & More!

Deborah Joy Winans' career is red hot, spanning from TV to film to music, and the multi-talented star is showing no signs of slowing down! Winans recently wrapped up the final season of OWN's NAACP award-winning drama series Greenleaf- executive produced by Oprah Winfrey- where since 2016, she starred as Charity Greenleaf-Satterlee.

Winans also lent her voice to the Greenleaf soundtrack for the song 'Changed' with Patti LaBelle, and for her single 'The Master's Calling', which charted at number 15 on the Gospel Billboard Chart and awarded her a Stellar Award nomination for Best New Artist. She further embraced her music career this summer when she released her single 'I Won't Stop Breathing'.

Winans stars next in the upcoming film 'Don't Waste Your Pretty' opposite Keri Hilson, which premieres on TV One February 28, 2021.

Check out the trailer for Don't Waste Your Pretty below!

Let's talk about 'Don't Waste Your Pretty'! What was it like working on this film?

It was wonderful. The director, Tamara Bass, had such a beautiful vision for this film and it was so exciting to bring it to life. And then to get to work with Keri Hilson, who is just, I mean.... I went there thinking, "I'm just going to do some work, hopefully it will be great work," and I walked away with two amazing new women in my life that I will consider to be friends forever.

The film comes out in a week, what are you most excited for viewers to see?

I'm excited for people to see a group of friends that are searching for love in their own ways, trying to figure out where maybe they have fallen short, or where they're scared. I think for my character Jeanné, she's been in love, she's divorced at the point that you meet her, and she is so scared of trying love again that she ends up getting in her own way. She's got to figure out how to get out of the way, how to let her guard down again.

I think Jeanné represents so many women because a lot of us have been through the wringer, we have given our hearts, we have let our guard down only to be hurt, to be broken, to be betrayed. And how do you get back to that? How do you get back to that in a pure way? How are you not suspicious of the next person that really does just want to love you? It's hard to get back there, and Jeanné, I think she wants to, she's just really scared. I think that the way she appears in the film, and the things that she wears, and the vibrancy of her, is all the inside trying to be the outside. She wants her inside to reflect who she is outside. She's so bright, she's so vibrant, but inside she's so scared, so skeptical, so just like, "I've had a toxic relationship, that's enough for me, I'm good, I don't have to find love again." But she does want it, and she does need it, and she just has to figure out how to get out of her own way. That's what I love about her, because I just think that she is a real woman, and that she reflects so many of us in this world.

'Greenleaf' recently wrapped up, it aired its fifth and final season, what was it like having that incredible chapter come to an end?

Ooh, it was amazing. It was beautiful, it was sad, it was lovely! I got to spend five seasons with Keith David and Lynn Whitfield and Merle Dandridge and Lamman Rucker, it was just a master class every season. I learned so much, I grew so much. To have Oprah Winfrey as your Executive Producer, Clement Virgo as your Executive Producer, it was a time in my life that I will never forget. It was my first series, and so it set a standard and a bar that is very, very high. I loved Charity Greenleaf, she took us on a ride. She started so young, so naïve, so misunderstood, and then she went through life making poor decisions for all the right reasons, and I think that people can relate to that. She was the person that you love to hate and you hated to love. She was a fighter, she made bad choices, but she always got back up, and I loved her trajectory. She went from young and naïve to bold, powerful, stepping into every ounce of who she felt she was called to be, and not feeling like she needed a man. She went through a lot and I loved that ride with her and that journey with her. We'll see if it's completely over for her, I'm not sure yet...

The soundtrack for Greenleaf is fantastic, you did a duet with Patti Labelle, and your single 'The Master's Calling' topped Billboard's Hot Gospel Chart, what was it like singing on the soundtrack?

It was a dream. I never wanted to sing, that's never been my thing, I always wanted to act. That first time in the studio, when I tell you I was nervous! I had never sung in a studio, that was all new to me. I was frustrated with myself initially, because I felt like I should have been working on my singing, because of course that can always play into whatever roles that I take, but I have such a love for acting that that was my only focus. And now I tell people, whatever gifts you have, nurture them all, work on them all, because you never know when they will come into play in the things that you love to do. But, with the singing, I was able to touch another place in my career that I just didn't think was going to be a part of it. When I got the script where I saw that I was singing with Patti LaBelle, I remember emailing Oprah and saying, "Oh my word, I had no idea I would even want to do something like this and here I am, just excited and in awe of what God is doing in my life, thank you so much." And she responded and she said, "Never forget that God dreams bigger dreams for you than you can dream for yourself." I just thought, this is something I never desired, and here I am like, "Oh my god this is a complete dream that I never knew that I had or wanted, and it is coming to life. What! I am singing with Patti LaBelle, what?!"

It just shows me that the world and your dreams are even smaller than what God has for you, and if you just stay the course and you stay focused, and determined, and keep working on who you are and all of your gifts, you will see that there is so much in store for you. That's my testimony for everybody, it's a dream to have been able to sing with Patti LaBelle. And then to recognize that singing is a part of who I am and what I'm supposed to offer to the world. So, I'm learning a lot in this so called entertainment life!

You just released a new single this summer, 'I Won't Stop Breathing', can you tell me a little bit about that?

Once the singing really started taking form with Greenleaf, and then I got nominated as a new artist I was like, "Wow, so I'm an artist, okay!" I was determined to only do things that I felt spoke to me. The song 'I Won't Stop Breathing' was written by my brother, Juan and his wife Lisa [Kimmey], and I heard it and I just loved it. I was like, "God, this song is amazing, I would love to do this." And he was like, "Oh, okay, well just record it!" So, I did a demo of it. Then the shutdown happened, the lockdown happened, COVID-19 traversed the world and we ended up in a global pandemic. And then, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and then George Floyd, I think that happened right before Breonna Taylor, or at least I think we found out about it before we found out about Breonna Taylor. And when I tell you, the week of George Floyd's murder, it just took my breath away. I was dumbfounded. I think it happened at a time where literally nobody in this world could turn a blind eye. Everybody had to truly sit and see the plight of black men in America and what they go through, what we go through as a culture.

I think it was the first time I saw how much it truly affected my husband. At that point, I remember, it was maybe four or five days after the murder, and I came out of THE ROOM and I said, "Baby, 'I Won't Stop Breathing'. It's for this, it's for this moment, that's what it is." And I was like, "I just want to do a visual. I don't have to release a song, I just want to do a visual to these words, and I want people to know that we will not stop." And he was like, "Okay, but you do know that you probably should release the song because people are going to want to hear it, it's healing, it's cathartic." And I was like, "Okay, whatever, I don't need to re-sing it, I don't care, it's just a demo that I've done," And he was like, "Okay, that's fine, let's figure it out!"

And within a week we put that visual together, and then he was right, I started getting calls about the song. So I was like, "Okay, let's just release a version of it, I don't care what it sounds like," At the end of the day, my heart was already in it, so that's what people need to hear, that's what people will pick up on, and that's what's important. And so, that's what we did. That was the whole meaning behind it, that was the heart behind it, and honestly, I pray that it continues to bless people and it continues to show people that while we have gone through so many dark days, and while we have reasons to be angry and to want to scream and holler and fight, what we will not do, and what we will not give in to, is feeling like we are not as amazing as we are. And we will not stop no matter what anybody else thinks or says or feels, we will not stop breathing because you don't think we're worth it, or you don't think we're enough. We know who we are. I think that when people see that we can band together and stand as one, we will not be defeated. And that's what that song was about.

Can you tell me about any other projects you have coming up, or anything you would like to work on in the future?

There are so many things I want to do! I did just wrap a film in Canada last night that I'm excited about. I believe that will come out some time in April, I'm not sure yet, but once we get the particulars we will totally share. But, I'm excited about that, it's a lead role in a film that was written by the director of 'Don't Waste Your Pretty', Tamara Bass. She was commissioned to write a film, and it's such a lovely script, and she wrote it for me. And I got to play this lovely woman, and I'm excited to be able to share that. But, I'm really excited about 'Don't Waste Your Pretty'. And then I have some music coming out in March with my brother, Juan, who I love singing with, it's always a joy and a pleasure to sing with him, he just gets me and we just have fun.

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