Like so many people, actor Javicia Leslie, 32, a star of the uplifting CBS hit show "God Friended Me," has ties to people with cancer, but has not had it herself. So when the character she plays, Ali, is diagnosed with breast cancer, Leslie set out to learn about the disease — and wound up learning even more about the need for survivors to have agency.
"You have to let people choose their own path," Leslie tells SurvivorNet in a wide-ranging interview that touched on the role she plays — a woman who wants to have children and then learns of her diagnosis — and how it’s affected her understanding of the disease and of survivors.
The plot line is part of the the show’s second season. “God Friended Me” tells the story of Miles (Brandon Michael Hall), an atheist who receives a friend request on social media from "God” and becomes an agent of change in the lives of those he befriends on social media. Ali’s new diagnosis is one that the main characters’ mother had when she was younger (their mother beat the cancer, but died in a tragic accident).
Ali faces a treatment of chemotherapy, but, says Leslie, she knows “that chemotherapy can effect a woman's fertility, and Ali's entire life she's always wanted to be a mom. … Her family is fighting to get her to go straight to chemotherapy, but Ali wants to [freeze her] eggs. She wants to put off chemotherapy for a few weeks in order to allow that to happen.”
That’s a battle, she says she learned, that “many women go through."
Javicia Leslie as Ali Finer in “God Friended Me” (Photo: Barbara Nitke /2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)
Ali’s father, a reverend, and her brother and her step-mom, Leslie says, feel, “‘Why would you even take a chance of putting off chemotherapy even a few weeks when it's life or death?’ And Ali is like, 'Well, I don't want life if I can't have a child at one point.'"
She eventually has their blessing to freeze her eggs before chemo.
“When you're diagnosed with something you have no choice [over], you want to start to feel like you are making your own choices, that it’s not everyone around you making choices for you,” Leslie says. “Whether it be the doctors, whether it be your family members and things like that and that's really what Ali is trying to fight.”
Brandon Michael Hall and Javicia Leslie in “God Friended Me” (Photo credit: David Giesbrecht/CBS)
And when Ali stands up for herself and her choices, says Leslie, the perspective is, “‘We're not going to act like this isn't scary, because it's scary. We're not going to act like everything's going to be OK, because everything's not going to be OK, everything's not going to be the same. But what we are going to do is respect my decision and respect my journey and how I want to deal with this. I want to get my eggs frozen, that's important to me. I don't want to rock wigs and hide the fact that I have cancer. That's important to my psyche.'"
The Need to Advocate for Yourself
Leslie’s personal ties to cancer include an aunt who passed away a few years ago from the disease, and a college friend who was diagnosed with cancer — but is now cancer free — and who was a great resource in terms of Ali’s development.
"I wanted to know how she felt through every part of it,” Leslie says.
Javicia Leslie in “God Friended Me” (Photo: David Giesbrecht/CBS)
Her friend, she says, initially had sensed something was wrong, but was ignored. “Some doctors don't take women seriously when they’re going through this, especially if you don't have the best insurance,” she says.
Leslie’s takeaway: If you feel something’s wrong — even after you’re told nothing is — go to a second doctor and then, if needed, a third. “Keep going,” she says. “My friend, had she not continued to get other opinions, she may not have made it because she wouldn't have started treatment when she needed to start.”
Another friend, who’s mother recently died of cancer, chose to “handle everything holistically,” Leslie says without judgement. “I feel like maybe she felt this was the journey she preferred to be on [rather] than be sick and not be able to have energy for anything versus, ‘I may only have a year left, but I'm going to live this year to my fullest.’"
Again, she says, it comes down to letting “people chose their own path."
"I want to see her beat the cancer, and I want to see her find love and have the family that she wants to have,” says Leslie. “When you're on a series it gives space for that growth of your character, to allow your character to go into that part of their lives and to follow their journeys and it's inspiring."
Leslie adds, “I could have had any storyline in the world. So, to get this storyline is important to me and I handle it grace and care. I want to see what's next for her because what's next for her is what's next for a lot of women."
Jeff Cornell is freelance music and entertainment writer who has written for outlets including MTV, Variety, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter Read More
