Lovie Simone on the Netflix Romance

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the season finale of “Forever,” now streaming on Netflix.

In the final minutes of “Forever,” Mara Brock Akil‘s new Netflix drama series, the year-and-a-half-long love story between Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) and Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) comes to a stunning conclusion. With high school firmly in the rearview, the young lovers stand on a darkened Los Angeles street. As Frank Ocean’s “Moon River” wafts over the scene, Justin kisses Keisha’s forehead after touching the infinity symbol necklace he’d given her. She turns and walks away, briefly glancing back. In turn, Justin takes off in the opposite direction. 

It’s an achingly beautiful and painful end to the eight-episode season of “Forever.” Inspired by Judy Blume’s groundbreaking novel of the same name, the series showcases two Black teenagers in the late 2010s falling in love, getting their hearts shattered and retreating from each other, still whole but permanently changed. 

“I don’t think this is the end,” star Lovie Simone tells Variety. “I think this is the end of a chapter with this version of them. I don’t want them to break up. I’m Team Justin and Keisha.”

After watching the emotional and beautiful “Forever,” viewers will undoubtedly agree. From breakups to reunions, missteps and all of the challenges of teenhood, Brock Akil delivers a nuanced and expansive portrait of first love. “It was fun working with Mara,” Simone says. “She was very passionate, exciting and present every day. It was extremely reassuring as an actress. It was also reassuring to love her after working with her, because I love ‘Girlfriends,’ ‘Love Is…’ and ‘The Game.’” 

As “Forever” opens, Keisha and Justin — who attended kindergarten together — reconnect at a New Year’s Eve party, and an immediate electric chemistry sizzles. The intensity between Simone and Cooper elevates the series as one of the best romances depicted on television. 

“The bond and the friendship came naturally,” Simone says of her co-star. “You’re with somebody almost daily for a few months, and you have similar passions and interests. So it wasn’t hard. What was hard was being told not to bond. Our characters knew each other in elementary school and reconnected as high schoolers. Regina King [who serves as an executive producer on the show], the director of Episode 1, wanted us to prepare by not speaking as much. So we did have to hold off in our relationship, and there was a lot of tension and a lot of like, ‘Hey, I want to talk to you, but maybe not now.’”

Familial obligations and academic expectations complicate teen romances. However, Keisha and Justin’s union is further pressurized by a secret Keisha desperately tries to outrun: Her ex-boyfriend, Christian (Xavier Mills), recorded her engaging in a sexual act and later shared it with their schoolmates. Though Keisha transferred schools to escape the scrutiny, the weight of keeping the sex tape hidden from her mother and the hit to her reputation continually plagues her and her burgeoning relationship with Justin. 

“I tried to have as much grace as possible with Keisha,” Simone reflects. “She’s a teenager who’s experiencing all of these first-time things and love and romance, but she’s also learning how to do that while working around the trauma that’s affecting her and her movement. I agreed with Keisha and her decisions because they were a part of her journey and her process into her self-awareness and self-love.”

Keisha’s mother, Shelly (Xosha Roquemore), is a single mom who does everything she can to give her daughter the opportunities she has never been afforded. Still, the track athlete is eventually forced to come clean about the sex tape. When Justin’s parents learn about the video, his mother, Dawn (a brilliant Karen Pittman), gives the pair an ultimatum.  In Episode 6, “The Honeymoon,” Keisha finally reveals to her gutted and horrified mom why she gave up her scholarship and left her previous school. 

“It was fun for me and Xosha,” Simone recalls, reflecting on the gut-wrenching scene. “I got to really sit with Keisha and pull that out, and she got to sit in Shelly. Every other interaction before was us bonding. We are friends, so we get along and have chemistry. Working with her, there was a flow that felt so natural. She’s a single mom. I had a youngish mom growing up, so I know this relationship. So a lot of parallels made it smooth.”

Sex, intimacy and consent are central themes in “Forever,” and Brock Akil doesn’t shy away from the uncertainties, lust and excitement that can come as a result of teen sex and sexual experiences. “We had an intimacy coordinator on the set, Sasha [Smith],” Simone says. “Sasha did things differently than I’m used to experiencing with intimacy coordinators. Sasha, Michael, Mara and I would be by ourselves during rehearsals. We’d run through the scene and discuss what we would do and what kept the innocence and action. Although there was a lot of consent on screen, there was a lot of that behind the cameras, too. It was very comfortable and easy for me to do.”

Simone’s favorite romance stories are Constance Sayers’ “A Witch in Time” and the love saga between Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne in “A Different World.” She eagerly read Blume’s 1975 novel in one sitting before auditioning for “Forever.” Though she hasn’t gotten the opportunity to meet the acclaimed author yet, Blume’s sons did visit the set. “I did hear from Mara that she really likes the show,” Simone says. “So I’m happy I could be a part of that.”

“Forever” is already garnering rave reviews, and Simone has been nominated for a Gotham TV Award for outstanding lead performance in a drama series. As the credits roll on the final episode, Simone would like to see Keisha and Justin’s story offer audiences something beyond the trials and triumphs of first love. “I hope they desire love,” she says. “But I also want people to love themselves just as much as they want to love.”