“I choose to play like power roles for girls that don’t really usually have power because they look like me.”—Lovie Simone, Actor Lovie Simone first watched the 1996 film The Craft when she was preparing for an audition. “I remember just being like, wow, like these girls are so cool!” Simone loved the idea of witches who veered away from the pointy hat-sharp nose aesthetic. “They reclaimed what it means to be a witch.” The witches, as portrayed in the Andrew Fleming-directed film, had ‘regular days’ and ‘regular problems’ as the 21-year-old described them. But what particularly interested the young actor is that the fictitious witches had a knack for combining the seen with the unseen. “Incorporating your spiritual realm into this [physical] realm, I feel like was really cool,” she told The Root. Fast forward nearly two-and-a-half decades and Lovie Simone is The Craft: Legacy’s Tabby. The role almost seems intuitive for this lover of crystals (her faves include moonstone, amethyst and opalite), who often meditates and is committed to her own self-healing. “I become my characters in ways that I would never see for myself. Tabby is probably the closest character to me.” The Bronx-native, who has also played Zora Greenleaf in OWN’s Greenleaf and Selah in Selah and The Spades is intentional about the roles that she takes. In her work, Lovie Simone attempts to portray the Black human experience wholly and dynamically. “I choose to play like power roles for girls that don’t really usually have power because they look like me.” It’s no secret that colorism in Hollywood is real. This brown-skinned beauty says that she’s even felt like a taboo navigating Tinseltown. “I think there is a lot going on with just not choosing Brown girls to tell Brown girl stories.” With budding actors like Lovie Simone, the future is certainly bright. See our conversation above. The Craft: Legacy is available for video on demand release on Oct. 28.