While covering the Disney 2024 Upfront Red Carpet, I spoke with Cleopatra Coleman, who stars as V. Stiviano in Clipped. The first three episodes are currently streaming on Hulu and new episodes are released every Tuesday.
FX’s Clipped takes you behind the scenes of a notorious NBA owner’s racist remarks, captured on a tape heard around the world. Based on the hit ESPN 30 for 30 podcast The Sterling Affairs, this limited series charts the collision between a dysfunctional basketball organization and even less functional marriage, and the precipitating tape’s impact on an ensemble of characters striving to win against the backdrop of the most cursed team in the league.
Famed coach Doc Rivers (Laurence Fishburne) arrives as coach of the LA Clippers in 2013. With a promising roster of big personalities, Rivers has the building blocks to win the franchise’s first championship. The team’s owner, Donald Sterling (Ed O’Neill), is a well-known problem: he’s cheap, he’s erratic, he’s a bully. But minimizing Sterling’s influence to win a title becomes a personal quest for Doc. Meanwhile, a courtside power struggle escalates between Sterling’s ambitious personal assistant V. Stiviano (Cleopatra Coleman), and his wife and business partner of 60 years, Shelly (Jacki Weaver).
Can you tell me what originally stuck out to you about the project and made you want to take on this role?
Cleopatra Coleman: Yeah, well, it’s a fascinating story. I mean, you couldn’t write this. It involves so many massive issues. You’ve got race, politics, misogyny, infidelity, money, sport, and power structures within our society, and just like all of these massive complicated things. Then it’s also very absurd, very poignant, and very heartbreaking. It kind of has it all.
What do you like best about tackling those subjects? I feel like there is a line and sometimes TV likes to steer away [from crossing it], but when you do tackle those subjects, the show can lead to very important conversations.
Absolutely. I think it’s about how it’s tackled. There’s many different tones and many different ways. I think that film and television are the most empathy-building mediums that we have, and [film and TV are] able to put someone, a viewer, into the shoes of someone else more so than any other medium. So, it’s a great way to teach people and to have people connect with others that they wouldn’t normally connect with. It’s just been a blessing to tell part of V’s story and get to know her humanity.
