(Dialogue Magazine) — Danielle Nicolet, the captivating, petite and seemingly forever-young actress, has appeared in some of your favorite TV shows over the years such as 3rd Rock from the Sun to THE GAME to Elementary. Now she’s starring in TVONE’s new sitcom ‘Born Again Virgin.’
Dialogue Magazine: Give us a synopsis of your new sitcom ‘Born Again Virgin.’
Danielle Nicolet: It’s sort of a modern day ‘Sex and the City’ about a woman navigating the dating world except she’s doing it from the perspective of someone who is trying to be celibate. She has her two friends along the way with her, and of course the potential man of her dreams is always right there. He’s literally the guy next door.
It’s very different. It’s unlike any other African-American comedy on cable and I’m so excited and proud that TVONE is willing to do this…it’s a big deal in and of itself that we are a show that stars three women.
The women are different characters. We are disparate to anyone on the show. We’re written by women. We’re produced by women, and on top of that all of our characters are distinct and defined, funny and quirky and weird. All of those are characteristics you don’t usually see assigned to African-American actresses on TV. So for all of those things to exist in one package on TVONE, it’s really a first and I’m so proud, excited and amazed that I get to be a part of that.
DM: Does your character, Jenna, plan to practice celibacy for a set amount of time (a year or so) or does she plan to do so until she finds the right companion?
DN: She doesn’t really know. At the moment she’s decided to change her life. She’s quit the magazine she works for in order to write her blog full-time and so her finances sort of depend on her celibacy to an extent and she doesn’t know if it’s something she wants to do forever, it’s something she wants to do right now and once she feels like she’s met the right guy and given this a fair shake then she’ll probably go right back into having a healthy sex life…things weren’t going well for her so she decided to switch it up a bit.
DM: Is celibacy something you’ve tried before?
DN: Yeah I have. I think most women have. I think we all go through celibacy phases in life where you realize that you are attracting the wrong type of guy and we need to take a minute to reassess our own participation in that and what’s going on with us that we’re attracted to men that maybe aren’t that great for us. I think taking a little time off from sex in order to get some clarity and a stronger sense of yourself and what it is you want and need out of life could be really helpful. Certainly it was for me.
DM: Is this your first lead role on a TV sitcom?
DN: Yes. There’s a lot of pressure to do well and live up to the responsibility that has been given to me. To honor the material and honor the fact that I have three other people I’m working with that share this amazing spotlight with me. I feel a lot of responsibility to do well, if I don’t I feel like I’m letting people down.
DM: How did you celebrate on the night of the premiere?
DN: I spent most of the premiere day working. We shot all day that day…the four of us: Tank, Meghan(Holder), Eva(Marcille) and I, we zipped over to Eva’s house as quickly as we could, Eva’s mom happened to be in town and she cooked dinner for all of us and we hit the TV with 10 seconds to spare and caught the first episode.
DM: In addition to ‘Born Again Virgin’ on the small screen you’ve also been working on the film, ‘Central Intelligence,’ on the big screen. Tell us a little about it?
DN: Central intelligence is a buddy/action comedy with Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Amy Ryan and myself. The Rock plays the CIA agent that comes back into Kevin Hart’s life (we all went to high school together), in order to get his help to save the world. I play Kevin’s wife and I’m the motivating factor for why it’s all happening. I think it’s going to be way popular with audiences and hysterically funny.
DM: How was it working with The Rock and Kevin hart?
DN: Hands down the time of my life. The best experience for me all the way around of my life.
‘Born Again Virgin’ airs Wednesdays 10/9c on TVONE.
