Lovie Simone is only 21 years old and has a career many young actresses could only dream about. Starring in the hit OWN Network’s Greenleaf as Zora Greenleaf, she’s also played the lead in Amazon Prime’s acclaimed boarding school dramedy Selah and the Spades as Selah Summers and starred in Netflix’s Social Distancing. Now Simone is stepping into the role of Tabby in Blumhouse’s The Craft: Legacy.
In Zoe Lister-Jones’ follow-up to the 1996 cult classic The Craft, Simone’s Tabby, welcomes newcomer Lily (Cailee Spaeny) into her coven, alongside fellow teen witches Lourdes (Zoey Luna) and Frankie (Gideon Adlon). As their powers grow, new trouble arises for the group from an unlikely the suspect who has dark motives.
Feeling more like a continuation, The Craft: Legacy is an updated sequel to the ’90s original, commenting on the everyday clashes between hyper-masculinity and “woke” culture and the sisterhood bond formed between high school girls.
Legacy is not only a contemporary spin on The Craft but a fresh take on what it means to be a witch and the powers we all have inside.
Before the world gets to see Simone as the lovable, modern-day powerful witch, The Koalition spoke to her about starring in one of the most talked about movies debuting this Halloween.
“For me, the way Tabby was described was that her family had a history with witchcraft, and so they kind of knew what to do and were very confident in that. I thought Tabby would also have that confidence just from having strong women in her family to look up to. So that confidence I tapped into. Tabby is really feminine, I feel like she’s also their mom friend. I easily just had certain times in my life that I could apply to Tabby’s character and what that would look like for her.”
While Legacy builds on the foundation of The Craft, Legacy expands on the real horror in how people’s marginalized identities are oppressed. However, Legacy is a story of inclusion without making it a big deal. Tackling gender identity, Lourdes, a fellow witch, is trans, but her gender is only mentioned in passing. Other characters reveal their sexual identities, but only when they are in a safe space. Gender identity is not the main focus of the film as it also includes school bullying and the everyday nightmares of high school.
“The work that was shown in The Craft is very much our own. It very much does a great job at highlighting the horrors of hyper-masculinity in such a way it doesn’t identify anyone rather than just revealing itself for as for what it is. I love that aspect of it because I don’t like when certain scenes are forced down your throat and are so repetitive. It doesn’t have to be that way, it could be in the microaggressions, or in the side-eyes, or in the feeling that we feel versus in that way that it was delivered to us. I loved just the humanity of it, that’s what attracted me to characters. I wanted to figure out how Tabby played a part in all of this and I do love that she had her own story. I know when I watched the original Craft, I wished they could have gone more into the brown girl’s character and I could have seen more.”
The Craft: Legacy will release on VOD on October 28, 2020.
To learn more about The Craft including what it was like working with real-life witches and spiritual guides on set, check out our full interview below.
