Get to know Yvonne Senat Jones ahead of the premiere of Tyler Perry’s Ruthless

Hidden Remote recently had the chance to speak with Yvonne Senat Jones of Tyler Perry’s newest show, Ruthless, which premieres next week on BET+.

Yvonne Senat Jones has had the opportunity to share the screen with the likes of Shemar Moore (S.W.A.T.), Ron Perlman (Hand of God), and Gabrielle Dennis (The Bobby Brown Story) over the past few years but with Tyler Perry’s Ruthless, she is finally getting her shot as a series regular.

Senat Jones is a Los Angeles native with Afro-Latin roots who teaches Shakespeare through a local non-profit when she isn’t lighting up the screen. In the interview, we had a chance to discuss the new show and also took a moment to put some dream roles into the universe. Enjoy!

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Hidden Remote: You’re taking your role of Tally from The Oval, over to BET+ for Tyler Perry’s new show Ruthless. What can you tell us about the show?

Yvonne Senat Jones: I am over the moon about Tally and this spinoff. We are premiering on Thursday, Mar. 19. We will be on the BET+ platform and we’re gonna drop three episodes at once, which I’m really excited about.

Trademark Tyler Perry is, every end of an episode you’re like: “oh my gosh when is the next one coming out!” Then every Thursday we will be dropping an additional episode. You will finally get to answer the question from the first episode of The Oval. What has happened to Ruth and her daughter. The first episode is [picking up] right after she’s taken her daughter and now you get to see this very dark underworld of the [cult from The Oval] and what they’re all about.

HR: So what can you tell us about your character, Tally, in Ruthless?

YSJ: You got a little glimpse of her in The Oval. I’m Ruth’s best friend and we both have daughters and just want to create a better life for our children, so we bring them into the cult thinking that’s what we’re doing. Then I’m the first one to realize something is not right, so from there it’s my job to convince Ruth that we need to take our daughters and we need to escape.

I love it because it’s such a universal theme of a mom who just wants the best life for her family. Also, the way that Tyler wrote it is that Tally is a woman who is finally finding her voice for the first time. I loved the arc that he gave her. He’s gifted at writing female characters. He’s like Tennessee Williams in that aspect where they are layered and complex and they have lives that revolve outside of the sphere of a man. They have lives independent of men and that’s true for a lot of us. (laugh)

So in that way Tyler Perry is definitely ahead of his time. He’s always written incredible female roles for us and it’s a dream to be in the Tyler Perry universe right now.

HR: That leads into my next question. How has this experience been? First booking the role in The Oval and now being able to transition into this spinoff, Ruthless.

YSJ: It was a gift. It was a complete dream that every actor hopes for. We know that Tyler Perry is notorious, in a great way, of bringing in newcomers and he is okay with making a name for them. So the opportunity of just linking up to his name, Tyler Perry, it opens huge doors.

Being brought in as Tally, first off, was obviously incredible and such a gift and such an honor. But then I remember it was the last day of shooting and I gave him a thank you card, that’s what I do, and I shook his hand and said hey it’s my last day of filming. And he shook my hand and he said yeah but it won’t be your last day on set, we’ll bring you back. My jaw was on the floor.

Sure enough a few months later I received the script for Ruthless, and it was Tally but expanded so much. Her story was just so expanded and I’m so grateful about it. It’s incredible.

HR: It has to be a good feeling to finally get to flesh out a character like this.

YSJ: 100 percent, yes. I’m a series regular in this and so you get to see Tally progress in such a beautiful way from episode to episode and her arc is really epic. And that’s just the first season!

HR: Let’s transition a bit. What is one of your favorite on-set experiences?

YSJ: Well I had a great experience on-set with Tyler Perry on the Ruthless set. He wears a lot of hats so you don’t get much time with just him because he’s doing everything. He’s writing, he’s directing . . . he has it down to a science so you just sort of let him be.

But it was a great moment after we wrapped a scene that he called three of us over and said: “Hey I’m going to take you down to lunch.” So we piled in and Tyler Perry drove us all throughout what used to be a Confederate army base. Here we are in this cart and he’s driving you through [this base] and I remember I had to just breathe and take it in for a moment because I was like, Yvonne this is one of those moments that you will remember for the rest of your life.

So that was by far one of the best moments I’ve ever had on a set.

HR: So just a few final questions. I kind of what to make it a bit more fun here. Do you have a dream co-star?

YSJ: I will be honest, when I was like 18, Leonardo DiCaprio was filming The Aviator on The Queen Mary ship out here. I was working at T-mobile and we had a meeting and everybody realized he was on the ship and me and one other person went to go meet him.

One person went to a P.A. to ask, and I just walked right up to him. I don’t think I would do that now, that was 18-year-old me. He was so gracious and I asked him to take a photo on, obviously, a flip phone back then. My gosh, dating myself. To this day I always say he is my dream co-star for sure, just so I can tell him that story but also to be in a film with him at the same time.

HR: It would be nice to see that story come full circle. So, next question. What is that movie about?

YSJ: I am into action movies so it would be great if it was something along the lines of Inception. It would be great if it could be something like Matrix meets Inception so that I can still kick bad-guy butt, but also have really dramatic scenes because I mean that’s what he’s known for. You have to have those dramatic scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio or else it would be a complete waste.

HR: Exactly, so like a futuristic action type movie. That kind of goes into my next question. I found some videos of you training, doing some boxing work. Is action the next thing you want to get out there and do?

YSJ: You know what, yes. I’m actually doing weaponry training now with Kali Sticks. I’ve always been into action. I grew up watching movies with my dad so not any romcoms, all explosives and kung fu.

In fact, In Ruthless I actually got to do some stunt work which was mind-blowing for me because it was my first real time, on a set, being able to do that. So that again made Ruthless and made Tally, so much more exciting.

I’ve always said my dream role would be Trinity from The Matrix and I do know that they’re coming out with Matrix 4 so. . . fingers crossed. We’ll see what happens.

HR: My last question was going to be is there a dream role out there so I guess it’s Trinity from The Matrix?

YSJ: Yes it would be like a Trinity from The Matrix, that would definitely be a dream role of mine. Any kind of incredible superhero would be a dream of mine. So when the Marvel universe comes knocking I will be here waiting.

HR: Do you have a favorite Marvel character?

YSJ: To be 100 percent honest with you, because I used to watch X-Men when I was a kid, my favorite X-Men character is Rogue. Who I obviously look nothing like. So maybe one day soon they’ll do some color-blind casting and I’ll be ready for it.

You can catch Yvonne Senat Jones on Tyler Perry’s Ruthless Thursday, March 19 on BET+.