Sweet Magnolias star Heather Headley remembers it like yesterday. “It” being the first time she met co-star and future onscreen love interest Dion Johnstone.
“They had picked him up at the hotel and I was in the car,” she says. “He was like, ‘Hey, how are you doing? I’m Dion.’ I was like, ‘Great.’ It didn't occur to me at that point that that's your guy, you know what I mean? It didn't occur to me at that moment that this is the person you're going to have a journey with.”
But what a journey it has been. Since filming on the hit Netflix series began in 2019 outside Georgia in the picturesque town of Covington (which stands in for Serenity), Heather and Dion have captivated viewers with their nuanced and joyous portrayals of attorney Helen Decatur and EMT turned chef Erik Whitley.
Throughout season one of Sweet Magnolias, Erik was clearly smitten with Helen, even though he never acted on his feelings. And while Helen obviously enjoyed their friendship, she was more focused on her first love Ryan, with whom she has so much history.
That history is even more evident when – spoilers ahead – she becomes pregnant with Ryan's baby early in season two. It's a surprise given that the two parted ways at the end of season one because she wanted to start a family and he did not. And it's why Helen chooses not to tell Ryan about her pregnancy – or the loss of the baby shortly thereafter.
But it's Erik who is there to help Helen in her time of need. And because of his own trauma from his past (he lost his wife and unborn baby), he knows exactly what to do and say. As a result, their friendship grows deeper, and Erik's support – as well as a very sexy rendition of “Something to Talk About” on karaoke night – leads the two to a relationship.
Acquaintances to friends to romantic partners is nothing new on television, but the way in which Helen and Erik's relationship is crafted is so raw and authentic it will make you think it is.
These are two characters in their early to mid-40s without a built-in family (unlike Dana Sue with Annie, or Maddie and her kids) who are having the kind of conversations we have in our own lives. They've achieved professional success already and now are trying to find the one thing that – thanks to tragedy and other circumstances – hasn't been a constant in their life.
For all the shows that focus on finding the love of your life in your 20s or 30s, it's rewarding to see a couple grapple with the ups and downs that come with that search in their 40s.
Then there's the added complication of Helen wanting to have a child of her own while starting a brand-new relationship, and the very adult conversations that need to happen as a result. For anyone that struggles with communication and the fear that comes with being honest and asking for what you want, Helen and Erik are the best examples we've had in recent memory of how to do it right, as heavy as those conversations may be.
“My husband and I were talking about that exact thing,” Heather tells GLAMOUR, “and he said, ‘Heather, the issues that are going on [in Serenity] are issues that people go through. Men cheat on their wives. People leave their homes. People fall in love with the wrong person. Women have miscarriages. Women are trying to start a family….’ You see yourself. You see yourself not only in colour or how you look or in body shape but [in these circumstances].”
While the season comes to a close with a major cliffhanger involving Helen – and Ryan and Erik –the rawness of Helen and Erik's story is the standout in a great season two. And it's why Heather and Dion were more than game to Zoom (for over an hour, in fact) to talk about their own personal experiences, creating Helen’s and Erik's backstories, and their hope for what comes next.
As they say in Serenity, Lord have mercy, because your chemistry is off the charts. What is it like being each other’s scene partner?
Dion Johnstone: Heather is electric. You never know what she's going to do, which is great because I'm always on my toes. I can never take anything for granted because she's always [looking to add] a new layer to a scene. It's a gift working with Heather. She walks onto the set, and everybody lights up. The crew loves her.
Heather Headley: You're very kind, Dion. I'm humbled by that and encouraged by it as well. It's so much easier to work with a person when you see their heart, and you see that [with Dion]. The way he speaks about [his family] and the passion that he has for them…it's easy to have to be with that person on set because you're like, “This is a good person at home as well as here.”
When he's on the set, he's very intense. He knows what he's doing. I am grateful that whatever balls I throw or hit, he's there to catch because I've been with other actors who find that to be disarming if one time it's this or the next time it's that. It's great to be with somebody passionate, who knows their craft, who's smart about it, who thinks it through.
Dion: You honour me. Thank you.
There’s so much that unfolds for Helen and Erik this season, so let’s start in the beginning. Erik has always had a bit of an unspoken crush on Helen. Dion, how did you play that?
Dion: For me, it's a slow burn, and it's slow coming into awareness. I don't think he necessarily realises right from “go”: “Oh my God, I'm attracted to her,” but he loves the play. It just felt like it was a natural evolution. Each scene that they got together, it just felt more and more like this could be a fit. This feels really good. I like who I am with her. By the time he starts hearing about Ryan, that's when he starts realizing, I've got to do something. I have something here. I'm feeling stuff I hadn't.
Given what happened in his past, I don't think he was ever prepared to fall in love again. I don't think that was on his horizon. But when all of a sudden the potential of someone [Ryan] coming in who already has a history with Helen is what ignites this feeling of, What am I going to do about it?
It’s Helen’s own personal tragedy that is really the catalyst for this relationship to bloom. I spoke with executive producer and showrunner Sheryl Anderson about Helen’s journey this season, from the miscarriage to embarking on IVF, and she said, “I give Heather a lot of the credit for Helen’s storyline because she asked me when we were shooting season one if I had given any thought to Helen grappling with infertility. I think all of the women on the show saw a lot of themselves in Helen.”
Heather, what can you tell me about that conversation?
Heather: There are many women who are choosing careers earlier, and so we wait. Then, all of a sudden, in our late 30s, 40s, we're like, “Let's have a baby.” I remember going to my doctor and saying, “I think I'm ready. We're going to get pregnant in February, and then we'll have the baby in September. And then I'll be back onstage September 30. It's going to be great.”
She giggled. I remember being like, “What's the problem?” So I remember telling Sheryl that Helen has almost everything–this career and the house and everything. I felt as though there should be something she cannot have and cannot fix. Sometimes, for us, that's the way it is. I can't fix this. My body is saying this is what it is, and I can't fix it. And truth be told, I think there are some topics that we just don't talk about as women. Infertility is one of them. Miscarriage is one of them. Menopause is one of them. I remember going through some of these and getting on the other side. And some lady comes to me and says, “Oh, yeah, I had that.” And you're like, “But I've known you for 10 years. When did you have... How? Why? Why did I not know?”
When we got on set [and it was time to do the miscarriage scene], I said to Sheryl, “How deep do you want this to go?” And she's like, “As raw and as deep as we have to.” I said, “All right. Well, here we go. I know how that feels. Here we go.”
So I am grateful to be able to carry the story. Hopefully, women go, “Yes, that was me. That's me.” Some women are coming into being parents later. Some women are doing it by themselves. It can be quite a challenge and a journey.
It was so powerful and of course heartbreaking to see Helen suffer through a miscarriage, but also heartwarming to see how Erik was there for her in such a profound way. You are both parents to young kids, which I imagine made those scenes even more difficult to play.
Dion: I'd say for myself, I'm grateful that I'm a new parent. It allowed me to understand in ways that I might not have understood prior to being in this stage of my life, just how valuable and how terrifying it is, the thought of losing a child. I tried not to build too much from my own family because I just can't imagine losing my son. He bumped his head a couple of nights ago, and it was terrifying. You realize how fragile, at any moment, anything could happen. You're never out of the woods.
It's not like Erik's coming into this having had a previous relationship that broke off. It's a marriage that was cut short because she passed away. So there's a lot of complicated emotions. His way, as we really saw in season one, was to almost close it off. He found cooking, and that let him get out from underneath the weight of everything and move forward. But he hasn't told anyone about his past. He's fiercely defensive about keeping that private. There's still a lot that he hasn't fully processed, even though he's reached a place in his life where he's willing to let people in and new beginnings can happen. He's still got to reconcile all of those feelings and that feeling of being worthy of being loved and loving.
We would get the scripts in stages, so I never knew the full arc of where things were going. Sheryl told me a general idea of what had happened but not the specifics of it. So I built as horrible a backstory as I could that fueled my own imagination. Weeks later [when I did get the actual script and Erik's backstory], I remember shooting that day was hard; it was terrifying. But the biggest thing was to just stay open for myself, for Heather, and for our directing team because I've never shot a scene like that before.
You did it beautifully. Heather, what was it like for you? I have to say, I’ve never seen anyone cry like you.
Heather: I believe in a good cry. I really do. When I did it, I cried every night, maybe four or five times a night, and it was very cathartic. I would cry about things I hadn't cried about since childhood. It's funny how even in this moment of telling you, I think it's something we don't talk about. I'm still being guarded about it, but I've gone through it, all sides of it. This part of it was almost like I needed to wail about it and grieve it again and everything. You start thinking of that and start thinking of friends and family members who've said, “This was me.”
And like I said, Sheryl came to me and said, “I want you to go there. Just go. Helen's not going to hold it back. This baby is our first loss in Serenity, so let's go there. [We] will pull you back if needed.” So I cried and I wailed, and I was sad for my own experience – the experience in women's lives that have been around me, and for those women who are going to look at this and go, “That was me last week. That was me today. That was me yesterday.” You know what I mean? Because we know that to be true.
Thank you for being so open about this. Personally, I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is one of the leading causes of infertility. Because of that, when I was 34, I decided to freeze my eggs. After two weeks of doing injections, my doctor gave me the requisite trigger shot the day before the egg retrieval procedure, but I preovulated and lost those eggs. It’s very, very rare that that happens, and thankfully, months later I was able to do it again successfully, but I’ll never forget that first time. It was a devastating loss. We don’t talk enough about any of this, especially those of us that feel we might be doing everything right and then for reasons completely out of our control, things become completely out of our control.
Heather: It's so funny that you would say that because on the show Erik says, “I'm to blame” [when his wife and child died]. But I think, also as women, sometimes when these things happen, you're like, “What's wrong? I blame my...” In the scene I remember grabbing my stomach. You think, I'm angry with my body. Why are you doing this to me? Why is this happening? You're angry with yourself. You think, Should I have done this? Would I, could I, if I didn't, if I could, if I… So it really is a story to talk about because I just don't think we sit and talk about it like we should. We grieve in doctors’ rooms, and maybe cry with our mom or a close friend, or by ourselves, like Helen does, in your house. She's got these two amazing friends, and she breaks down by herself. It's like, “Okay, we'll keep it together. I'll give you a tear or two.” The real emotional break happens when Maddie and Dana Sue leave.
On a lighter note, I thought it was interesting when Helen basically friend-zones Erik, and then a day or so later, they end up doing karaoke together and sing “Something to Talk About,” and it all shifts. Was it really that karaoke moment that changed everything for Helen, or do you think she always felt something?
Heather: There's nothing more sexy than a man singing karaoke, just so you know. [Laughs.] I've been begging my husband to redo this scene from The Sound of Music with me forever. I want to go, “Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.” He's like, “I'm not playing von Trapp with you. I'm not. I'm not.” I was like, “Come on. We can do this! Our relationship will get even deeper if you can do this with me.” It's the key.
Dion: Didn't you choose “Something to Talk About”?
Heather: I did. They sent a few songs in that we could use, and I was like, "No, no, no, this doesn't do anything. No.” They went back and were like, “Well, we have these three.” I was like, “‘Something to Talk About.’ This is it. I think it has all this underplay, and they can totally play with it. It's great.” But can I just say…they tell us we're going to do karaoke on the show, and I'm like, Great, not a problem. A certain person with the initials D.J. starts texting, calling, sending me notes, sending me emails, saying, “We need to practice. We need to practice. We need to get…” I was like, “It's karaoke. Nobody practices the karaoke. I'm good. We'll be good. Don't worry. I got your back.” He's like, “No, no, I need to know what's…” He has full-blown practice sessions by himself and with me. Dion could not...oh, sorry, I just revealed his name. [Laughs.]
Dion: Bless you. I mean, I pulled you aside and was like, “Can you sing my harmony line for me? I just need it once. No, that wasn't a clear take. One more time.”
Heather: He totally did. He's like, “Can you sing it for me?” He's shaking. I was like, “The man just did 25 scenes, nothing.” He has to sing, and he's like, “Can you just put it on a tape for me?” He was so nervous about singing!
Did you choreograph your moves also?
Dion: No, no. But my issue with karaoke…they're all tenor songs. They're all way out of my range. I bust my cords, even hitting the first note. I just needed to know that I could sing it even normally. I'm not trying to make him a Broadway star by any means, but I just needed to know that I could facilitate it. And I was…yeah, I kind of freaked out there.
Heather: I went to Sheryl and said, “Does Helen sing like she's on Broadway? Does she sing like she's got a Tony? Does she sing like she just sings in the shower? What level of…how good is Helen?” She's like, “Oh, whatever, just make Ellen be able to sing.” I was like, “Okay, fine.” But poor Dion was like, “Oh, no. I'm not dealing with Helen.”
You won a Tony Award for best actress in a musical and a Grammy (for best contemporary R&B gospel album). I’d be nervous too!
Heather: That's very sweet, but yeah, we didn't rehearse. The only thing we did was go through what he was going to sing.
So going back to the original question: Do you think that scene was the turning point for Helen?
Heather: There's a moment when he's at the house after the miscarriage and taking care of her again. I have a shot where she looks at him, and I think [that's where it] starts, as in, this man is here picking up the pieces always. He comes back over, and he's checking in on her and bringing her food. I think there's this turn, but then it's interesting because they have this conversation where they both are like, “Yeah, I don't want anything to do with you. We're just friends.”
Dion: He's awkward.
Heather: I think that's when, for me, I'm like, “No, I think I actually want you. The fact that you're now telling me this is not going to happen is like maybe it's should.” I think she sees him differently, of course, during that karaoke moment. But there's a lead-up. One of the beautiful things for me watching season one was watching the pining of Erik/Dion every time I left a scene [as Helen]. I never saw that.
So yes, I do think she has this change of the guard as it goes along. He's there for the breakup [with Ryan]. He's there for the miscarriage. He's picking up those pieces, and then he's there just getting things back in order, bringing her food and everything like that. She starts figuring it out. But as you well know, that may not last long.
I want to go back to the scene where Helen and Erik are walking in the park and she says, “I want this friendship to change.” I feel like so many people who have ever wanted more from a friendship are going to look at that scene as a guide of sorts. But then, after they have this major heart-to-heart, he says he has to tell her something before they can go further. The next thing we know, it’s a new episode and they’re in Helen’s house. What the heck happened?!
Dion: Yes! He goes back to work, so by the time it finally came out, we realized some time has passed. He didn't have a conversation right away. He made you wait.
Heather: If you notice, I remember telling [the producers] that I was going to have a little bit of attitude when [Erik] comes in, because you can't be like, “There's something I need to say to you [and it's major], but I've got to go make spaghetti.”
Dion: Yeah, and then a day later…oh well.
I was afraid I missed a scene at first.
Dion: It really amped the stakes of that scene when the full revelation of his past came out.
What did you both make of Erik’s decision not to sleep with Helen for the time being?
Dion: From Erik's standpoint, it's smart. What I love about this relationship is nothing's being taken for granted, and he wants to do it right. He knows that he's bringing stuff to the table. He's open to what she's bringing to the table. He doesn't want to mess up the flow of what Helen's trying to do. He doesn't want to make any assumptions about who he's going to be for her in this. He wants to give the space for it to happen. If that means, “Let's just give it time and not rush so that it breaks, let's build the foundation,” then I'm here for that. This is terrifying for him. He doesn't want her to get the impression that he's not interested and that he doesn't want to. He wants to, but he wants to do it right. I admired that. That's a really tough thing to do.
But poor Helen in that moment. I mean, she’s just going for it.
Heather: Helen's like, “Finally, I tell you this, and what?” But I do think that is a beautiful thing. Sometimes we rush into things a little bit, and there is something to be said for sometimes just waiting and talking and figuring it out. It's even more beautiful when you don't have that clouding everything, especially in this case. He wants to do things right. This man has gone through this incredible tragedy, and he's coming out of it. This is the person that he says, “It could be her.” So to open your heart again to somebody or to love or anything like that, it's a big deal.
He's a little bit like Helen too. He protects and helps everybody else, but we don't know much about him. But yet it's a beautiful thing that he's like, “Okay, it's her. She's the one. And now I'm going to take it amazingly slowly and take care of you.” It's quite sexy, actually.
So was that really steamy first kiss with the jazz music playing in the background.
Dion: When I knew what was coming, I was like, “I only have a few moments left, and they need to count. They need to count.”
Let’s talk about that season-finale cliffhanger, when Erik calls Helen, but she doesn’t answer his call because Ryan has just proposed to her. I asked Sheryl if she’s already decided what happens next and she said, “I know what I think. I will have to discuss it with the rest of the writers, but I have a very clear vision.”
Heather: The woman is the FBI. She is the CIA. The woman does not crack. What is that? That is like a politician's answer. [Laughs.] [She's like], “I have a clear idea. I will have to discuss it with the president, but I think I know.” And you're like, “That does nothing for me.”
Do you know? Or have an idea of what Helen will do?
Heather: No! No. We didn't know who was in the car in the season-one finale until we sat at the table [read]. It took two years for us to find out. Poor Dion didn't know what happened to his wife and child. [Laughs.]
Dion: When I found out that Ryan was back...
Heather: I know. I said, “Okay, so this is happening.” Sheryl does not tell you anything, but she knows everything. She knows. I always say to people there are four Magnolias. There are four Magnolias, and Sheryl Anderson is the fourth, even though she came in first. She knows every storyline. She knows the history.
My mother hasn't shown up [on the show], but we are starting to talk about her. So at one point I said, “I need to know what my relationship is with my mother.” And she could tell me without divulging everything. You know what I mean? It's also for me to discover, but she could tell me enough that I understand that my mother and I have a great relationship. I know who she is and why she is.
It's the same thing with this…. Sheryl has her ideas about what it is. But I'm telling you, I think women are going to be screaming around America [after that last scene in the finale]. I can hear it. Last season, people would yell when they saw me in grocery stores or wherever because they were like, “How could you leave us at the end like that? Who is in the car?” Now Sheryl's put me front and center. My [own] mother is going to try to choke me when she finds me. I'm sure my mother's going to be like, “You have to tell me who you pick.”
What do you both think happens next?
Dion: I think it's going to be a bit of a rough ride. I think things are going to get complicated again [between Helen and Erik]. And I think they will eventually come back [to each other], but I wouldn't be surprised if Helen is drawn to exploring things with Ryan because they have history. Now everything that she wanted is being offered. And for all of Erik's cautiousness, there are things they haven't experienced yet. They're still quite new. Laying that groundwork in that foundation is honorable, is good, is positive for them, but it puts them in opposition. There's stuff that Ryan has to bring to the table. I wouldn't be surprised if it creates a new kind of insecurity in Erik, I think. There's a lot for Erik still to explore about himself.
Don’t forget what Helen said to Ty about not letting your first love get in the way of the next love. Maybe that was a hint that she knows better than to go back to Ryan.
Heather: I know. But then he says to her, “Do you think you can go back to the first one?” And she says, “Maybe. Not if this happens.” Ryan is history. They didn't break up because they didn't love each other. They broke up because she wants something that he's not ready to do at the time, but they're still in love. They find each other wherever they are, and they know how to…. It's that soulmate thing, but Ryan has his issues. But he's charming and debonair and bad-boyish. And they've always loved each other.
All she wants is to have a family and come home to him every night. And then Erik comes in and says, “I can present that to you, but slower.” However, Erik has ghosts, pun intended, that he's dealing with. And how do they come? Again, he's the kind of guy that says, “I need to tell you something. I'm going back to the restaurant for a minute to think about how I'm going to tell you.” You know what I mean? [Laughs.]
I think they both present amazing things. I don't know which she'd choose. I have no idea.
Dion: And Ryan doesn't know about the miscarriage.
Heather: Right.
Dion: There's history. There's new history to be unveiled.
I thought Ryan was Isaac’s dad at first because Peggy was like, “If you have a reason to stick around Serenity...” So then it’s Bill, and I’m like, “Didn't see that one coming.”
Dion: It's so good. They dangled that so beautifully. Didn't see it. Hit me like a truck.
Heather: Nobody knew. We were all like, “Do you think Peggy's the mom? Who's the mama? Peggy's the mama?” Somebody else thought it was Mary Vaughn. Everybody had a thought. And then when we figured out it's Peggy, then it became, “Well, who's the daddy?”
It's so weird how we all were protective of our men because I was like, “It better not be Ryan because I will come and get Peggy!” And then Brooke was like, “I think it's...” She didn't want to think it was Ryan. We were like, “It's Howie.” [Laughs.] So when Bill happened…yeah, it was a surprise.
Lastly, other than what’s going to happen next, what do you hope viewers take away from Helen and Erik’s story this season? It’s incredibly powerful on so many levels.
Dion: There was a point when we were filming, bringing Helen home from having had the miscarriage and reuniting her with her friends, and then the moment that Erik has when he leaves when it hits him. I remember—
Heather: It's beautiful, by the way, Dion. It's beautifully done. You did such great work.
Dion: Oh, thank you. I remember our director Mykelti Williamson saying, “Just remember someone out there is going to be watching this who's going through the same thing and doesn't know how to grieve. Some man out there doesn't know how to release that feeling, doesn't think he can. You have the opportunity to show him that it's okay and show him how.” As he was saying that, I was like, “Oh, dude. Okay.” And we shot it, and I felt a real stewardship of this character and of this story for knowing that there are people out there who are experiencing profound loss and don't feel that they can move on. But it can happen. Yes, it's slow. It takes work. It's not magical. But with faith and patience, and with the desire, a path can be built to becoming whole again. I hope people feel that from seeing this relationship build.
Heather: Dion said it all. I know it's clichéd, but what a beautiful thing love is and how it validates you, and when taken away, how that hurts. One of my favorite songs by Whitney Houston is “Run to You.” Indulge me for a second: [singing] “I know that when you look at me, there's so much that you cannot see. But if you'd only take the time, I know in my heart, you'd find a girl who's scared sometimes, who isn't always strong. Can't you see the hurt in me? I feel so all alone. I want to run to you. Each day I play the role of someone in control. And at night, I come home, and I turn the key. There's no one there. No one cares for me. What's the use of living out your dreams if you don't have someone to share it with? Tell me, what does that mean? I want to run to you.”
To me, that's the theme song for Helen. It's that she has all of this, and everything seems perfect, but I want that person. She wants that person. This season I hope that women, men—everybody—sees that there is that hope that you can find that person. Even through the hurt and the pain, there is somebody sometimes that you are just not looking in that direction. Sometimes there's somebody under your nose who's just sitting there, saying, “Just look over here.” And you're always, “Well, what about this one? What about that one?” If you just turn around, there he is, waiting to lap you up and take you out of your misery, and take your shoes off, and make everything better.
As far as the three women go, I hope women in the world have or are starting to figure out who can be my Magnolia because I'm now getting to that stage in my life that I'm like, “Okay, I'm looking at my girlfriends differently.” I'm like, “These are my girls.” Right? But then who is my Magnolia? Who's my girl? Who is the one that Eric's going to say, “Call these two, they're coming”? Who drops everything? I love that scene where Maddie's dealing with her son, and she looks down at her phone, and she's like, “I got to go.” I don't know what the text says, but also, you know what the text says. It's like, “Helen's in trouble. Come over now.”
This article was first published on Glamour.com
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