Not shy of taking risks, lawyer turned actress, Chanté Bowser is taking another bold step in her acting career to end this decade. We spoke her role of Lifetime’s “Christmas Love Letter,” as well as, her other aspirations.
Most lawyers experience enough challenges just trying to survive their first year of law school, but upon graduating you decided to get your feet wet in the world of acting. Can you tell us what led to you making a bold decision such as that?
Actually, it’s interesting. I always wanted to act. I’m not a super extroverted person. Contrary to popular beliefs, I’m actually more introverted. So for me, it was something I always wanted to do, but something I couldn’t really get my arms around. One of my classmates — when I was grousing about “Oh, I really want to do this. I really want to try this.” I tried doing things behind the scenes and I looked to be an entertainment lawyer — she was like “Why can’t you do that?” And I was like “Oh yea, why can’t I do that?” I thought about, but of course in law school, you can’t do anything like that — there’s no time.
But then upon graduating…
Once I graduated, I decided to go to my first audition and I booked my first audition. I just started booking and I’m like “Oh wow! I’m actually really good at this. People want to hire me to do this, which is really awesome!” It just took a hold of me, because that was always what I had wanted to do. I always had it in my spirits to do, but I had a fear of doing it. Once I got the encouragement to try it and then tried it and realized this is what I was meant to do then the rest is history.
We know that you’ve played several crime based roles. How has being a lawyer helped shaped the characters that you’ve played?
I’ve only gotten to play a lawyer one time, but for the other shows, it’s always interesting because I have to turn my mind off. Even on the set of Mirror, Mirror, there’s a courtroom scene — it was so funny — where the lead actor in that scene, he turns around and he’s telling them, “Well Chanté knows this! Tell them our the court goes!” I’m like, “Wait, I’m not a lawyer on set. I’m an actor on a show!” I actually got to use that knowledge on set and say, “Okay, this is how the judge comes in. This is how everyone responds.” Technically I was a legal advisor, so I told them that I wanted my credit on IMDB for “On Set Production Attorney.” Those were one of those weird times where God has his sense of humor and he was like “Okay, remember you’re a lawyer? I’m going to remind you.”
You’ll be switching up the program again coming up December when you star in your first romantic comedy premieres on Lifetime. Can you give us a little insight into your role as Demi on the “Christmas Love Letter”?
Demi is very intense. She’s a mom, wife, and the editor of the Helen Herald. She doesn’t have a whole lot of time, so she’s quite busy in the movie and even in all of her interactions with Amelie. Amelie is apart of the “office threesome” — Amelie, Ian, and Demi. Amelie gets this letter and she comes back to Helen to try and find out which one of her ex-boyfriends is the one that wrote this amazing, romantic love letter. Demi pretty much stayed out of Amelie’s romantic choices up until that point. You just get to see Demi kind of working in the background, moving things along.
In what ways can you relate to Demi?
I’m intense. I’m busy. I love really hard and Demi loves Ian and Amelie because they grew up together. That’s how I feel about my friends and family. I want everyone to be happy, but at the same time, protective of their feelings. I think that’s where Demi and I really mesh. She’s a little snarky, which is also where I land in my everyday life. I love being able to bring that part of my personality, which helped elevate that character for me. It wasn’t too hard, because we are so much alike. That was one of the best characters I’ve ever played.
Is there a specific genre that you have grown to love or can we expect you to continue to rock the boat?
I’m going to rock the boat as much as I can. I’ve gotten to portray real-life people. I’ve gotten to be with a criminal-minded one. Every character that I’ve played has been different. The storylines of the characters are the same — they’re all strong women and they’re all very protective over the ones they love. That’s kind of the storyline of all of my characters, but they’re all in different situations. They all come from different walks of life and they have different professions, so that’s what I want to do. I want to continue to play strong women, in different places. Whatever people give me, even if that character’s bad, if it’s a strong woman then that’s what I want to do.
Is there anyone that you foresee yourself working with?
The first person that comes to mind is Angela Basset. She’s been such an amazing part of growing up and watching her in different characters. How phenomenal of an actor she is. When you think of Tina Turner to her current TV show, it’s amazing her range of characters. She plays in everybody’s world. She’s not just one type of actor. I would just love to be on set with her and kind of do what I did with Taraji and just watch her work. Just seeing that amazing talent of elevating the script from the page to the camera, I would love to be apart of that.
Sciler Williams
