Amber Stevens West began her career as a model, then became a heartthrob in ABC Family’s Greek. She made another successful change when landing the role of Maxine in NBC’s family sitcom The Carmichael Show, jumping into comedy opposite Jerrod Carmichael, David Alan Grier and Loretta Devine.

The show returns for its third season on Wednesday, May 31, and Daily Brief spoke with Amber about the adjustment to working on Carmichael, shooting without makeup, and how wonderful it is to act on a show that means something.

Daily Brief: Coming from working primarily on one-hours like Greek, how was the adjustment to shooting an old-school sitcom?

West: It’s a totally different animal doing a live show. The fact that we get rehearsal week, and while there are several changes that happen throughout the week so you have to stay on your toes, but we get to work together in the space together as actors before we actually go on film. Then we go have the live audience, and it gives you that instant gratification. It’s wonderful, and I prefer it to any other style or medium of acting I’ve done before.

When you’re doing single camera, if you’re on a series especially, you don’t get the opportunity to rehearse with the actors. You kind of just go in and start shooting it. You might read it out loud together with the director and with camera, just to get the idea of where all the shots are going to be before, but you don’t really get to dive into it and work on it together and find the interesting moments in it.

I love that I get to rehearse with the entire cast for four days and then do a live show at the end of the week. It’s so gratifying.

It sounds a lot like theater. Does it make you want to jump into that realm?

I have a little bit of interest in doing theater, more musical theater than plays or anything. I’ve always had this dream, and it’s still out there, that I would maybe do a six-week stint of Rent on Broadway, or something fun like that. And I do think maybe I’ll try to write a musical. It’s something I’m exploring right now. I got a few friends who are interested in doing something like that. I got some ideas that we could write. I love writing lyrics and music. I’ve got a friend who’s great at coming up with interesting melodies, so we might be able to work together, and maybe it’s just something small that we do for us.

I would like to learn more about that world because I didn’t discover musical theater, really, until I was an adult. I wasn’t exposed to much of it growing up. I’m slowly learning more about it now, and think maybe I want to get involved some day.

Executive producers Ravi Nandan and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel mentioned the possibility of a musical episode. How psyched would you be about that?

That would be thrilling. I would be very excited about it. We sing all day at work anyway. I actually got to sing a song from Dear Evan Hansen on the show this season. It’s the opening for one of our episodes, so that was awesome and super fun. We work our music in. Loretta is always singing in episodes, as Cynthia is a churchgoing woman.

I don’t know how realistic a musical episode is. Maybe by season 11 you can convince Jerrod of that.

Yeah, along with the acid-trip episode.

[laughs] Exactly.

Where does Maxine end and you begin? What’s the overlap?

As far as morals and values, I’m quite in line with my character. Personality-wise, maybe not so much. I’m not much of an argumentative person. I’m a Libra, to give you an idea. Very non-confrontational. I’m not going to try to debate with you. I’m more of a listener than an argumentative person. I love listening to a great debate, it’s one of my favorite things to do, but always as an observer. I like to listen to points of view. In that way, I’m very different from Maxine, who always wants to jump right in and argue a point. But it’s fun to get to do that on the show, because it’s a point of view I share. I learn a lot about myself and my own perspectives through the character I get to play and what the writers write.

This season, you filmed an episode entirely without makeup. Have you always had a healthy relationship with your personal appearance?

No. I have not always had that. I think that’s something turning 30 gives you. A little more confidence and realizing your place in the world and what really matters in life. I dealt with my own insecurities, like a lot of women do, especially in regards to appearance. I modeled when I was younger, and I always felt lesser than every other model, not good enough, not cute enough, not skinny enough, not whatever. Which is one huge reason I did not want to continue modeling, because it never made me fulfilled. Getting into acting was fun, just pretending to be other people.

But I come from really grounded, cool, supportive parents who have always tried to make me feel confident. I can give them a little bit of credit, especially in finding that confidence in feeling that perspective. Not to say I’m all the way. I have a full beet red face right now. But it’s fine. I do like to wear makeup, it’s fun.

Are there any social issues the show hasn’t explored yet that you want them to?

I came up with one kind of funny concept. I was home with my husband’s family and we were discussing his Uncle, who got a massage. And it was very uncomfortable for him to be touched by a stranger. He insisted that the masseuse put on ESPN, had the lights kept on and that the masseuse could not massage his hands. I thought that was hilarious. I threw it out to the writers once. I think it’d be fun to talk about physical intimacy with strangers. There’s a lot of times where you’re up in someone’s face and you let them be in your space and there are other times when it’s very uncomfortable, and what are our limitations with that kind of thing? That could be fun. But Jerrod has a billion ideas. He doesn’t need me to tell him what to come up with.

We do have discussions about the perspective of our character within the subject matter that’s already presented. For example, Loretta’s always trying to have discussions with Jerrod about where she thinks Cynthia’s point of view would be on whatever we’re talking about because she knows the voice of a woman her age and what someone in her community would feel about a certain thing. Discussions like that happen. Which is nice. It’s nice to collaborate with our writers. But 99% of the time they nail it the first time around.

Not every TV show means something, and this show actually does.

Thank you.

How does that feel as a performer?

It’s amazing. It’s icing on the cake. I enjoy just performing, but to also have it be thoughtful and thought-provoking is wonderful. I’m so proud to be on something that does that. That’s smart, that makes you think about the show later, that starts conversations with your friends.

I had a screening with a bunch of friends over at my house to watch the episode about guns, and halfway through the episode, we pressed pause, and we talked for almost 20, 30 minutes, because everyone in the room had a different perspective on what gun control is. I love that our show does that. At its best, it’s sparking conversation with families or people in their surroundings. I’m really grateful to be a part of something like that.

Especially in this day and age.

Yeah. We need to talk to each other more, or we end up in some crazy situation like we’re in now, and that’s because we’re not hearing each other. We’re not talking about stuff, we’re just putting it under the rug because we’re nervous or it makes us uncomfortable or it’s taboo or whatever. And so, our show is just saying: no it’s okay, let’s talk about it. And then you can find the humor in it, because we’re all humans just trying to live this weird thing called like life. And life is absurd, so let’s just talk about the obvious.

If you want to talk, Amber Stevens West and The Carmichael Show returns Wednesday May 31 at 9/8c on NBC.

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