It’s safe to say your career prospects are bright if you land a significant role on a HBO Max revival of an all-time popular series. It isn’t Sex in the City rebooted, but …And Just Like That’s limited series run on the new HBO streaming network is one of marquee television events of the year without question. Deborah Lee Fong’s portrayal of Cynthia Nixon’s non-binary new love’s grandmother is far removed from her prior appearances in productions such as You and Your Decisions, PBS productions such as Footsteps and Footsteps 2, as well as a bevy of theatrical productions across the country.
Her previous work, including her performance as Agnes in the 2019 Urban World Film Festival Live Screenplay Reading of Secret Santa, is unquestionably stellar. Her role in …And Just Like That, however, holds the potential to be the sort of breakout moment capable of transforming her future. Fong has certainly logged the necessary time. Her three-decade career as an actress and performer isn’t confined to memorizing and delivering lines though as the Panamanian American also boasts impressive credentials as a dancer with specialties in pole dancing and Salsa.
She deserves kudos as well for avoiding the trap so many veteran performers fall into. Many, for many reasons, find themselves cut adrift from their careers in middle-age and beyond not because of a dearth of roles, though that’s a real thing, but more because modern storytelling has passed them by. It isn’t any stretch imaging many actresses of yesteryear balking at a character who doesn’t identify with either traditional gender or sexual orientation.
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Fong, however, embraces the role and explores it. Nothing in the way she approaches her work is cookie-cutter. Despite whatever differences, big or small, exist between her and the characters she plays, Fong brings a deeply human understanding to each role she takes on. It is one of the abiding qualities that’s made her a favorite for casting in a wide variety of parts because she can get inside of each character and disappear.
She more than holds her own with talents such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, and Chris Noth. Moreover, her performance illustrates the keen understanding of how ensemble chemistry works and she’s careful to stay in her lane and delivering what’s asked of her. Her “dance partners” undoubtedly supply the necessary spark for Fong to up her game. She would never mail it in, anyway – Fong is one of those performers who are THERE every night and expect the same from those participating in the collaborative process.
She won’t be a household name after this, but she’s closer than ever before to her true aim. Behind the press releases, the different characters and works, behind the costumes and dance, Deborah Lee Fong is driven by the need to communicate with others and that desire burns brighter than ever. Her performance in the new HBO Max series reminds all of us that you can almost always have what you want if you have the skills and willingness to grow.
Heather Savage
