Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 5-19-17

Feature
‘Greenleaf' And ‘Queen Sugar’ Cast Member Stays True And Connected To Her Home: Tampa
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
As an actress, it’s Vivian Fleming-Alvarez’s job to don a different persona every time she’s on the screen.
So far, she’s been a cop, an attorney, and an ER nurse.
It’s work that never gets old, said Alvarez, a Tampa native and daughter of Hil- dreth Fleming, a former teacher, and the late Virginia Billups, an administrative secretary.
“It’s very exciting,” she said.
An entertainer since her teens, Alvarez’s current oc- cupation seems predestined. It’s rooted in her time as a member of King High School’s dance team, which she joined after failing to make the cheer- leading squad.
After high school, Alvarez spent four years as a profes- sional cheerleader for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But a Hollywood career it didn’t always seem that way, she said.
Alvarez was a postal worker for some years before venturing into real estate and, then, marrying and becoming a stay-at-home mom to two sons, Christian and Dar- ren.
But the yearning to act never left Alvarez and, fi-
nally, she had to give in to it. “I spent a week asking my- self what should I do that I’m not doing,” she said. “And the same answer kept coming up:
acting.”
She took classes to sharpen
her skills and then secured an agent. Her first role was in 2010 as Mrs. Martinez in the Lifetime TV show, Army Wives.
Alvarez’s worked steadily since, snagging roles on BET’s Being Mary Jane and Blood- line, a Netflix series.
Divorced and her sons now grown, Alvarez said she doesn’t regret the late start to her career.
“If it had happened for me in my mid-twenties, I was a different personality,” she said. “I might not have had a career because in my 20s, I was very reactionary.”
Playing a role lawyer in Queen Sugar will always be bittersweet, Alvarez said.
Her mother was hospital- ized, “fighting for her life”, when Alvarez got the call to fly out for a one-day shoot.
“I asked her should I stay or should I go?” she said. “She shook her head, yes.”
While most of her appear- ances have been one-time parts, her role as “Lorraine Ingram” in Greenleaf – the girlfriend of pedophile Robert “Mac” McCready
TV and Movie star, Vivian Fleming-Alvarez
– is meatier, she said. Initially, Lorraine wasn’t
meant to be a recurring char- acter, but the role was ex- panded as she became deeply woven into Mac’s storyline, Alvarez said.
Lorraine doesn’t trust her gut and ignores red flags about Mac – much to her detriment.
“She let a man spiritually take advantage of her,” she said. “I know a lot of women who have been in that situa- tion and it’s hard to see.”
But her biggest coup to date is an appearance as a mu- latto woman in the block- buster Academy Award-winning 12 Years a Slave.
The total experience – from the four-day shoot to the wrap party – was one that she may have missed if she had still been married.
“I would have turned it down because my husband wouldn’t have approved,” she said.
Alvarez, who still lives in Tampa, said her dream is to appear in popular AMC series The Walking Dead or in one of the movies in the Alien fran- chise.
“Iwantaguninmyhand or something strapped to me,” she said. “I’m all for the grunge...taking off and being raw.”
See Vivian Fleming
Alvarez at the Cuban Club Vivian Fleming-Al- varez will serve as a judge at the Full Force Celebrity Talent Search Experience, a fundraiser for the Paul An- thony Foundation featuring Vivica Fox, Paul Anthony, and Full Force. The event starts at 8 p.m. Friday, May 19 at The Cuban Club, 2010 14th Ave. in Ybor City. For more in- formation or tickets, visit
www.EnviteEntertainment.co m.
Follow Vivian Fleming Al- varez on Instagram at @vi- vianalvarez1 and learn more about her at www.imdb.com.
PAGE 2-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2017