What do you get when you combine a Real Housewives star, a Love & Hip Hop star, and one of our Black Hollywood legends?
BET+’s newest steamy film, Who’s Cheating Who?, starring Cynthia Bailey and Apryl Jones, and with Wendy Raquel Robinson behind the lens in the director’s chair, it’ll leave you questioning your own relationships.
Bailey has jumped into acting headfirst and hasn’t slowed down. Fans watched her transition from The Real Housewives of Atlanta to guest roles, small roles and now, her first lead role. Who’s Cheating Who? allowed the former supermodel to transform into a character completely opposite of her, and it’s one of the reasons she was attracted to the script.
“I play the role of Maxine, who is a psychotherapist who basically actually could benefit from a little therapy of her own. You guys will see me in a way that you have never, ever seen me before. I’m like sexy on another level. I’m this villain, a vixen. I’m doing the absolute most,” she said in an interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act.
But just as excited as she was to be challenged, she was intimidated because of the level of turn-up Maxine required.
“I was a little mortified because I just felt like I hadn’t really been around my co-star that much and I didn’t really get a lot of time to prepare. But I will say our amazing director, Ms. Wendy Raquel Robinson, just really got me together,” she continued. “She kept adding so many layers to this character that she actually helped me reach a potential I didn’t know I had. She pushed me to the limit when it comes to being sexy.”
Also in the film is Jones, a Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood alum. Robinson has been a mentor both in and in and out of Hollywood for decades, and she talked about if there’s a difference between working with trained actors versus reality stars.
“I’ve been directing, but a lot with youth. And the one thing about when you work with children, they don’t have any pretense. They just come, and they’re open, they’re vulnerable. But I say, with the highest regard to my leading ladies, they showed up with that same energy,” Robinson said. “Cynthia’s more than a reality star because she’s such a grounded woman. I was a fan of Apryl from her little videos that she did on social media. I love to see beautiful women not take themselves so seriously and are able to have fun in the process. And I think that’s what they both brought. So it was a huge advantage for me.”
The story follows two couples intersected through infidelity. Jones’ relationships have been public, and she said she was able to pull from personal experience for her role.
“I feel like most women have been in bad relationships where they’ve been cheated on. So I’ve had that aspect of having that side and being able to know what that feels like and the sadness and the hurt. But then the other side of me playing a character doing the cheating, I have not experienced that. So that was very interesting,” she said. “I’ve had friends that have done that. So I was able to pull from different people and what that feels like with the control and the power that comes with it.”
As for what Robinson thinks viewers can learn from this film, she encourages everyone to look beyond the cheating of it all. “I think it’s about people meeting everybody where they are and giving them a fair chance until something shows up,” she said. “But don’t carry all that baggage over. I believe at the end of this movie and everything that happens with Cynthia’s character, who got to have a fresh start from a new lens, proves we’re not our circumstances.”
The film is now streaming on BET+.
