SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Monday’s episode of All American: Homecoming.
It’s been quite the journey for Martin Bobb-Semple‘s Orlando “Lando” Johnson since he was first introduced on All American: Homecoming.
The overly confident baseball star introduced in Season 1 to put a wedge between Simone (Geffri Maya) and Damon (Peyton Alex Smith) is a far cry from the lovable, yet guarded love interest he becomes in Season 2. So, Season 3 has been a bit of a challenge for the actor, as Simone and Lando’s relationship has been strained since she finally put an end to the love triangle, choosing Damon.
A year and a half later, Simone and Lando are still trying to fix their fractured friendship, and Monday’s episode appears to finally set them on that course.
“I think that’s the main thing that we take away from this episode, is that even though things aren’t perfect and things aren’t maybe where they want it to be, ultimately, they are just the best of friends, which I think they both appreciate at the moment,” Bobb-Semple tells Deadline.
The episode is certainly a whirlwind, beginning on a positive note when Lando agrees to drive Simone to a radiation appointment. They agree to spend the day together, only to find themselves back on the rocks when Lando finds out that Simone lied about supporting his photography career from afar.
Rather than leave things icy, the characters do find a resolution, as Lando helps Simone reclaim her own power in the face of breast cancer. It also makes clear that the love these characters had for each other never went anywhere, calling into question whether there’s another shot at romance on the horizon for them.
Bobb-Semple remained tight-lipped about that possibility, but he did speak with Deadline more about exploring a new, more vulnerable side of Lando in this episode and finding closure in the show’s cancellation. Read the interview below.
DEADLINE: How did you feel when you first saw the script for this episode?
MARTIN BOBB-SEMPLE: Honestly, my initial feeling was fear. I was terrified, because usually when you get the script, you see everybody’s names. It was literally just the three names: me, Geff and Sylvester. I kind of knew already, because NK and Marqui had [told me about the episode], so I was preparing for it the whole season. When I did get it, I was scared, because…you don’t want it to be boring, and you want to do a good job, and you want it to be the best that it can be. So at first I was super scared, but then going into it, it was an amazing experience. Geffri’s amazing. So us working together on that was one of the best moments of my career so far, genuinely, because it was just such a pleasant experience.
DEADLINE: Simone and Lando’s relationship drastically changed this season versus last. How has that been for you and Geffri as actors to work through that and find a very different dynamic?
BOBB-SEMPLE: [We] work so well together, just as actors. So no matter what we’ve got to do, it’s always going to be fun for us. If we’re angry at each other, if we’re upset with each other, if we’re just joking around, no matter what we’re doing, it’s always fun. We always bounce off each other really well. It’s been such a journey, and I feel like our characters have been through so much, and again, working with her is such a joy, because I never have to worry. I could always just be super transparent, super open and vulnerable, because I know that we just trust each other so well. We’ve definitely been on a huge rollercoaster of a journey, but it’s been…I guess, a revelation for me as an actor as well, kind of pushing myself and growing throughout this whole experience.
DEADLINE: In that argument toward the end of the episode, Lando gets very emotional. We have not really seen that from him yet, so how was that scene to explore with this character?
BOBB-SEMPLE: That was why it was so terrifying to me, because it isn’t something that you’ve seen him do before. As an actor, of course, I’ve cried, I’ve been angry, I’ve been sad, whatever. But for this specific character, it’s like I don’t even know what that looks like. I’ve never had to do this before with him, so to access that and for it to be something that was truthful and honest to him, was a bit of a challenge, because we’ve always seen him mask his emotions with feistiness or with anger, or with being a little bit cheeky or being a little bit of a mischievous troublemaker. Whatever it is, I’ve always had to mask Lando’s feelings with something else. For it to just be straight up sadness, or him being really scared and being super vulnerable for the first time, it was such uncharted territory that I just didn’t know. But it was great. It was amazing. Our director was so good at just giving us the time and helping us through it that, I don’t want to say easy, it was still difficult, but on the day, I didn’t feel the challenge that I had felt the whole time. I just felt free to be able to just go where I needed to go.
DEADLINE: What did you decide was really going on in his head to make him that upset? Obviously it goes beyond Simone not telling him she bought the prints, but what did you see as the biggest source of pain for him?
BOBB-SEMPLE: We hadn’t really touched too heavy on him and his mom’s relationship and why it was a little bit frayed, really, so for me, it was him reassuring himself that his relationship with him and his mom is still [strong], because she’s been doing this. With him, their relationship is still in a great place, even though they maybe haven’t spoken in a while, or he feels like maybe things were still a little bit rocky between them, but because she’s been buying all these photos, it’s like, oh, okay, she’s still showing this love and affection that he maybe hasn’t felt before from her or felt in a long time. So, when he then finds out that it was [Simone], it’s a mixture of, ‘You’ve lied to me again,’ for one, and it’s also…he thought it was him and his mom’s relationship in a good place. But really it wasn’t. So he made all of that up in his head, basically, and then for her to now have lied about it, it was like a whole amalgamation of emotions and feelings just going through my head at that particular point. I think, again, he masks it with anger, but really he was hurt by it. Because he was like, ‘Oh, I thought I was in a better place with my mother, but I wasn’t. It was you the whole time?’
DEADLINE: Is this the start of a new chapter for them? And is that new chapter as friends, or something more?
BOBB-SEMPLE: I think evidently they’ve been through so much, but this particular episode, it’s just the two of them. So you really, truly see this whole roller coaster, and it’s almost like a key to what their relationship has been over the past two, three seasons. In this one episode, you see their whole journey from start to finish again. They end on a very positive note, I think I can say [that]. But then I think going forward, it’s like, if anything is to come of it, it really is just that their friendship is rekindled again.
I think it’s a shame that we had to be mad at each other. Their relationship was so rocky in the beginning, and I think that was just due to him being hurt, really. But then now it’s like they had the whole past of being together and being friends with benefits or whatever, and having feelings for each other, but then it didn’t really go anywhere, and it was just very confusing. Now, with the basis of all of that, they’ll always have each other as friends, and I think that’s the main thing that we take away from this episode, is that even though things aren’t perfect and things aren’t maybe where they want it to be, ultimately, they are just the best of friends, which I think they both appreciate at the moment.
DEADLINE: You wrapped production before you found out that the series was cancelled. Do you still feel like you were able to get closure on the character and the story?
BOBB-SEMPLE: I mean, I definitely felt going into the last quarter of the season, it was feeling very final. that’s normal for a season anyway, because you need to wrap it up, but it was feeling very ‘if this is the end, then it kind of finishes perfectly.’ So it kind of could have gone either way. Things wrapped up nicely. Everything comes to a close. All the questions are answered. Everything has its resolutions, which you’ll see in the end. It definitely felt very, very, very final, for sure, which was sad, but at the same time, we just didn’t know. So, it was a nice, safe option to kind of be like, ‘Let’s wrap everything out, and then if we are to continue, then it will just have a whole new forest of stories to kind of explore.’ But we didn’t get to, so it’s fine.
DEADLINE: I’ve really enjoyed getting to see Lando’s relationships outside of Simone this season. You’ve had so many more scenes with the rest of the cast. How has that been?
BOBB-SEMPLE: That was great for me, because, again, we’re all such close friends as people, so to be able to work with all of them was great, and to be able to just explore our characters together. Me and Mitch never really had any scenes in Season 2. Me and Sylvester had a few. Me and Rhoyle didn’t have any. So it was fun to be able to just explore that and have different elements of Lando and different dynamics, and to be able to see how he would react in different situations. Everybody’s so talented as well. So it was so much fun to do, to be able to just play.
DEADLINE: I love the episode where he’s trying to convince his girlfriend’s brother to cancel his party. It’s a side of Lando that’s a little less confident. We don’t get to see that often.
BOBB-SEMPLE: There was a lot more dynamics of Lando that I got to explore this season, which was so much fun. It was just different, because I feel in the back end of Season 1, we see him as a villain-esque type guy. And in Season 2, it was like, ‘Oh no, that’s not really what he’s like.’ He can be lovable. This season, we see his true self. We get to see a lot more of him. We get to see how he is in different situations, with different people, different dynamics. I truly felt like I really got to explore all elements of him as a character.
DEADLINE: What else can you tease about what’s in store for the rest of the season?
BOBB-SEMPLE: There’s a lot more, especially from Lando. He interacts with a lot more characters. There’s a lot more of a roller coaster to see, you know? We wrap it up nicely in a way where it gets emotional, but it definitely finishes in a very satisfying place, I would say. I’m excited to kind of just see how it all plays out.
DEADLINE: Anything else that you wanted to add?
BOBB-SEMPLE: I guess a message to the fans is that we all see their reactions and their comments and tweets and the Instagram comments and all that kind of stuff, and it’s so funny and appreciated. We love it, and it’s great that we have such strong, motivated, dedicated supporters, because I think that’s exactly what the show needs. We made it for them, so it’s great for us to see that they are appreciating it as much as we appreciate it and love making it. I guess we’re just really happy and grateful that everybody’s really enjoying this season because we loved it as well.
