SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Monday night’s episode of All American: Homecoming.
Mitchell Edwards has certainly gone on a journey with Cam Watkins, the character he’s played across several seasons of both All American and All American: Homecoming.
“It was a full journey of a character to go from the pompous, cocky football jock who thinks he’s better than the lead to becoming the graceful, supportive boyfriend and friend to the leader of the [latter show],” Edwards told Deadline, speaking about Monday night’s episode, when the arc really came full circle for him.
After Cam’s breakup with Keisha, he’s tasked with pouring his pain into new music for a major recording artist. While that artist ultimately doesn’t appreciate what Cam brings to the table, the character handles such an emotionally fraught moment with a level of grace that would’ve seemed unlikely to come from the version of Cam audiences meet in the first season of All American.
Not only was Edwards able to explore new depths to his character in this episode, he was also able to infuse more of his own art into it, as his own song, “Playing No Games,” is featured toward the end.
In the interview below, the actor spoke about the intersection of his art and reflected on everything that’s led Cam to this moment where he could handle such heartbreak with his head held high.
DEADLINE: What was the conversation to get your song, ‘Playing No Games,’ in this episode, and what does it mean to you for that to happen?
MITCHELL EDWARDS: I was very excited to get a couple placements on the show! I wrote this song about five years ago, and it was about a scenario that was completely imagined. So fast forward to five years later, our showrunner [Nkechi Okoro Carroll] and reached out to me and…briefed me on what the journey of my character was this season, and obviously the breakup with Keisha was discussed. So they asked me if I had any songs in my catalogue that could potentially work alongside that storyline. I pitched this song to them. They loved it, [and] they were able to build the script around the song a little bit. The song kind of puts fault on the girl, so to speak, so in this case, they made sure that Keisha was guilty of the things that, essentially, the song is about. So it was kind of cool. They just kind of built the script around that, tweaked it a little bit, and, boom, we were able to just use the song.
DEADLINE: That’s so interesting to hear that the story was actually influenced by the song you had already written.
EDWARDS: I think too, as a songwriter, sometimes you can get imposter syndrome because you’re like, ‘Man, I haven’t been through this.’ that was the case with this song. I had no real source material for the story of the song. It just was the feeling of the beat. So to find a story later was really dope. I just applaud and thank [Nkecki] so much for always pushing myself and my entire cast and tapping into the things that we love to do, trying to find ways to give us the opportunity to showcase those things on the show and just to make the show better. It was just great to be able to be of service to the script and have a song already ready, and be able to bring both of my passions together and tell a great story.
DEADLINE: How have you felt about Cam’s journey this season, especially given the breakup with Keisha, but also getting to explore his songwriting?
EDWARDS: I think having music and now having a whole new path in life really excited him. And I think, like most things that we’re excited about, we’re only excited about the good things, right? We’re not really thinking about the challenges that may come. So I think for him, once those challenges start to come, he’s not really sure how to navigate it. He just knows that he’s very excited about the opportunity. He does confide in Keisha, as he always does, but she has her own situation going on, so she doesn’t even know how to fully support him in the moment, in the way in which he needs. So I think for him, it’s a great venture into his own solo journey, whatever it is that he’s supposed to be doing. Now he’s no longer doing football, He’s working on music, and he’s just trying to find his way, and he has to do it on his own…I think that’s a challenge for him as well to learn how to navigate the responsibilities of his career path on his own. There is no partner or no pacifier that you can rely on to get there.
DEADLINE: I think he’s handling all of it with much more maturity and grace than the version of Cam we met in All American. How has it been for you to see him grown over so many seasons?
EDWARDS: I think that was what Cam kind of yearned for in All American, was to have an opportunity to be a real person. If you think back to Season 1, him having a conversation with Spencer and being like, ‘Hey, I didn’t have that Fairy Godfather come in and save my life and give me a chance to be a whole new man.’ And so I think Bringston is that for him. When he goes to Bringston, it’s really a chance for him to kind of redefine himself. He mentions that to Simone, like, ‘Please don’t hold the past against me based off of who you are familiar with me being.’
I think another thing to take into consideration is that he loses football very early. Whereas in All American, he had football as a mask, and he was able to be the big, talented football player that nobody could talk bad about, because his performance was so high. So losing that, he pretty much lost his shield or lost his mask in life, and has to find a new one. I think that that naturally just kind of humbles him and [we see] him learning how to navigate a relationship, being in love, learning how to navigate a friend circle, and being supported. I think all of those things combined really just kind of broke down his walls and made him open up and be a member of the community. I think he really enjoyed it, which is why we see more grace come from him.
DEADLINE: Do you think that’s also part of the reason that he feels so betrayed, not just by Keisha, but by JR as well?
EDWARDS: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don’t think brotherhood is something Cam takes lightly, coming from sports, coming from football. He said last season during his pledging, he learned that KEK has so much more to offer than just scholarship money. There’s a brotherhood that he was yearning to be a part of that he didn’t know. The first brother that he made was JR. He made that connection with him well before KEK, so I think that’s why he was so hurt and taken aback when JR wasn’t so excited to help him join. But once he ultimately did and helped him get funding, I think it took that relationship to another level, and I think Cam was able to take a layer off or allow one of the walls to fall with JR as well, because JR had proved himself to be such a good friend. That is what caused that betrayal to be even more painful. I think with both Keisha and JR, Cam was slow to love them. He took his time to really to learn who they were, and then decided to be their friend, and decided to be the full, loyal Cam that he knows he is, and for that to be reciprocated with betrayal, I think is very, very painful for him. I definitely think he mourns both Keisha and JR, the loss of those relationships.
DEADLINE: Their breakup scene in the previous episode was very heartbreaking. How was it to film that scene with Netta Walker?
EDWARDS: I mean, aside from all the great things I get to do, singing, dancing on the show, my favorite thing to do, and the best part of my job, has always been working with Netta, simply because the two of us have great respect for one another and great respect for the craft at large. We’re both theater babies, and we knew what the assignment was when it came to Keisha and Cam, because this was the only relationship that was sustained over the three seasons so far. So not just for the two of them, but also for our universe, for our show and fans, this was the biggest breakup, so to speak, because they have been together the longest. It was one of the first scenes, I believe, we shot that episode, and we were ready. Me and Netta just have great trust for each other. We’re always excited to do scenes like that with a lot of emotion, because we hold great space for each other on and off camera. When it’s her take and when it’s my take, we’re both in it. I think that we did that that day, We came in, we were ready. We knew what the assignment was, and the approach was, really, let’s just do what we do. Let’s really honor this relationship between these two characters and give them the emotion that it deserves when it comes to their breakup.
DEADLINE: You’ve gotten to work so much more with your other cast mates this season as well. How has that been?
EDWARDS: That’s always a lot of fun to mix up the circle and change the dynamics. I think in the first season, season and a half, really, the focus is about establishing the primary relationships. So I spent a lot of season one working with Netta. So when we started to break that up, that was already fun. Then this season, I feel like I’ve worked with pretty much everybody. It brings a whole new side of the job out. Each character has a different relationship with the other. I really love the relationship between Cam and Simone, and where their relationship is now, because they do have the most history out of the circle. I love that they started as potential foes with her dating his former teammate or former best friend, and the two of them having odds in their relationship to now being like brother and sister. I love the idea of Cam taking Lando under his wing, and now doing for Lando what JR did for cam. Just outside of that, being able to work with the different actors, Geffri [Maya] and I are really close. Me and Martin [Bobb-Semple] are really close. So being able to go to work with those guys and feel out their different acting habits and what that brings out of me, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of excitement, being able to shuffle the cards, so to speak.
DEADLINE: How did you feel finding out the show would end after this season? Do you feel closure with Cam?
EDWARDS: Me in particular, I certainly do have a lot of closure. It’s been a long journey. We all know where this character started. There was no foresight for where he was going to end, and the fact that it ended where it did, with him stepping into music, stepping into dance a little bit with Keisha. I think it was fulfilling. It was a full journey of a character to go from the pompous, cocky football jock who thinks he’s better than the lead to becoming the graceful, supportive boyfriend and friend to the leader of the next show. I think that that was awesome. We saw him playing sports and how he has other talents in the arts. We got to see all those different things. So, for me, being able to show those different dynamics within this character, I feel incredibly fulfilled and at peace, and I do feel like I have closure. The news also came on my very last day of filming. So it was the day that I was putting the show down anyway, and so when I got the news, it just made it a final event. This would be the final time I put the show down, but I was very happy and proud of what we accomplished, and very proud to be a part of this show and the other show, and be able to represent the culture in such a beautiful way.
DEADLINE: What’s next for you?
EDWARDS: So my journey is very similar to Cam’s, in that the next thing will be music. He mentions in episode 12, in a couple weeks, it’s time for his next chapter, which is going to be amazing, and that’s how I feel. It’s time for my next chapter. Of course, I’m an actor for the rest of my life. I’ve already established that, but I’m very excited to have been able to drop this song on the show and get the ball rolling. I have another one coming through as well, and after that, we’ll just be dropping music and sharing that and pushing that forward, as well as continuing to audition and continuing to work and seek work as an actor. In addition to releasing music as an artist, I’m also really looking forward to making new music for shows and films to continue to merge my gifts and passions as a storyteller.
