Zatima Season 3: Crystal Renee Hayslett Reacts to Fatima’s Pregnancy and That ‘Explosive’ Premiere Ending
Warning: This interview contains spoilers from the first two episodes of Zatima Season 3.
Zatima did not come to play in Season 3. Just ask series star Crystal Renee Hayslett, who had to be set up with her own stunt double for Fatima’s dramatic encounter with Jeremiah at the end of the premiere, now streaming on BET+.
“We’re in the world of Tyler Perry, so you never know what to expect,” Hayslett tells TVLine of the premiere’s unsettling conclusion, in which Jeremiah accidentally knocks Fatima unconscious in her office’s parking garage after accusing her of withholding his share of Zac’s mother’s life insurance money.
Some of the intensity of the scene, Hayslett says, comes from actor Ameer Baraka’s willingness to dig into his own painful past while bringing Jeremiah to life: “A lot of people don’t know this, but Ameer actually used to be a drug addict,” she says. “He’s having to relive everything he dealt with in real life. He’s tapping into a real place when it comes to these things.” Hayslett is proud to “get to tell a real story and hopefully help families heal together.”
Fortunately, Fatima’s fall didn’t harm her baby (“Zacisha, nooo!”), and Hayslett is excited to explore her and Zac’s road to parenthood. She believes that Fatima will be a “very nurturing, caring” mother, likely “overprotective in the same way she is about her friends and her man. That will flow over into her love for her child.” She also thinks that having a baby will force Fatima to “calm down a bit and tap into her feminine, softer side, which we’re seeing more of now.”
In a potentially ill-advised turn of events, Fatima chooses not to tell Zac about the dangerous fall, which isn’t the same choice that Hayslett would have made (“I definitely would have told my man!”), but she does understand where her character is coming from. “Because of Zac’s criminal history, there are things Fatima has to think about,” she explains. “If Fatima does tell him, knowing how hotheaded he is, what is he going to do? And what are the ramifications of that? I’m actually really proud of how Fatima handled it. She was really thinking about her partner in that moment.”
Still, Zac is “eventually” going to find out what Jeremiah did, and Hayslett promises an appropriately “explosive” reaction.
Are you glad to have Zatima back in your life after more than a year away? Grade the premiere in our poll below, then drop a comment with your hopes for the rest of Season 3.
