NEW YORK — “Maybe I shouldn’t’ve said that,” Meagan Good says after telling me she wants “babies.” But the smile that slowly takes over her face tells me she doesn’t regret it. She isn’t concerned with where anyone’s mind will race to next. Kids? Now? With whom? Her boyfriend Jonathan Majors? The embattled actor whom many folks wonder what the heck she’s still doing with?
She keeps smiling. She said what she said — and unprompted, too. I wasn’t trying to be all in her business. Although lately, everyone is.
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The actress, whom fans have followed from “Stomp the Yard” to “Think Like a Man,” stars in Tyler Perry’s “Divorce in the Black,” a thriller about what happens when a good woman is pushed too far by the horrible man she’s fanatically loyal to. For the past year, Good has starred in a different drama, on red carpets and Reddit, as half of one of Hollywood’s most gossiped about and (in her words) “misunderstood” couples. With the release of her new movie this week, her on- and off-screen roles are bleeding together in a way that Good doesn’t just brush off.
End of carouselAfter we settle into an outdoor table in the middle of a historic heat wave, I mention that the sweat dripping down my nose could also be the result of a “private summer” — Southern grandma speak for a hot flash. Good lifts one perfectly crafted eyebrow. “Girl, I’m 43,” I say. She clutches imaginary pearls because she’ll be 43 in less than a month — and Good wants to be a mom. Pregnancy and perimenopause are not mutually exclusive, I offer, and she breathes a comic sigh of relief. It’s been less than five minutes since we said “hello.”
Good gets straight to the point — but maybe not the one you’d expect.
Instead of speaking Hollywood-ese about how great it was to work with Perry and how much she loves Majors (though both are true), Good wants to use her time (in the spotlight, on Earth, in this interview) to get her message across. It’s a slightly bespoke spiritual brew of loving yourself, dancing in the rain and letting go.
“I don’t want to be famous. I don’t wish to be a celebrity. I don’t want money. I want a platform,” says Good, who is not a fan of being misunderstood. So we spend our time trying to understand each other.
But first, babies.
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It was during the past two years of her marriage to the producer and author DeVon Franklin that Good realized she wanted children. But like many women, she wasn’t sure whether the pull she felt was internal or external — what she wanted or what she was supposed to want. But when the couple announced their divorce in 2021 after nine years of marriage, the desire for a child only grew.
“Now I’m positive, and I think it’s just because I’ve done everything I want to do,” Good says. “And everything else that I want to do, I think I’ll do better with a kid. I just think I will be better equipped once I’m a mother to embody all the things.”
I nod because the idea that having children would help, and not harm, a woman’s career, especially as a 40-plus Black actress, is obviously subversive. Then Good goes a step further. Becoming a mother and an action hero (another goal), she says, would serve a higher purpose: “I want women to feel empowered.”
Don’t roll your eyes — or do! It’s all the same to Good, as long as you listen. This is how she talks, a mashup of minister at the pulpit and good girlfriend over many mimosas. Like when she tells me that “every single bad thing” that’s happened to her in the past few years — the bald judgment she got from other Christians for being too sexy, the end of her marriage to a preacher, the allegations she bleached her skin — has actually been good for her.
“Well, that’s a great way to look at it,” I say, trying to lean into her positivity.
“Yeah, but I also really believe that,” Good says.
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When our lunch arrives, the actress announces, “I’m going to say a quick prayer,” then bows her head and drops her voice to a low alto. When I asked what she said to Him, Good replies, “I prayed for the interview to go well. I thanked God for this opportunity and this moment. I prayed the food would be nourishing. And that was it — this time.”
God had been a guiding force in Good’s life long before she met and married Franklin, a Seventh-day Adventist preacher, motivational speaker and film executive. She recalls asking God at 19 if acting was really what she was called to do. That’s when the notion of a platform came in. So while she was landing on the cover of King magazine in 2003 in a miniskirt and barely-there top — headline: “50 CENT’S VIDEO WIFEY MEAGAN (UM UM) GOOD!” — her plan was to help “build the Kingdom.”
“I believe that God called me to those spaces to speak in spaces that Christians wouldn’t usually speak in,” Good says. “And to be unapologetic about it. I also don’t have any conviction about what I wear. I have conviction about what’s in my heart and what’s in my mind.”
What’s on her mind these days is the freedom of second acts, the power of forgiveness and the futility of judgment. All themes that permeate “Divorce in the Black.” Good was two years past her divorce when she got the script.
“I was like, yeah, this feels right. I’m ready to tackle this. I understand this character. I understand where she’s at,” Good says, who is also a producer on the film and sees her performance as not only cathartic but as a conscious effort to help others going through it.
Good plays Ava, a preacher’s kid who takes her marriage vows to the next level while her husband (played by Cory Hardrict) is villainous beyond all reason. Ava thinks her love can vanquish his demons. The film is squarely what we’ve come to expect of the Tyler Perry genre: over the top — no, really, ridiculous — but at times surprisingly moving.
Listening to Good describe the character, it’s hard to not to read between the lines.
“I think that women are very close to God. We have a desire to help, to save, to cover, to hold up all those things. And I think it is a part of our purpose and I actually think it’s a gift,” Good says before adding an important point of clarification. “I think it’s about being sure that that’s what God has told you to do. And for the person that God told you to do it for.”
She put it right there, so we get into it. What bothers Good the most about her current situation is that people aren’t getting her. Intention is big for Good. So if she’s clear about what she’s doing and why and folks are still mad? Well, they can stay mad. She’s fine on her end.
“If you think I’m doing something for a reason that I didn’t do it for, that actually bothers me because I feel misunderstood,” Good adds.
So about Jonathan …
The relationship wasn’t meant to be so public — at least not in the beginning. Someone spotted them on a movie date in downtown Los Angeles in May 2023. TMZ got hold of it. Just two months before, Majors had been arrested for assaulting his former girlfriend Grace Jabbari. The man was practically radioactive. The studios, the deals, the hype and great expectations disappeared with a Thanos finger snap. And standing right beside him? Good, who the actor said held him “down like a Coretta,” as in Scott King.
Majors, she said, wanted to keep their budding relationship private to protect her. Good, on the other hand, realized that “at a certain point we can’t hide it.”
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News of the romance sent Good’s followers into a head-shaking tizzy. She’s been a beloved little sister since her critically acclaimed turn in 1997’s “Eve’s Bayou” who managed the fraught transition from child star to sex symbol to successful working actress. Her fans weren’t just shocked, they were concerned — or as concerned as strangers can be. Immediately, observers started filling in the gaps for themselves. Good couldn’t possibly be in this relationship for the regular reasons. It had to be a PR stunt. Maybe she was getting paid? Or needed to be saved?
Good has read the comments — some of them — and crosses out each theory with precision.
“I’ve been working my entire life. I’ve been taking care of my family since I was a teenager. I don’t need to be paid. The little pride in me thinks, ‘Y’all crazy as hell,’” Good says.
“I’m not a 20-year-old girl. I’ve lived quite a few lifetimes already. I appreciate concern when it’s genuine. But I’m also like. ‘I got a mama. I got a big sister. I’ve got very, very close friends of family who do not f--- around when it comes to me. I’m good,’” she says.
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What upsets Good most has been the characterization of Majors.
“It probably bothers me more because of the way I know him and because of the things that I know,” says Good, who does not elaborate on what those things are.
What Good will say is that she and Majors, who was found guilty of reckless assault and sentenced to a year-long “batterers intervention program” in April, are stronger because of the scrutiny. It’s brought them closer, forcing the couple to create and live in their own bubble. Red carpets, award shows and dance parties aside, Majors and Good have remained private in their own way. “We got all that up front. So it’s at that point where you can handle anything,” she says. This is when Good’s “everything happens for a reason” theory really gets put to the test.
“I know that Jonathan makes me very happy. And I love him very much and I feel very, very loved by him. And I’m grateful for even the horrible things that we’ve experienced. I don’t wish that for him. But, for us, I think that it’s produced something different and special and that I’m thankful for,” Good says.
“I care more about protecting him because I’ve been in this business for 30 years. He’s been a working actor for nine years. This is culture shock to him,” Good says. “I’m also thankful for the timing that God put us together, you know, and to be able to be there.”
Thankful? Really? Why?
“Because I’m solid,” she says.
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