Exclusive Interview
‘A Different World’ Star Vincent Jamal Hooper Dishes on Ellington’s Love for Deborah
Ellington Kendall (Vincent Jamal Hooper) has his head in the game when it comes to Deborah Wayne‘s (Maleah Joi Moon) heart in Netflix’s A Different World. From the jump, Ellington and Deborah had a connection no one could deny. While Deborah spent the majority of the season with Shaquille Johnson (Cornell Young IV), complications pushed them onto different paths.
By the end of Season 1, Ellington couldn’t let his chance with Deborah slip away. When she walked back to her dorm room after the gala, Ellington was there waiting for her, with a red rose in his hand and candles all around. “I can’t let someone like you get away from me. Not again,” he told her. “I want to be with you, Deborah.”
For breakout star Vincent Jamal Hooper, he’s ready and willing to put all his weight behind Team Ellington. Having been “raised around a lot of powerful women and a lot of influential women,” it’s not a surprise Ellington falls for Deborah, according to Hooper. “What he sees in Deborah is clearly someone of great influence and agency,” he noted.
The Ellington-Deborah-Shaquille love triangle is in full swing, with many viewers already choosing their sides. Hooper shared his take on why he believes Ellington is better suited for Deborah. “I think that he grounds Deborah in a way that no one else does, and that there’s a way in which I think he kind of edifies her,” Hooper told Swooon. “Obviously, I think he’s in love with who she is, but also encouraging her to expand further in that direction, which I think is a beautiful thing.”
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So, how does Ellington feel about Shaquille? “I think he’s a talented athlete, and I think that Ellington views him as a little immature,” the actor explained. “I think that the way that Shaquille conducts himself is not quite how Ellington would ever go about things, but I think largely that comes as a result of, again, being raised around so many women in his life, that I think he just naturally kind of moves differently than the other guys around him.”
The first season of the Netflix revival ended with Deborah and Ellington sharing a passionate kiss. Hooper revealed some details about that game-changing final moment. “I believe that they shot an alternate ending where that involved Shaquille,” he noted. “I’m not entirely sure the details of that, but I think ultimately they decided that the stronger ending was with Ellington.”
Earlier in the Season 1 finale, Ellington casually dropped that he is Ellington Kendall, the son of Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and Martin Kendall (John C. Phillips). When Ellington revealed the news, he made a point of noting that his mom has gone back to using her maiden name, all but confirming Denise and Martin have divorced. The show hasn’t gotten the chance to explain what happened, but Hooper has his own theory.
“My story is that they are two very different people, Ellington’s dad and his mom,” Hooper shared. “Like, he’s this military guy, she’s this artistic person, and I think you saw pieces of that in the original series as well, like the way they would kind of butt heads, and so I think that at a certain point it maybe just came to a head.”
The series hasn’t been renewed for a Season 2, but A Different World is the buzziest new show of the fall. We have high hopes for this revival. Hooper revealed that he hopes his “mom shows up” in a potential second season. “That’d be really cool to do some scenes with her, and yeah, I just think exploring more of who everybody is. I think there’s so much rich character work to draw from with everyone. So I’d be curious to see where those things go,” he added.
A Different World, Season 1, Streaming Now, Netflix
