“Teenage Bounty Hunters” actor Devon Hales plays April Stevens in the Netflix Original Series “Teenage Bounty Hunters,” which was released on Aug. 14. As a Georgia native, Hales is proud to be a part of a show that recognizes the South for what it is. “I grew up here and feel, for better or worse, attached to the South and Atlanta specifically. It’s so special to be on a show that appreciates that and can see the good and the bad that exists around Atlanta,” Hales said. Photo courtesy of Devon Hales
“Teenage Bounty Hunters” actor Devon Hales discusses playing April Stevens as an Atlanta actor, why the show is valuable to her and her own journey as an actor.
Variety Editor Emma Scott: Tell me a bit about yourself.
“Teenage Bounty Hunters” actor Devon Hales: I’m an actor from Atlanta. I grew up in Cumming, Georgia, which is in Forsyth County. Now I live in a suburb outside of Atlanta, and I got a theater degree from Kennesaw State (University).
ES: “Teenage Bounty Hunters” is a crazy premise for a show. How did you describe it to people when they asked you what you were working on?
DH: I think I basically said, “It’s set in Atlanta. It’s a story about a pair of fraternal female twins that are 16 years old. In the pilot episode they, through a series of circumstances, decide that they are going to become bounty hunters. About half the show is their bounty hunting, and going after (bail) skips, a different one each episode, and the other half is their family life, their school time, their love lives.” And that was pretty much it. And then I would say, “And I play the mean girl.”
ES: This show is set in Atlanta. What was it like making a show in Georgia, about Georgia as a Georgian?
DH: It’s really special to me for a couple of reasons. Not just because I grew up here and feel, for better or worse, attached to the South and Atlanta specifically. It’s so special to be on a show that appreciates that and can see the good and the bad that exists around Atlanta. (The show’s) creator, (Kathleen Jordan), grew up (in Atlanta) and went to high school here. We all felt very taken care of by her because we knew we weren’t trying to make jokes or punch up at the South. There’s a lot of things to make fun of but she does really have a special place for it in her heart. The other part of it is a lot of the trends (in) TV and film. There’s a lot of it that shoots in Atlanta, which is really great. But, for a long time, Atlanta actors were only getting smaller, what we call “day player” roles, where you’ll see something that shoots in Atlanta and you might have an Atlanta actor playing a barista or playing your checkout girl, like those kinds of roles. And just in the years that I have been out of school that has sort of started to turn over and I am certainly not the first to do it but we have been given bigger opportunities as Atlanta actors and shown that we can handle those. So, for me to have been able to book a role of this size out of Atlanta as an actor from Atlanta, that is really really special to me.
“But, for a long time, Atlanta actors were only getting smaller, what we call “day player” roles, where you’ll see something that shoots in Atlanta and you might have an Atlanta actor playing a barista or playing your checkout girl, like those kinds of roles.”
— Devon Hales,
“Teenage Bounty Hunters” actor
ES: I can imagine that being from the South allows you to be that much more invested in your character on “Teenage Bounty Hunters.”
DH: Yeah. I went to private Christian school third to eighth grade. Those are some very formative years. So I was like, I know what this is and I know what this looks like. Even after that, I went to public high school and we are still around a lot of people who are so ingrained in that southern religious culture. We are around those people even if you are in a public school. So it was important to me to be able to say yeah, I know what that looks like and I know what this culture is.
ES: What do you think is the most valuable part of the “Teenage Bounty Hunters” story?
DH: I’ll just tell you honestly that the discussions about female sexuality are incredibly important. Not just sexual identity, but I think especially in the Southern, particularly Christian community, female sexuality and female sexual desires are often treated like a myth and not discussed at all. And I know specifically, not the way that I was raised by my mom, but the way that I was raised in school, that third to eighth grade, you start having conversations about that and it’s about, “How short is your skirt?”, “How low is your shirt?” and “Don’t tempt the boys because all they think about is sex and they’re just insatiable,” and there’s never any mention of our desires or the way that we think. It’s not a myth, it’s real. I think that can be extremely damaging and it takes a long time to unlearn. That the ways that I’m feeling are normal, and every other girl is feeling them too and nobody is talking about it. And so the ways that this show discusses that and chooses to address it. I don’t want to speak for you, we are obviously different ages. When I was growing up, I did not see that on TV. There was no representation of that, nobody was talking about it. Specifically, female masturbation. That happens in this show. TV and media make jokes about guys doing that every five seconds, and it’s never ever discussed for those who are female or identify as female. So that’s very frustrating. The fact that this show talks about that and it’s interwoven slightly in my own storyline makes me extremely proud to be a part of it. It’s something that our creator Kathleen felt very strongly about representing and I think it’s great.
ES: When did it click for you that acting was going to be your career?
DH: Probably not until my freshman year of college. About halfway through my senior year (of high school) (I) had decided I (would be) going to go to school for theater. I was looking forward to it, but I had definitely no idea what to expect. I was definitely a little disheartened because a lot of people I knew who were going to school for theater were going to a conservatory or going to get a (Bachelor of Fine Arts) and I was just going to a regular school that had a theater program. So I was thinking, I don’t know if this is really going to work out for me. I went to Berry College, and about by October, I was like, I am going to transfer schools; this is not the correct place for me. I think it took being in a collegiate environment where there were not a ton of people who wanted to be professional actors. At Berry, there were a lot of great people, a lot of talented people who were doing theater but that was not their ultimate goal, that was not sometimes even their major. It took being in an environment where I wasn’t necessarily being challenged (to make) me say, “Oh my God. No judgment, but I do not want to be like that. I really, really want to do this for real and I need to be in an environment where I am around people who want to do the same thing and who are pushing me to be better and really work for it.” I had some good experiences at Berry, and through a long series of circumstances, it’s how I found Kennesaw. So, definitely not until my freshman year of college, and for some, it takes even longer, so don’t worry guys. It’s going to be just fine.
ES: What is your advice for people who are in high school who are dreaming about their future?
DH: I am a very strong believer — it applies to a lot of things, but in the arts, where you are constantly hearing people doubt whether you are ever going to “make it” — that you just have to flip the switch. You have to flip the switch in your own head that says “this is going to happen for me.” Then you spend all of your time working to make it happen, and you’re not wasting any time wondering whether it’s going to happen (or) freaking out that it’s not going to happen. (Don’t) waste time worrying about what other people are thinking about you and about your own goals because most of the time they’re not thinking about you, they’re thinking about their own stuff. The faster you can make up your own mind that this is going to work for (you), the easier it is to just focus all your energy on making it happen. When you make that decision you’ll be surprised about the ways in which the universe works to help you make that happen. I wish I hadn’t wasted all that time worrying about unknowns, because they are always going to exist. Just work to make it happen, and if it doesn’t, things always show up along the way that manage to totally surprise you.
The following section contains spoilers for “Teenage Bounty Hunters.” After watching the Netflix Original Series, return to this section to read Hales’ insights about her character.
ES: Can you describe your character, April?
DH: April Stevens. She is an intense little person. She thinks of herself as the most Christian (and) most popular girl at Willingham Academy. She definitely has a political instinct to her and is a little ruthless in her pursuit of power and position. But underneath all that, she is a human being who is going through some intense family stuff at home and has some really strong walls up, especially when it comes to Sterling Wesley (Maddie Philips), her arch-nemesis. We find out that they have a history, they have a backstory of when Sterling snubbed April in fifth grade. Since then April has sort of built up this idea and this image of Sterling in her head, this resentment that she has let fester. She is someone who identifies as a lesbian and is not in denial about that within her own conversation with herself. But she knows the family that she’s in, she knows the community that she’s in and because she had these goals and these aspirations basically her plan was not to come out until she’s probably in college (and) she’s out from under her parents’ roof. Because she knows that if she comes out she lives in a community that will not understand that, that will not accept her for that and will really get in the way of the life that she wants to live. And that was something that was that important to Kathleen (Jordan), our creator, in conversations that we had. She is OK with herself and with her Lord about how she identifies. Even though she is inside this Christian community that can be very intolerant, she does not believe, as she says, that God is going to smite her for being a lesbian. She’s like, “Nah, I’m all good with the Lord. I’m just not good with all you people who are going to judge me and who are going to get in the way of my plan.” But then she and Sterling have a moment — have a couple of moments, and Sterling totally disrupts her plan and sort of shakes her understanding of their relationship and what she thought she knew about herself. Hopefully, Season two is going to be very interesting and we’re going to see more of her journey, so we shall see.
“She is OK with herself and with her Lord about how she identifies. Even though she is inside this Christian community that can be very intolerant, she does not believe, as she says, that God is going to smite her for being a lesbian.”
— Devon Hales,
“Teenage Bounty Hunters” actor
ES: How did that transition in April and Sterling’s relationship happen?
DH: I think it starts, there’s definitely a moment in the first episode when she finds the condom that falls out of Sterling’s bag, that’s sort of a moment of “I have always thought I had a read on this person and this is something brand new, and something I don’t really know how to process.” I think April’s impression of Sterling has always been “You don’t have a lot of confidence. You’re not really able to speak up or stand up for yourself or really have a strong opinion about something and make things happen for yourself. Good things just sort of happen to you, and that’s really annoying.” I think when she sees her give the speech at (substitute teacher Mr. Koontz’s) memorial there’s again a moment of “Hmmm. What’s going on here? You’re different from the person that I’ve known since fifth grade.” Then during episode six when they are at the debate, the fact that Sterling is so confident and really taking charge of the situation is like “What? What is happening with you?” And obviously when they get paired up for the project (in episode seven), April is able to tell her, “I can’t believe you don’t remember what you did to me. It’s this thing that has haunted me and has shaped our whole relationship and the fact that you don’t remember is so absurd and infuriating.” Sterling says (she wants) to try to heal (their) relationship. So, when they are working on the project together and she sees her making an effort, I still don’t think that April is thinking about her, necessarily, in a romantic way, but she’s like, “Wow, you have really developed a spine and you’re able to articulate your feelings in a way that I’ve never seen you do before.” And so I think that those walls, across all of the things I’ve just talked about, her walls are slowly starting to come down. She becomes so vulnerable, in ways she didn’t even realise, to Sterling, so that when the kiss happens, it’s like whoa. I also think that April is, I don’t want to say impulsive, but I think that she reacted before she even knew what was happening. Even though their relationship totally changed, it’s still working on the foundation of somebody that she’s known for a huge part of her life. I think there is a comfort there even though they are operating in a way that is totally different than how it was for the last ten years.
ES: I love April for her complexity. You think you know her and then there is so much more to her.
DH: It was really important to me that when her sexual identity was revealed she didn’t automatically become this woke, angelic person, because all of a sudden the audience now knows that she is gay. It’s like no, she is still the same troubled, possibly problematic character that she’s always been. You have just learned something new about her, and those things can exist at the same time. It was important to me that there wasn’t suddenly this switch and it’s like oh, just because she is gay, she is like a perfect character. She’s really not.
ES: That’s what I wrote about in my review — how the show works with identity. How can you relate to April?
DH: I think we are both pretty ambitious, and willing to fight for the goals that we want to achieve, and I also sometimes speak without thinking first. I think April does have some moments where she is like, “Maybe I should have thought for two more seconds before I lashed out at that person.” Definitely both softies at heart, despite whatever exterior can come off. I think April also definitely has a flair for the dramatic and that is definitely something that came from me. There are a lot of things that are similar, I’m just a much more dialed down version. I am definitely not as intense as April. April is scary to me.
ES: Who is another character on the show that you find really interesting?
DH: I love Kadeem’s character. Kadeem Hardison who plays Bowser. I just love the character of Bowser so, so much and think that the way that they were able to, within this teen show, really dedicate time and care and energy to telling this man’s story was so beautiful and so heartwarming. At first you are totally endeared because he is so grouchy and grumpy and has these teenage girls annoying the sh*t out of him but he still kind of loves it. And then you see that he doesn’t necessarily have a lot going for him and doesn’t really take care of himself or love himself the way he should and these girls are really trying to teach him how to do that. The fact that this show looks like a fun teen show, (but) there are all these adult characters who are so layered and who you really have a lot of feelings about. It’s something really special about the show.
“I just love the character of Bowser so, so much and think that the way that they were able to, within this teen show, really dedicate time and care and energy to telling this man’s story was so beautiful and so heartwarming.”
— Devon Hales,
“Teenage Bounty Hunters” actor
ES: What is your next step for your career? Has COVID-19 affected your plans?
DH: Yeah, it has a lot to do with the new management team that I (now have since “Teenage Bounty Hunters” was released.) It’s getting me in front of new casting directors out in (Los Angeles) and in other markets like Vancouver and New York. A lot of auditioning. People talk about how auditioning is the job. Stuff like (“Teenage) Bounty Hunters,” getting to be on set for a long time (is) the cherry on top. That’s what we are working towards, but our day to day job is auditioning. That’s the mode I am in right now. I’m going to be a little bit of a small fish in a very big pond, which is different from Atlanta, where I have more contacts and more experience. I’m excited to really push myself and grow, and work with this new management team to expose me to some new opportunities.
Watch Devon Hales as April Stevens on “Teenage Bounty Hunters” on Netflix.
To read a review of “Teenage Bounty Hunters” written by Variety Editor Emma Scott, click here.
