Freeform star Sherry Cola discusses Good Trouble and the importance of representation

Sherry Cola has been portraying Alice Kwan since the pilot of Good Trouble. The Fosters’ spinoff found Callie and Mariana Adams-Foster moving to the Coterie, where Alice is the building manager.

But, as a central character, Alice also has a lot going for her. She is an aspiring comedian, spending much of the third season diving into the world of comedy. But, Sherry Cola also has a lot to say about Alice’s place as a Chinese-American and a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Alice has experienced plenty of character growth since her introduction to the series. Her character has also allowed Good Trouble to make important strides in representation, including focussing on an Asian-American LGBTQ+ romantic relationship, which is already very rare in television shows and movies.

Culturess interview: Good Trouble star Sherry Cola

Culturess got the chance to chat with Cola herself about her character, her place in the world of Good Trouble, and the importance of onscreen representation of all kinds.

Culturess: What drew you to Good Trouble?

Sherry Cola: Good Trouble is one of a kind. It is ahead of its time. It is really the perfect TV show. We have so many themes and so many issues that we touch on from Black Lives Matter to trans rights to equal pay to the queer Asian female experience and it’s not a show that, forces it down your throat.

It’s about real people growing and learning and being imperfect and fighting for something, and I think Good Trouble has taught me a lot about being an ally and speaking up for my own community. Good Trouble, I’m just so grateful because I’m proud of it and I’m a fan of it.

Culturess: There’s going to be a Lunar New Year episode coming up – what can you tell us about what we can expect from that?

Cola: Yes! So the Lunar New Year episode, of course, is extremely special and emotional for me because we started the process of filming [it] at the end of March in the midst of the anti-Asian hate crimes. So, it really hit home, sharing my culture and this tradition that I grew up celebrating.

Lunar New Year was a big holiday. It is a big holiday. The fact that I got to put that on American TV really means a lot. As an immigrant who went to the Temple at midnight every year with my mom on Lunar New Year  – I never would have dreamt of this, the fact that mainstream television is showing this story, this tradition, and I’m just so grateful to my showrunner, producer, creator, Joanna Johnson, who sees my fight and my passion as Sherry and she really honors that in Good Trouble.

It means a lot. Like there’s a speech that Alice gives right after she does this lion dance and the fact that we’re showing a lion dance for goodness sake!  It’s so cool. And I make this speech, she really allowed me to make it my own, and I really spoke from the heart about keeping your AAPI traditions at the same time trying to feel American and what the hell does that even mean right because this balance of being an immigrant, of being Asian-American, it’s so complex. Because for so long society tried to define us and force us into this direction or the other direction to the point where we were scared to use our own voice, and now I’ve never felt so liberated, so whole, so 100% me and just unapologetic about my identities, whether it be immigrant, whether it be Asian, whether it be bisexual, whether it be [as aa] woman.

So to be able to express all that through this episode and share that culture with my friends, with my cast members, with the audience, it truly is, I’m on cloud nine about it.

And we have all these specifics, right? We have to tell stories with intention – like we made sure to let everyone know about the superstitions. There’s no cutting hair; you can’t cut your hair after the new year because then you’re getting rid of all the good luck. We have to have the whole fish at dinner, all these little specifics that Kara Wang helped a lot with, my castmate, my costar, my sister, in real life, Sumi, who is my ex-girlfriend slash best friend in the show. She definitely gave a lot of knowledge to the specifics of this Lunar New Year episode, so it was just such a fun time. It was emotional, and it’s so necessary.

Culturess: How important is it to Alice to see how everything plays out?

Cola: With Alice, she is constantly trying to prove to her parents that she’s a grown-up and she has her own path. She’s trying to up to live up to her brother. She’s always living in her brother’s shadow, this perfect Asian if you will, and I can definitely relate to Alice.

I was never stereotypically Asian ever. I was a troublemaker. I graduated high school with a 2.5 GPA. I spent seven years in college, and my mom was so frustrated, so now I just exceeded my mom’s expectations in real life, and I think Alice is trying to find herself as well with the comedy program and standing up for herself.

Finally, not letting people take advantage of her. Feeling like she can own her identity, be comfortable in her own skin, to be able to share her culture like this, you know because before she was probably timid, she probably thought no one cares about Lunar New Year. She celebrates it, everyone else doesn’t need to. But now we’re in season three, and we see her evolve and grow and kind of just become her own person, living for herself rather than everyone else, and I think that’s such an important universal theme right because as much as we’re so into these cultural-specifics this is just a relatable character. Someone who is finding her voice once and for all and just kind of like being proud of who she is.

She’s Chinese-American period. So this is something that [she], as a queer Chinese-American, celebrates, so everyone should know about it, everyone should participate. So the evolution of Alice really goes hand in hand with the evolution of Sherry as well. Because of this show, I’ve definitely found the importance of amplifying my voice for the community and for other communities, because we’re all fighting for something on and off-screen and I have to talk the talk and walk the walk. Practice what I preach. This show is so important. It has shown me how to use my voice.

Culturess: There are not a lot of Asian-American LGBTQ+ relationships on television. What is it like to portray such important representation?

Cola: Yeah, love, and you know I always talk about inclusivity within the community as well. We need to recognize every corner, from Pacific Islander to South Asian. Like we talk about AAPI, sometimes people only focus on the East Asian of it all, so hopefully, this is one step closer toward starting the conversation.

Because we have Alice and Sumi. This love between two queer Asian women, like what, we’ve never seen that, period. And this isn’t just like a throwaway storyline. This has been stretched out for three seasons. Their relationship, the history, the depth, the layers, the nuance [it has], and to have that kind of play out in the Lunar New Year episode where you see their connection and the fact that they have this love for each other, this admiration, this respect, it comes full circle when they kiss under these red lanterns.

And when we were filming this, I was taken aback because I was like, Woah, I’ve never seen this in my life, and I am so honored to be telling this story and people in the AAPI community can watch and kind of have the same thought, and the same fire to do more, to not settle for any less than what we deserve, and we deserve to tell these queer Asian stories on the screen.

Culturess: It seems like Alice and Ruby have been circling each other romantically? 

Cola: Yeah, I’ll talk about that. Ruby is also Asian. You know it’s like Alice and Ruby have their relationship going on, and Alice and Sumi have their relationship, and this is an Asian queer woman love triangle. This has truly never been done, and please quote me because I’m 99.9% sure of it.

Culturess: That this has never been done?

Cola: In this way. It has never been done in this way. We have seen our AAPI women be objectified, be fantasized [about], [have] some random make-out in the corner, but it has never been done like this, and it means so much to me because this is my life, you know? And now I get to tell the story on the screen with intention and with purpose.

Culturess: Alice has some other stuff going on with the comedy program, but it looks like she’s having some issues there. What does that mean for her future in comedy?

Cola: It’s tough, you know, especially in comedy. I’m a stand-up comic, and even a lot of the line-ups that I do in L.A. you can tell I’m the box they’re checking like we have an Asian person on the line-up, ok we’re good. So with comedy and with Hollywood in general, I think we’re constantly trying to balance the importance of moving forward in your career, but what you are sacrificing you know you’re being diverse but to what extent and I think that’s what Alice is going through.

She’s fighting these stereotypes that the industry wants her to portray, and that’s not her, and that’s why she’s standing up finally once and for all.  And it’s such a beautiful, diverse cast that we have in the comedy world. I mean, there’s South Asian, there’s just so many. I’m just so shook.

Sometimes I look around when I’m filming these comedy scenes, and I’m like, there are like seven AAPI folks on the set right now and I’m shook. So I’m really stoked that I met these people through Good Trouble and now we’re a family, and we get to tell this story that’s so real about this comedy diversity program that is really not as glamorous as it seems and that’s a whole other conversation, but yeah it’s like well I’m here to express myself and my identity, but you’re telling me who I am? No, that’s not how it should be.

We should tell our own authentic stories. So that definitely aligns with Sherry’s world.

Culturess: Have you drawn from your personal experience as a Stand-Up Comedian in portraying Alice’s experience?

Cola: Of course. I always –  Alice and Sherry are friends at this point. We feed off each other, and Joanna Johnson, our creator, producer, showrunner, definitely gives me the freedom to improvise and Sherry-it-up if you will. Give my two cents and let me play with the dialogue, especially in the comedy world.

Alice and Sherry started off at different points. Alice was very apologetic and very timid. Sherry is pretty outspoken, even more so now after three seasons because of this show, and I’ve learned so much. I think I do bring a lot of Sherry into Alice, and Alice brings a lot of Alice into Sherry. It goes hand in hand – at the same time we’re so different, you know, there’s a Venn diagram if you will.

When I first started this character, I thought, oh, this is me, this is pretty much me, but as I discovered more about Alice, as I found her personality, we’re actually quite different. But we’re definitely learning from each other, which is really cool.

Culturess: What can we expect from Alice for the remainder of the season?

Cola: I think we just watch Alice be unapologetic, and I think it’s gonna be really beautiful seeing her embrace who she is and accept help and accept love.

I think someone like Alice who wants to take care of everything herself, that was one of her personality traits right? She’s getting the toilet paper. She wants to handle everything at the Coterie. I think just allowing others to help her and taking advice and just embracing her community. Whether it be the comedy community, whether it be her family, whether it be the Coterie, um, just allowing herself to let people in.

I think it’s gonna be really beautiful to watch as she discovers how to be comfortable in her own skin, which is something so relatable to everyone. It’s not just a queer Asian story, it is a human story, and that’s what Good Trouble is all about.

Culturess: What do you hope to see from Alice in the future?

Cola: I hope she just owns herself even more, you know? Her finding her voice was [just] the first step, you know what I mean? I want her to embrace her identity, her culture, in a way that Sherry does, really, because representation is everything.

It matters so much, being able to use her voice to fight for her community and to fight for her friends and her family. I think it’s gonna be cool, and I’m excited to see where she goes in terms of comedy because she has so much potential. She makes people laugh. She puts a smile on everyone’s face.

Alice is a very likable character; she’s adorable. Like I even sometimes watch her, and I’m like, is that me? You know I’m like, is that me? That is not Sherry; that’s Alice. And it’s so cool that I’ve completely learned how to be her because she’s so different. She’s so adorable; what a little fun, endearing creature. Like, I can’t believe that’s me, so I just can’t wait for her to walk through life even further as this charming, awkward, just like precious little lady. It’s fun to watch for sure. It’s definitely fun to do.

What do you think of Alice’s story on Good Trouble? Sound off in the comments.