Jasmine Cephas Jones Helps Make John Stewart’s Mom, Bernadette, Into One of Lanterns’s Most Important Characters

3 min readTHE EARLY EPISODES of Lanterns are asking some very interesting questions about the idea of “destiny.” What does it mean to be test pilot Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), and suddenly, out of nowhere, be chosen as Earth’s first Green Lantern, a post theoretically held for the rest of his life? On the other end of the spectrum, what does it mean to be John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), and to have been raised your entire life with the knowledge and idea that someday, at some point, you will take on that Green Lantern mantle?The thrust of Lanterns, as it so strongly builds on the chemistry between Chandler and Pierre and the interplay between their diametrically opposed Jordan and Stewart characters, is in the difference of those two ideas. After the show’s second episode, “Trust Fall,” ended with Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) asking Jordan to tell him about John Stewart, the third episode, “OutKast,” does just that. After previously offering a taste of Stewart’s bizarre childhood in an earlier episode, Lanterns gives viewers a full dose of his story with “OutKast,” an episode that reveals how John has basically been trained from birth to live without fear and become a Green Lantern after his father failed a test from the Guardians of the Universe (who choose the Lanterns and created the Manhunters) and Hal was chosen instead. (This is a largely new backstory for John from what he’s ever before had in the comics.)The interesting ripple in John’s story, however, is that the driving factor in his training to be a Green Lantern wasn’t necessarily his father, John Sr. (J. Alphonse Pierre), who was left gaslit and rattled after his initial encounter with the Guardians. Instead, it was John’s mother, Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones), who was left to meet with a Guardian named Lianna (Laura Linney). And where most would freak out at the thought of talking to an alien who shapes the entire universe, Bernadette instead met Lianna with a calm head and a pragmatic disposition.And while John Sr. remained involved—we saw what we saw in the first episode, after all—it was Bernadette who led the way for John Jr.’s training and his unique way of being raised without any fear whatsoever.Bernadette is a classically complex and nuanced character. She deeply loves her son, and wants nothing more than the very best for him—and for him to have a special life. But in that love and ambition she also clearly loses track of both his and her own safety. There’s no other way to logically think about someone who’s willing to both have an apple shot over her son’s head and have one shot off her own. Yes, this is all taking place in a superhero world, but in the grounded way in which the story is told, we’re left to think about these characters not as comic book caricatures, but as real, living, complex beings. Cephas Jones crushes it in bringing Bernadette to life and making us feel all of these feelings at once.Her warmth shines through at the end of the episode when she reveals that she got John into art school—and, of course, this is where he finally got his chance to meet with Lianna to potentially become a Lantern. And, of course, only then does the whole Stewart family get to meet Hal Jordan.Watch Lanterns HereJasmine Cephas Jones plays Bernadette Stewart in HBO’s Lanterns Christopher Polk//Getty ImagesCephas Jones is a standout in Lanterns, but she’s been at it for a while now. Her breakthrough role came around a decade ago when she played both Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in the original cast of the Broadway super-smash Hamilton. She also appeared in Noah Baumbach’s films Mistress America and Marriage Story and on the HBO shows Girls and Mrs. Fletcher. She appeared in a supporting role alongside fellow original Hamilton cast member Daveed Diggs in his film Blindspotting, before reprising the role in Starz’s spinoff series of the same name. She’s also the daughter of the late, great character actor Ron Cephas Jones, who won an Emmy for his role in This Is Us and also appeared in shows like Mr. Robot and Luke Cage. Evan is the culture editor for Men's Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn't.