Kendrick Cross Previews Two-Hour Ambitions and Richard Jewell Movie

Fans of the primetime soap Ambitions are getting double the fun tonight with two back-to-back episodes airing as the drama unfolds and characters clash on the OWN nighttime soap!

Ambitions Preview

First up, an episode titled ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ debuts in which Rondell (Brely Evans) and Evan (Brian White) join forces to save family restaurant Thelma’s Place. In the following episode, ‘Through The Wire,’ Stephanie (Robin Givens) closes in on the corner office at her family’s firm. There’s plenty of action for Titus, too, as he makes a decision related to the lawsuit involving his pharmaceutical company client, Hunter Purifoy (Brian Bosworth).

Soap Hub chatted with Kendrick Cross (Titus) about Titus’s solid marriage with Amara (Essence Atkins), conflicts at work, whether Titus still has lingering feelings for Stephanie, and his role in one of the most talked-about films, Richard Jewell.

Soap Hub: Titus and Amara have the most stable, loving, and grounded relationship on the show – even though people have tried tearing it apart.
Kendrick Cross: Their relationship is grounded in true love. They’re two people with similar backgrounds that have been through some of the same things in life. Other families [on the show] are looking for money, power, all these other things. Amara and Titus are looking for love within their relationship.

Titus has to make a decision whether or not Purifoy should take a settlement. What’s his position?
Titus is a moral guy. He was fighting for Purifoy because he saw the good the company was doing for people with pain issues – like his mother. As he dives in, he starts to find certain things, including an email that Purefoy targeted poor, African-American communities. There’s no escaping that. Titus is a good lawyer, but how can he fix that?

What’s Titus’s dynamic with Stephanie now? She’s fighting to get money out of Purifoy, but she also has feelings for Titus. What are his feelings for her?
In the beginning, Titus [had] feelings for Stephanie. More recently, he’s seen Stephanie for who she really is. She’s selfish and a ‘Daddy’s girl.’ He overlooked that because he loved her. When he first moved to Atlanta, there were lingering feelings. At this point, I don’t think he has those feelings for her anymore.

Feature Film Star

You have a role in the Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell, the story of a security officer who was wrongly accused of planting a bomb so he could be a hero at the 1996 Olympic Games in Centennial Park in Georgia.
Yes. I play a GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigations] agent. I had to go back and do some research on [the story] after I booked it. [Richard] was accused of setting off a bomb because [he fit a certain profile]. It turns out he wasn’t the guy. We filmed on location.

What’s it like working for Jamey Giddens, Ambitions’ creator and executive producer?
I want to give a shoutout to Jamey. Rarely, do we have writers who interact with us. We had the whole writing team on set in Atlanta with us. We could ask questions and get a response right away. Jamey was there every day. I’d sit down with Jamey and asked him about Titus. He made up all these characters and he knows each character so intricately.

Jamey’s so passionate about this show. He could explain who everyone is down to the last detail. He’s a beautiful human. I love him. I want him to win. We had a wonderful cast of people who made my job easier. Amara and I had great chemistry and I hope the viewers can see that. I’ve gotten great feedback. We had a great time filming this. I give credit to the writing, to [executive producer] Will Packer, and to my castmates for doing some incredible acting. Ambitions airs a two-part episode tonight on OWN starting at 9 p.m. ET.

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