There’s a saying that I’ve heard a handful of times while processing death: “What is grief, if not love persevering?” Sometimes in the midst of mourning, it makes sense; other times, it doesn’t. But the clarity that comes from talking with “Insecure” alum Jean Elie on a sunny New York City day helps bring the wisdom of the quote full circle.
He’s in his hotel room, battling some pretty bad Wi-Fi and preparing to go see the Times Square billboard promoting his new show, “Send Help.” The series, which streams on AllBlk, is a labor of love between Elie and co-showrunner Mike Gauyo. For Elie, who said the show has been “sitting on my heart for a very long time,” it is both a career milestone and a source of healing.
“Send Help” has been heralded for showing the nuances and authenticities of first-generation Haitian American life, so much so that it helped earn Elie the Haiti International Film Festival’s 2022 Best TV Series Selection honor. But more than anything, the show is an honest love letter to his late brother, Steve Anthony St. Louis.
St. Louis, who was 30 when he was fatally shot outside of a club in 2009, helped raise Elie in the Brockton, Massachusetts, home where they grew up. He was an artist and a singer, which inspired Elie to sing and draw as well. He helped Elie with his homework and showed him how to talk to girls. He lovingly taught him the harsh realities of life. And as much as he protected and affirmed Elie, he made him laugh, too.
“He made sure I knew how to stand on my own two feet and be my own man,” Elie said. “He encouraged anything and everything I did. So to the point where out here, I have a lot of support and I have a lot of people, but nothing compares to him seeing what’s happening in life and what’s going on out here.”
The person who pulled the trigger had sat at the dinner table with Elie and his family for Thanksgiving one year, a critical part of the storyline in “Send Help.” Elie isolated himself after delivering the news to his parents. He went to his home in Rhode Island and locked himself in a room for a few days.
In “Send Help,” the character Fritz Jean-Baptiste, played by Elie, is loosely based on how his own life changed after St. Louis’ passing. Fritz is an actor in a popular series who gets a bit too comfortable in his career. Life begins to hit him hard when his show gets canceled…
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