The Chi's Yolanda Ross Breaks Down Her Heartbreaking Exit in the Season 7 Finale: ‘We All Lost It'

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5 days ago

If you thought it was hard to watch one of The Chi's Jada succumb to cancer in the Season 7 finale, think about how tough it was for Yolanda Ross to play her as the character's (and Ross') time on the show came to a bittersweet end.
Ross has portrayed single mom/community stalwart Jada Washington since the Paramount+ With Showtime drama premiered in 2018. The end of that work brought up a ton of emotions, she says, but on set, she tried to focus on getting Jada's final scenes right.
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'I feel like I was nostalgic [when I was] alone,' she tells me. 'When I was at work, I felt like, 'Yeah, let's just get through this, 'cause I don't want to wallow in it.' She laughs. 'Because there's already, like, episodes full of sadness! And then to add to it any personal stuff? I didn't feel like doing that.'
Jada's death wasn't the finale's only fatality: Lynn Whitfield's Alicia died when Roselyn resurfaced and sought vengeance for Douda's murder last season. Elsewhere in the episode, Tiff delivered her baby — a boy she named Rob Jr. — in a broken elevator with Victor assisting. And Kiesha had her daughter — whom she and Emmett named Jada — in a planned home birth. Though Jada's health was fading at the start of the hour, she mustered the strength to get to Emmett and Kiesha's to meet her new granddaughter. At the end of the episode, she died, surrounded by Emmett, Darnell, Kiesha and the baby.
Ross and I spoke just before the finale started streaming. Read on to hear more of her thoughts on her character's legacy and exit (which she found out about 'when you guys did').
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TVLINE | Let's back up a little and talk about Jada's celebration of life gathering. Tell me what that's like, when Jacob Latimore is giving Emmett's speech and then losing it.YOLANDA ROSS | I mean, I can't. We all lost it. [Laughs] It was hard. It's funny. The room was set up, andI had never been on that stage. I know my house. I know Emmett's house. My character doesn't move around into other people's zones. So I didn't even know whose place this was that I walked into. It was all dressed with pictures of us through the years and all that. It's a weird feeling, walking into something like that and then seeing characters that you've seen on TV but you never had scenes with. [Laughs]
When Jacob went up, I was holding it together, but he was choking up early, and it was like oh man. He came over and hugged me, and that's it. You don't really see it so much in the episode, but we were a mess after that. I think they tried to clean us up and do it again, but I don't think it ended up getting done again. [Laughs]
TVLINE | When did you find out that this season would be the last for her?Oh, when you guys did.
TVLINE | Really?Yep. Right before the script came out.
TVLINE | What was that like?It sucked. I mean, it was weird. It's kind of a mixed bag of things. It's like, first off, why didn't I know earlier? But then also, oh wow, now I can do other things.
TVLINE | Do you think Jada was trying to hold on until Emmett's new baby was born?I do. It's funny, 'cause I don't know what the lapse of time really is supposed to be, because she definitely looks worse [from the preceding episode]. I do feel that… I know two people who died of cancer, and one literally waited until her husband's birthday. It's like, how do you do that? But you do that somehow. And [Kiesha's] baby came, and that was it.
TVLINE | You mentioned she looks worse. What is that like when you look in the mirror and see face wearing that look?Well you know, that particular look, I know it looks different on camera compared to photos. Because I saw it in a photo and I was like, 'No, can't do that,' because in real life it looked like Night of the Living Dead. [Laughs] Like I was going into a different show! But on screen, it didn't look as drastic — I think. I haven't seen it yet. I just saw it in the monitor.
TVLINE | Given that shows sometimes shoot out of order, was Jada's death the last scene you shot?Yeah, we shot it in order. It was so weird, because I'm laying in Darnell's lap, and Emmett comes over and everything. I'm not asleep, but my eyes are closed and stuff is happening on top of me. But then when I got up, after the scene was done, it was a set full of people because all the crew and cast were there. It was that I wasn't prepared for.
TVLINE | You've played Jada for a long time, over lots of different storylines. Do you have a favorite season or version of her? The first cancer storyline, it was very fulfilling for me — on-camera and off — because I did so much work and got to work with women in Chicago going through it. I thought Season 2 was very interesting, because she was dating and doing things. Life got a little messy, and there were some interesting moments. Not expected, but those moments that are very real that women go through that we don't always get to see or talk about.
That very last scene of that season with Emmett, where he walks in on his mom and dad, and [she says], 'Look, yeah, I know he's messed up, but I don't have anybody. Sometimes you feel things. I'm trying to figure this out, too.' That was a very lovely moment to have as a mother.
TVLINE | What's next for you? For me, it's doing my own films. On Aug. 23, I'm doing a thing with the Brooklyn Museum… They're doing a block party kind of thing downtown, and I'm going to be photographing people. It's for [Malian photographer] Seydou Keïta. He's got an exhibit opening in November, so it's to set that up.
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