Though “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” star Erika Alexander was happy to be accepting the Maverick Award at IndieWire Honors, the experience was giving her a slight sense of déjà vu.
“Someone has a great sense of humor. I may be living in a freaky simulation like ‘The Matrix’ because I already gave myself this award,” she said. “I’ve been calling myself the Maverick for years.”
She went on to explain how the monikers she’d donned went through an evolution. “In third grade, I started writing my name on my homework as Erika Alexander the Great,” she said. “I thought I could actually be a kinfolk of the great Macedonian Greek conqueror. I didn’t understand DNA and I knew nothing about the provenance of my last name, having no real meaning outside of my enslaved lineage. The name Alexander given to my father was a palimpsest of the past that I could not lay claim to, but Alexander the Great, perhaps his fortune, his fortitude, and fighting spirit would lay claim to me.”
Fast forward to the early stages of her career in entertainment. “I was a teenager with a SAG card, already a working actor, but my first three roles were a foster child, a prostitute, and a slave. I needed to free myself from the borders of what people thought I could achieve. And that’s when the Maverick was born. I was so loud and proud that the creator of ‘Living Single’ put it in the series,” she said, echoing a memory she shared with IndieWire in May about her time as Maxine Shaw on the influential Fox sitcom.
“Since TV is a rattlesnake, once the audience got bit, it was set,” Alexander said. “I was immortalized in the fiction as Max the Maverick. But the fact is I am the Maverick. I am that heifer that roams beyond the fence, refusing to be held back by false obstacles. My life, my choices and roles, my skillsets as a producer, director, writer, comic book creator, vodcaster, storyteller of the year, my politics, my company, Color Farm Media, the impact, my partnerships, my collaboration, my future all speaks to this. And I brought the receipts.”
The woman of many titles began a list of shoutouts to both her guests in the room, like actor Furly Mac, producers Shea Chapman and Tomeeka Morris, journalist Nicole Childers, producer Moe Daniels, and “Nitty-Gritty” director Travis Johns, as well as her “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” collaborators Robert Carlock, Sam Means, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Moynihan, Jalyn Hall, and Precious Way, who was also present at the event. “I love her. Precious is the full package. I love-hate her,” Alexander joked.
While her manager Jennifer Levine and Color Farm Media co-founder Ben Arnon also got mentioned, Alexander ended her list of thank-yous at the beginning. “To my mom, Sammie Jeane, my north star, twice orphaned and widowed. She was the first believer in ‘Maverick’ who taught me that though it feels dangerous to live beyond the fence that I’d find my own way by laying claim to the possibilities that live just on the horizon,” she said.
The Maverick Award recipient concluded her speech with a gem for the audience. “To all the mavericks out there, the fence will not save you. Break something and then fix it. Have the courage to meet your other self out there.” Having now shown who the maverick really is, in these years since the end of “Living Single,” Alexander said, “Your future fact and fiction will find you. I am proof. Ride the maverick.”
This season’s IndieWire Honors ceremony took place on Thursday, June 4, in Los Angeles with an intimate cocktail reception and ceremony. Stay tuned for more exclusive editorial and social content from the night, including video interviews, outtakes, and more.
You can watch Alexander’s full speech in the video above.
