Black Canadian actresses have starred in shows such as the Vision TV limited series Soul with Keshia Chante (also produced by Kane) and Global's half-hour comedy Da Kink in My Hair, but prime-time network drama remains the gold standard.
"When I first read the script I was really attracted to the notion that she was a corporate lawyer and she believed in the system," says Antoine. "And when that crashed for her, life nudged her to do something extraordinary. And because I'm a woman of colour, so many things connected. She's complex, not stereotypical, and that's refreshing."
The series will also look at an under-represented segment of Canada, the historic Black communities of Nova Scotia, which at one point represented 37 per cent of the total Black population.
"This is huge for me. I always knew about the Black communities out east, but this is something I really didn't learn about in school and I should have," says Antoine. "My experience was growing up in a Caribbean household and I thought that the majority of Blacks came from the West Indies. But there is a huge community with a rich history in Nova Scotia that is finally going to be spotlighted and I think it's time for their stories to be told."
There is some fallout though: General Hospital fans will not be happy to learn that Antoine, who has been with the show since 2014, will no longer be a series regular when she starts shooting Diggstown in August.
Her character, former DEA agent Jordan Ashford, was supposed to get married to fiancé Curtis on the show, which was also a historic first, a Black couple getting married on the long-running soap. That may no longer be the case.
"We were in the planning stages of the wedding and ABC hasn't announced what will happen. But it's a soap opera and something traumatic always happens at a wedding. But it would have been a first for a Black couple to be married on General Hospital, but we're not sure where the storyline is going," says Antoine.
Antoine is busy prepping for a different kind of history. On the phone from Los Angeles, where she lives and shoots General Hospital, she mentioned that she's taking surfing lessons. In fact, she was drying off a wetsuit after venturing out in the water earlier that day.
As for her parents? Well they got over any disappointment of not hearing about an engagement.
"I had to explain to them what it all meant," says Antoine. "And then they were screaming on the phone. It was awesome."
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