As season 3 of Zatima continues, Devale Ellis clarifies difference between Zac on Sistas and its spinoff

Fresh off Christmas, BET’s gifting its viewers with more Zatima. Back to complete its third season, the show’s a spinoff of Tyler Perry’s Sistas. Devale Ellis stars as Zac on both series, each of which show a different side of the character.

“In Zatima, the storyline is around Zac and his family, his friends and how they’re also including Fatima. So we get to see Zac be proactive, and sometimes proactive Zac is not the best Zac because Zac doesn’t make good decisions at all,” he says, noting that Zac is seen on Sistas through the perspective of the women on the show. “So it’s two different characters. You know, you get to watch me be a supporting character in Sistas, whereas you get to watch me in lead in Zatima.“ 

But the two roles are connected: it was Zac’s tumultuous relationships on Sistas that led him to his current partner, Fatima.

“Fatima is the first woman in Zach’s life who always [told] him exactly from the beginning that he can be better and she’s holding him to do better,” Devale says. “If you think about his relationship with his mom, his mom only told him how terrible he was. … And [his ex] Karen was the same way. … She was an extension of his mom and in a lot of ways he ran towards that because he thought that that was what love was until he met Fatima.”

With Fatima, Zac “sees a different type of love and he’s like, ‘Wow, this love feels better.’ So I’m going to try to be the version of Zac that Fatima wants me to be,” Devale continues. “But that in itself is a problem. Zac needs to be the best version of himself for himself, not for Fatima. And that’s why he’s struggling.

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