Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with How to Get Away with Murder’s Rome Flynn

Emmy Award-winning actor Rome Flynn is no stranger to being vulnerable on the screen, bringing to life dynamic characters in How to Get Away with Murder, A Madea Family Funeral, The Haves and the Have Nots, and The Bold and the Beautiful. But this year, he’s showing off a different side to his vulnerability, as a singer-songwriter, with the release of his new single, “Keep Me In Mind.” Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Rome about his multifaceted career.

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts?
Rome: Growing up, I needed a way to escape the circumstances that I was in. I would always do impressions of people that I idolized from movies. I was always entertaining others and that was my first introduction to the arts. I used to write a lot when I was really young. Music was a passion that came before I started acting. Now they coexist together.

PC: You packed up your life and moved to LA with two bags. How scary was that decision?
Rome: It wasn’t too scary. Honestly, I was more excited than anything. As a child, I experienced homelessness and lived in a shelter. So I wasn’t afraid to be alone and not have much. But I thought I’d rather be working towards my goals.

PC: When you look at your journey from moving to LA to present day, what have you learned about yourself as a man and artist?
Rome: Every year, I feel like I learn something new. It’s hard to step back and really get an outside lens of my progress. But I’m definitely a lot more technical about things. I feel like I’m more focused on goal-oriented things as opposed to just hoping things happen. I’m more targeted on the things that I want, which I feel like is a necessity to any person’s success. Every show that I’ve worked on has brought some sort of enlightenment. It’s a journey. Every time I go and play another character, I always leave it feeling like I gained something.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Rome: Tyler Perry. I met him after I was done with The Bold and the Beautiful. I was there for two and a half years. I was working with him during that time. I did a few shows with him and a movie. But he really inspires me business-wise. He’s a really smart businessman.

There was a time when he hit me up and said, “You free around seven?” I told him, “Yeah.” I came over to his place and there were a couple of other people there that I knew. We collectively all went to look at this house that was listed for millions of dollars. Prince owned it before or something like that. Tyler wasn’t there to buy it. They were showing him the house, and he brought us along to see it. He was like, “I’m not going to get this house, but I want you to see what it looks like.” The house had everything, including thirty exotic cars and two helicopters. He wanted to show us that if you can see it, visualize it, you can have it. It really inspired me. I was like, “Damn. I need to work harder. I want that.”

PC: You’ve had a lot of success already in your young career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Rome: I have two answers for this question: one career version and one internal answer. My internal answer is when I won the Emmy while working on The Bold and the Beautiful. I won for Young Actor in a Drama Series. They had an idea of what they wanted me to submit. But I told them that I wanted to submit certain scenes that I wrote, whether I won or not. It was a revelation to me that you do have a lot of control of outcomes and things that you want.

Career-wise, How to Get Away with Murder is my biggest job to date. I gained a lot of insight working with Viola [Davis] and the whole cast.

PC: You’ve been a part of that cast for two seasons. What’s been the biggest takeaway?
Rome: Work ethic. Being on that show, I learned that there are two types of people in the workspace. There’s one that shows up and lets things happen. Then there’s a version where you put extra work in and become obsessed with it. I was really obsessed about everything revolving around this character and being on the show. It taught me really good work habits, being on a schedule, and being a series regular on a show like this! You don’t have a lot of room for mistakes. You have to be prepared and on point.

PC: Can you tell us about your new single, “Keep Me In Mind,” and the inspiration behind the track?
Rome: Of course! I had another song that I was going to put out, but then the pandemic happened. I felt like “Keep Me In Mind” was a record that you could listen to by yourself. You don’t need to experience it with a lot of people. The other song that I had was made to enjoy with other people. It’s kind of an intimate record, but it’s about a situation that a lot of people can identify with. That’s one cool thing about music and entertainment in general: it’s something that unifies people. Music is universal. It doesn’t matter what language you speak or where you come from. It speaks to you in a different way. So I wanted to tell a story about this specific kind of perspective of somebody on the outside looking in on another person’s relationship and also from the perspective of the person in that relationship who doesn’t recognize that they have the fortitude to change their environment and circumstances.

PC: Fans will recognize you for your on-screen work. What has it been like for you to explore this different side to your artistry? What do you hope you say with your music?
Rome: It’s a different kind of vulnerability. Normally, I have the luxury of hiding behind a character. I can do just about anything without taking the consequences of whatever my character does back home with me. But with music, it’s very intimate. I’m speaking from my perspective, and there’s a different feeling that I get from doing it. But I enjoy both!

PC: As we look ahead to the rest of 2020, what does the year hold for you?
Rome: There will be more music. With everything going on in the world, it’s forced me to focus solely on music. I have a lot of acting stuff that’s in the works, but everything’s up in the air right now. But with music, I just need my engineer. I’m going to give “Keep Me In Mind” the opportunity to grow and for people to get familiar with me before I release a larger body of work.

To keep up with Rome, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify.