• Celebrity
    • OTE – Screen Kings
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Best In Black Beauty 2023
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United

WHERE BLACK CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS MEET

Sign up for ESSENCE Newsletters the keep the Black women at the forefront of conversation.

Your email is required.
Your email is in invalid format.
Confirm email is required.
Email did not match.
Select the newsletters you'd like to receive:
Please select at least one option.
By clicking Subscribe Now, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Skip to content
SUBSCRIBE
  • MAGAZINE
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Celebrity
    • OTE – Screen Kings
    • Daniel Kaluuya Digital Cover
    • Digital Cover Method Man
    • Digital Cover Zazie
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
      • The State Of R&B
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
    • If Not For My Girls
  • Fashion
    • ESSENCE Fashion House 2022
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Best In Black Beauty 2023
    • ESSENCE Hair Awards 2022
    • AVEENO Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Nails
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weave
    • 4C
  • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Black History Month
    • ESSENCE Gift Guide 2022
    • ESSENCE + smartwater Live Well Challenge
    • Build Your Legacy 2022
    • Dream & Plan with Confidence Prudential
    • AMEX Platinum Travel
    • Homecoming Season 2022
    • Lifestyle News
    • Health & Wellness
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Paint The Polls Black
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Video
  • Festival
    • 2023 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
    • 2022 Fest Videos
  • Events
    • 2023 Wellness House
    • 2023 Black Women In Hollywood
    • 2023 HOLLYWOOD HOUSE
    • 2023 ESSENCE Film Festival
    • 2022 Girls United Summit
    • 2022 ESSENCE Fashion House
    • 2022 Homecoming Season
    • She Got Now
    • Dear Black Men
    • I Am Speaking
    • Power Tools
  • Studios
  • Girls United
Kierra Sheard Talks Playing Her Mother Karen Clark Sheard In ‘The Clark Sisters’
By Joi-Marie McKenzie · Updated December 6, 2020
Home · Only at ESSENCE

In 'The Clark Sisters,' Kierra Sheard Portrays The Moment Her Mother Karen Clark Sheard Almost Lost Her Life

By Joi-Marie McKenzie·Updated December 6, 2020
"I don't want my mom to relive that because I was reliving it and I was crying my eyes out," she tells ESSENCE.

Kierra Sheard was 14 years old when her mother and Gospel music great, Karen Clark Sheard, fell into a coma and nearly died after an elective surgery. It’s a scene from her own life that she’s previously opened up about in her music. In fact her 2004 debut single, “You Don’t Know,” speaks about it openly on the second verse.

But when the younger Sheard had to embody her mother laying on the hospital bed for Lifetime’s highly-anticipated biopic about her family, The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel, although she did much to prepare, even studying with an acting coach, she couldn’t even speak to her mother about it. It was just that painful.

“I didn’t ask her about that because I don’t want my mom to relive that because I was reliving it and I was crying my eyes out as if it was just happening,” the now 32-year-old told ESSENCE.

To portray that scene, Sheard had to rely on her own memories to ensure the scene came to life onscreen. “I remember seeing my father, [Bishop John Drew Sheard] ball his eyes out and my father is one of those strong, OG, clean cut guys,” she recalled. “We don’t see him cry unless he’s praying and thanking the Lord Jesus himself. I had never seen my father put his head in his hand. You saw fear. I remember that.”

“And because I’m a daddy’s girl,” Sheard continued, “that affected me and it became more real to me. That’s when I knew, ‘Oh, you all ain’t telling us the full story. Something’s going on over there and you all ain’t saying anything.'”

Lifetime
Lifetime

When Gospel fans watch The Clark Sisters on Saturday, they’ll finally see the full story. They’ll even hear a few things that’ll make them want to jump up and run around the church. They’ll see a powerful performance from Aunjanue Ellis, who played the heaven out of the late Mattie Moss Clark, the legendary choir director who in essence created The Clark Sisters by pushing her daughters—Clark Sheard, Jacky Clark Chisholm (Angela Birchett), Denise “Niecy” Clark Bradford (Raven Goodwin), Elbernita “Twinkie” Clark (Christina Bell) and Dorinda Clark-Cole (Sheléa Frazier)—to sing. They’ll hear Donald Lawrence-produced re-recorded versions of The Clark Sisters’ hits, including their 1981 crossover hit, “You Brought the Sunshine,” and they’ll learn so much more about the sister’s lives, including unplanned pregnancy, attempted suicide and abusive relationships.

Sheard said that due to “being a kid in the family,” she learned much about her family’s lives through the film as well—including that her grandfather, Elder Elbert Clark, was abusive to her grandmother. And even though she learned many difficult truths about her beloved family, Sheard said watching them play out onscreen didn’t make her “uncomfortable.”

“Their labor, their work, it was not in vain.”

“But it definitely made me want to shut up when they’re in the room as a way of honor and respect a lot more, if that makes sense,” she continued. “Because they went through so much.”

“It made me feel like, ‘Wow, this is my inheritance. This is where I come from. This is what I’m a part of,'” Sheard added. “Having to sit in certain scenes and actually see it as if I were [my mother] Karen, there may be some moments when people are probably like, ‘You really did your acting,’ but I’m like, ‘That wasn’t me acting. That was me really feeling like, “Oh my God, this really happened? What were you thinking?'”

Kierra Sheard Talks Playing Her Mother Karen Clark Sheard In ‘The Clark Sisters’

Sheard had that exact thought when she learned what her aunt Twinkie went through as a female musician. “She sold her catalog for a Cadillac,” the actress detailed. “And then I learned there was something that my grandmother said to her like, ‘Do you know that you sold your…children’s children’s future when you make off the cuff decisions and you don’t think in the moment?'”

Despite their music career missteps, Sheard said she’s continually impressed by what her mother and aunts endured. Especially, she added, “knowing how they had to keep their poise and graceful approach and looking like everything was OK when sometimes it was probably passion or hurt when they were delivering the gospel, and literally only having God to depend on.”

And although Lifetime’s The Clark Sisters feels like a good Easter service, fulfilling in all the best ways, by the end of the movie it still seems like there’s more story to tell. Sheard feels the same way.

“I wanted more. It made me cry,” the Gospel singer, whose father executive produced the film along with her manager Holly Carter, said. “It was just really special and I could not wait for the world to see it. I was like, ‘Can we just leak this now?'”

Although Sheard may not be able to watch with her entire family, due to self-isolation orders across the nation, when her family does tune into The Clark Sisters this weekend, the singer has a few hopes for them.

“I hope that they see that their labor, their work, it was not in vain and that the Lord has blessed them with a timeless anointing, a timeless gift and a timeless level of creativity,” she said. “I hope that they see that the world notices those particulars and that their legacy still lives on; it’s living through their children.”

The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel premieres Saturday at 8/7c on Lifetime.

COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now