As graceful as she is, Brandee Evans is balancing a lot more than you know.

Before she is Mercedes of the Starz hit series P-Valley, shes a caregiver to her mom, Diana Harrington, who has Alzheimers and multiple sclerosis. Evans shares the highs and lows of taking care of her mother on her Instagram.

More than anything right now, Evans is balancing what it means to be strong while tapping into a more vulnerable side of herself. She hasnt always felt she was allowed to do so.

At one point it was just like, Im not allowed to break, she said during a phone interview. So I would just take it all on. Having more time with my mom and being a caregiver longer, I know its OK to break, but I hear my grandmother in my ear saying, Get back up now. Its OK to break, but get back up because those diamonds got to press on.

She and Mercedes have that in common. The Memphis, Tennessee, native has a background in dance. She really leaned into her skills as an outlet after the stillbirth of her daughter, Lyric. Around that time, her ex-husband had also been deployed, and she had been fired from her dance coaching job. For her sanitys sake, she took a trip to Los Angeles to take dance classes.

That led to her auditioning and landing a dancing gig on a Lil Wayne tour and quitting her job as an English teacher. Shes landed roles dancing at major award shows, including the Grammys and the BET Awards. She then took Tasha Smiths acting classes, which paved the way for her to book roles in Beyond the Lights, Games People Play and The Bobby Brown Story.

When she got the call for P-Valley, Evans was struck by the similarities she shared with the no-nonsense pole dancer whos just trying to get her skrilla to secure a better life. Like Mercedes, Evans had a strained relationship with her mom and was a preachers kid through her dad. She tapped into some of the traumas that shes healed from to give her character life.

Its not easy, especially while taking on the physical and mental challenges that come with learning how to pole dance. But Evans said the topics explored on P-Valley, including sex work, domestic abuse and LGBTQ issues, are just the kind of topics she hopes to continue to highlight in her lifes work.

Mercedes has taught Evans a lot about herself, too.

Playing Mercedes has taught me that its OK to fall down and just keep fighting because its going to turn around, Evans said. The pendulum always has to swing back.

Evans breaks down what that journey looks like for her, the heaviness and importance of P-Valley Season 2, and how the show has changed her life for the better.