Roker: Not About Glamour

Roxie Roker, glamour-puss, is nowhere to be found.

“It’s not about glamour,” says the statuesque actress of her stage role in Samm-Art Williams’ “Woman From the Town” at Inner City Cultural Center. “It’s not about vanity. And I rather welcome it.” Roker, who played the very chic Helen Willis for 11 seasons on “The Jeffersons,” is here a worn-out, worn-down Southern farmer who clomps around in overalls, mud boots and bandanna--with not a speck of makeup, tirelessly plowing her late father’s fields.

“I have to get up for the play,” she says of the anger-filled, emotionally demanding role. “When I finish it, I feel-- cleansed is not the word. You start out saying, ‘Why do I put myself through this?’ But when you decide this is what you want to do, you just do it. So any opportunity I get, I want to do. I’m from New York; we do a lot of off-Broadway. We like making plays. Not that we don’t want to be successful and make big bucks, but. . . .”

After an early acting start at her all-girls school (“I played the male roles because I was tall and had a deep voice”), Roker went on to a drama degree from Howard University, Elizabethan studies at Stratford-on-Avon and stage roles in “The Blacks,” “Jamimma,” and “The River Niger”--for which she won an Obie.

But the actress’ biggest fame of late has been her family ties: as mother to up-and-coming musician Lenny Kravitz, mother-in-law to famous Cosby kid Lisa Bonet and grandmother to their year-old daughter Zoe. “I know how to separate my personal and professional lives,” she says lightly. “And keeping (the fame) in the family is fine. Zoe is gorgeous, precious, just a joy. Lenny is thoughtful and considerate, Lisa is a wonderful mother. Forget about all that stuff you read in the papers.”