DTH Mag Vol 5 - Flipbook - Page 24
I love that framework. Sometimes, we have to
separate the passion from the actual work. We are
more than our jobs.
There's a difference between my job and my
purpose, my passion and my purpose. My job
and passion are to entertain people, but my
purpose is to help people. My job funds my
purpose. I mentor young women and have
people whose businesses and ideas I invest in and
who they want to be like. There9s just a
difference. My purpose keeps me driven and in
my job, because I'm like, this will fund my
mentee who wants to go to hair school. This will
help my mentee, who needs to go into an
inpatient facility but doesn't have the money.
Those things help me focus on and get my job
done, even though I love it and it's fun. It's just
not the sum of who I am.
It can be frustrating, especially as Black women,
to get pigeonholed or have these assumptions of us
when we get cast in these roles. How have you
navigated that?
What was funny is I'm classically trained [as a
singer]. So when I first started doing Glee, I was
forced to do all of that, and I didn't grow up
doing that. I know I had that kind of belty voice,
but I'm classically trained. They already had their
Rachel Berry [played by Lea Michele], so they're
looking for Mercedes Jones, this larger-than-life,
big Aretha Franklin-type voice. And so, I dug
deep and found that having a great foundation
with my amazing family keeps me grounded. I
can still go to the park, the beach, and my
grandma's house. I'm lucky enough to be from
LA. So, I have my friends that I've had since I
was in junior high school and elementary school.
They see me as who I've always been. Whereas
these people that I've just met, you have no idea
who I am. Coming back to myself has to do a lot
with my foundation, how I have been working
on my mental health, and how I've created the
village around me and my lifestyle. I guess I can
say how I've curated my environment is how I've
returned to myself.
That’s interesting because even if Mercedes
portrayed a stereotype, she still represented
someone out there. I remember being the Black
girl doing musical theater in high school and
seeing Mercedes, which made me feel seen. Do
you think your playing Mercedes contributed to
diversity conversations in Hollywood?
I think it was such a bold move to cast someone
like me because even though they cast it
stereotypically, sometimes you have to peel
back the layers on many of those characters to
understand why they are the way they are.
Mercedes was big and loud because she felt
unseen. So she felt like she had to wear the
bright colors and sing the hardest songs because
no matter what she did, she was constantly
underplayed and overshadowed.