- I was so convicted.
I've been given this gift from the ultimate creator.
Why would I accept the no?
I remember one moment in particular,
I was 19 years old,
and I was really frustrated with the industry.
There were so many times
that I couldn't even get in the room
to just even audition for projects that I wanted
to be able to go after.
My agent at the time would call me so often and say,
"Yeah, they're not willing to go ethnic on that role."
It just kept breaking my heart
because there was truly nothing I could do about it.
It wasn't about talent.
I was at a point in my life,
that young womanhood phase, right,
where you're questioning so much
and I was definitely questioning, why am I doing this?
Why am I continuously putting myself out there
to be rejected?
And so I was in a period where I was actually trying
to fill that void, that fulfillment,
that as an artist, you get by creating.
And so I was doing a lot of volunteer work.
I was working with an organization called
Artists for a New South Africa.
And I was being very fulfilled in that.
I honestly felt, okay, this is probably what I'll do.
I'll probably work in the nonprofit space.
And there was a delegation from this organization
that I was working with, Artists for a New South Africa,
and they were all going to South Africa.
I couldn't afford, I was broke as all get out.
There was no way I was gonna be able to afford to go.
And I got a call from some of the board members,
who were my whole life, honestly,
a part of my village, a village of artists and activists.
People like Samuel L. Jackson
and LaTanya Richardson Jackson
and Blair Underwood and Alfre Woodard and CCH Pounder,
and they were all going to South Africa,
to build a well in Ingwavuma.
And they called me and said they wanted me to come
and that they were going to pay my way for me to come,
that I had to be there,
I had to witness the work in real life, right?
I had to bear witness to what this work we were doing,
what the impact was of it.
That trip changed my life.
We went into different townships in South Africa
and witnessed how beautiful
the culture is there,
how beautiful the local people are there.
The spirit of triumph over tragedy
that is interwoven into that history of that nation.
And it dawned on me that the only,
the real reason we were able to get here,
was that so many artists
and their art had actually traveled here prior
to them physically being here, right?
And that art that they created enabled them
to use their platform for a greater good.
I was so convicted.
I've been given this gift from the ultimate creator.
Why would I block that?
Why would I allow
the real ignorance that can sometimes happen in the industry
to stop me, right?
Why would I allow that to be a no?
Why would I accept the no?
When I believe that the higher power does want
to create through me.
And the next day that I came back from South Africa,
I got the script for "Great Debaters,"
which was the film that I did
that Denzel Washington directed.
And I stayed for the next two months,
in the library researching that role in preparation
for auditioning for him.
And it was such an inspiring, beautiful film.
It helped me reconnect with my purpose, right?
It helped me reconnect with the reason why
I was creating art to begin with.
And it's so much bigger than me.
I'm just a vessel.