00:00What is meant for you will be yours.
00:02And there were so many things that I thought I wanted so badly, beat myself up over when
00:07I didn't get it, thought, you know, I did a horrible job or maybe the best acting of
00:11my life I didn't get, I just know I didn't get it.
00:13And then ultimately those jobs, you find out that it was like a really toxic set or it
00:20ended up not being that great or, you know, I just feel like in my life, what is, what
00:28is yours?
00:29Yours will know your face.
00:30I really believe that.
00:31Hi, I'm Bianca Lawson.
00:32How do I prepare to play someone like Darla?
00:34When I first read her, I just felt for her, connected with her, felt protective of her.
00:40There's something about her that's very much in my body, if that makes sense.
00:49I don't even know how one really prepares.
00:51I mean, you know, you do your research and you talk to people, you read things, you watch
00:57things, people in your life that are versions of Darla or have had a Darla in their life.
01:04I have definitely had many, many addicts in my life.
01:07And I could tell that she was a character that was going to be heavily judged by people,
01:12by characters in the story, out of just extreme misunderstanding.
01:17People have this weird feeling like you could just stop using whatever if you just really
01:21wanted to.
01:22You could just, you know, get willpower.
01:24But it's a whole process.
01:26And you never know what was the thing that started that ball rolling.
01:31What possibly maybe happened like 20 years prior before you ever took that first drink.
01:37It's acting and it's your imagination, but it's also, you're the vessel.
01:43Your channel, it's being channeled through you.
01:45She breaks my heart, but she also, you know, I'm also so proud of her.
01:50I think there's been a little piece of me in all my characters that I've played.
01:54And I feel like the character maybe that I identify with the most or feel the most is in me.
02:01I think I've put, I don't know that Darla and I are similar, but I've definitely put the
02:11most of myself into Darla.
02:15Like, why am I going to cry now?
02:17Like, but yeah, like, um, um, yeah, I think maybe that's why she's cost me the most in
02:25me because I've put the most of myself into her.
02:28I had no reservations playing Maya at all.
02:31I mean, it didn't even, it didn't even occur to me.
02:34When people ask me that, like, was it hard, you know, for you to play a lesbian within a
02:41climate of sometimes within the black community not being so accepting of LGBTQ?
02:47Other young black women would come up to me and say, oh my God, you know, I was in the
02:52closet
02:53and I couldn't tell my family because they would not be accepting or my community would not be
02:58accepting, but that character was the first time I saw myself and it gave me the courage
03:04to come out to my family.
03:06To have two teenage females of color in a relationship that was very, it wasn't exploitative.
03:16I felt like that love was real.
03:18I feel like that storyline was very thoughtfully done and realistically done.
03:23And I just felt really honored.
03:25What is it like working with a director, directors, producers that are very much about this is for
03:34us, by us?
03:36To be in a space with so many brilliant, dynamic, passionate women that are kind of in this mode
03:50of why wait for someone else to give me an opportunity?
03:53I can create me an opportunity and help my sister over here have an opportunity and we
04:00can kind of do this grassroots thing and pull each other up and push each other forward.
04:05It makes me feel more powerful.
04:07It makes me feel more confident.
04:08I learn so much every day.
04:09How has Hollywood changed over the last three decades for black women?
04:12I feel like things aren't perfect, but I feel like they're definitely progressing.
04:17I think that I'm seeing more multidimensional characters.
04:23It's not just like the sidekick, the best friend, the girlfriend, the sassy, this person,
04:30you know what I mean?
04:30The comic relief.
04:32I feel like I'm seeing things that are much more layered and nuanced and multidimensional
04:40and true to life.
04:41It doesn't feel like a trend, you know?
04:43It doesn't feel like, okay, this is like right now, this is the season.
04:46We're about this thing.
04:47Like it feels like there's real movement.
04:50There's real open, things are like really opening up and not to minimize like that there
04:57are still problems.
04:58But I feel very hopeful about where things are going.
