2019: Your Skin’s Best Year Ever! Fabulous Valentine’s Day Gifts for the Men in your life
MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 2019
BRONZEMAGONLINE.COM
Artist, Director & Entrepreneur DEBORA BALARDINI
on her love of & journey through the arts
Actress KJ Smith on her upcoming role in Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Funeral
Award-winning Actor/Producer Justin Hurtt Dunkley on his new role in Netflix’s ‘High Flying Bird’
Bronze Magazine celebrates, empowers and inspires! If you would like to share your own personal inspirational journey or good deeds in the community (or your industry) with our digital issue readers, then please submit your interest to editor@bronzemagonline.com Your letter should include the following: •A brief bio about you and a history of your brand/company (may include any press releases, media kits, website info, model tear sheet, etc.) •How you (company and/or brand) pay it forward by empowering and inspiring others to be their best. •Why you feel Bronze readers will want to know about you. •Your contact info (email, phone, etc.)•
BRONZE MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 2019 Editor’s Note Hello Bronze Beauties! Love is in the air! With Valentine’s Day only days away, couples, singles, friends and families are planning ways to celebrate with the ones they love. Regardless of your relationship status, be sure to take some time to celebrate…YOU!! Self-love is one of the most fulfilling feelings we as humans can ever experience. To love oneself is a gift. To love oneself unapologetically and unfiltered is magic!
Cover Credits: COVER STAR: Debora Balardini PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Shutterz MUA: Eloria Michelle
FOUNDER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Shawn Stuldivant CO-OWNER Barry Stuldivant GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alexandra Zabludoff WRITERS BeautifulGorgeous Patrice Rivers Ariel Swopes Kiara Timo
Speaking of magic, this month we have the pleasure of featuring the beautiful and multi-talented Debora Balardini on the cover of this issue. Debora is a performance artist, director and a businesswoman whose mutliple business ventures include a focus on physical and immersive arts. With 30 years of unwavering commitment to the arts, Debora takes us on a journey from her cultural career roots that began in her native home of Brazil to her current artistic performance and entrepreneurial background in New York City. Be sure to read her inspirational journey as well as the other amazing interviews and articles in this issue. Happy reading!
xoxo, Shawn nt a v i d l Stu
CONTENT
6. Justin Hurtt Dunkley Interview
10. 2019 Your Skin’s Best Year Ever! 14. Sunflowers are Black Women, Black Women are Sunflowers 24. Fabulous Valentine’s Gifts for the Men in Your Life 28. KJ Smith Interview
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Cover Star: Performance Artist, Director & Business woman Debora Balardini PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Shutterz MUA: Eloria Michelle
‘Award-Winning Actor Justin-Hurtt-Dunkley talks on Acting Career and New Projects such as BET’s ‘Boomerang’ By Patrice Rivers
J
ustin Hurtt-Dunkley is an award-winning Actor/Producer who has secured commercial roles with some of the biggest brands in the world such as Comcast, Apple, NIKE, Adidas, and many more. Justin’s TV credits include CBS’s record-breaking series THE LAST O.G., BET’s reboot of the 1992 film BOOMERANG executive produced by Halle Berry, NBC’s BLINDSPOT and more. Justin is fresh from wrapping Oscar & Emmy winning director Steven Soderbergh (Oceans 11, 12, 13, Magic Mike, Traffic) and Oscar winning writer Tarell Alvin McCraney’s (Moonlight) new feature film titled “High Flying Bird” on NETFLIX. He has helped produce series from the web to comedian Rob Stapleton’s highly anticipated comedy film ‘THE STUFF,’ award winning series DEEP, and more.
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How did you discover that acting was something you wanted to pursue? Well, I would say it was a big helping hand from my mother. I was a kid and my mother was taking me out to auditions trying to get me to get the acting bug. It wasn’t until I was 16 or 17 and my mom took me to an audition for an educational video. I was starting to open my eyes up just a little bit. Then she got me to do some background work for HBO ‘The Wire,’ and just seeing how everything was done, just the whole process made me fall in love with it. Then from then I continued on my own merit trying to tackle this thing on my own. ‘The Wire’ was such a big show that it ope ned up doors whether you had a small role or a big role. I was in it four times as a corner boy, it still just opened up doors which led me to other auditions for short films. I auditioned for HBO’s ‘How to make it in America.’ I got a co-star role on that. And from there just climbing.
What was your first audition?
As far as films go along, what was the very first film you were in?
Well, I would say my first audition was the educational video. That just really I would say my first feature film was Easter Sunday.’ It was based on a true opened my eyes to acting. story about Easter Sunday. I actually played the bad guy that ended up Did you go to school for acting? being the killer that was a misunderSo, I went to school and I actually stood kid. studied marketing. I was acting prior to going to college. Before act- As an actor, what challenges have ing that was my thing. I always had a you faced? business mind-set. When I still was in school, I was still taking acting classes There are challenges every day. This isn’t an easy industry; you got to be with a minor in media art. faced with rejections not just with your performance, with politics, like you’re too tall, credits, etc. that’s the hump to get over and I’ve been better with that. Those are the biggest challenges. You will have to cope with a lot of nos. I had to make myself let things go. You just have to let go and let God. What’s for you is for you! How many years have you been in the acting industry? I would say, since I’ve been doing it full time since 2015, about four years. How is the acting scene in New York? Are there a lot of opportunities? Yes, it’s always been the big theater playground in New York and in Chicago. I played in the Chicago and Atlanta market. New York is big for commercials and TV. Things are changing in New York, like a lot of filming for TV.
How did you get cast on BET’s new TV Series ‘Boomerang’? I was actually in Florida; I have a pilot that I produced and I’m leading and it’s been getting picked up in a lot of film festivals. Me, the cast and the director actually flew out to Florida for the film festival. There’s a lot of events where we have to be at. I got the email to self-tape for ‘Boomerang.’ It was really quick and easy. I did the self-tape in the hotel I was in and submitted it. I didn’t even review my tapes; I just did a few tapes. I actually forgot about it, then maybe a week and a half or two weeks later my agent called and was like, they want to book you for it and that was it. I’m only on one episode, I have a really small part, I just play one of the jocks at a house party scene. ‘Boomerang’ itself is one of my favorite movies, so it was cool to be apart of that. Besides ‘Boomerang,’ are there any new projects that you are working on? ‘The Last OG.’ I’m on the season two premiere and I’m playing Young Big Daddy Kane. I think that comes out in April 2019 and I’m excited for that as well. They turnt up a lot of this season. Also, ‘High Flying Bird’ is a feature film that will be released on Netflix February 12th directed by Steven Souderbergh and written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who is the writer for ‘Moonlight.’ They are some heavy-hitters in the game. Steven Souderbergh is actually one of my favorite directors. It was a blessing to have worked on set with him and especially under a name like Tarell Alvin McCraney too, who did ‘Moonlight’ is big in the theatre world. I was surrounded by great talent and a lot of heavy-hitters in the game.
What can we expect in the New Year from you? Going even harder and making it better than last year. Continuing producing, continuing putting out my own content, tackle the industry with auditions, continue to build the resume and get even more projects. If that’s not the case, continue to make my own stuff and stay in my own lane. How can readers connect with you? Instagram @justinhurttdunkley. Twitter @jhurttdunkley Facebook @Justin Hurtt-Dunkle IMDB page www.imdb.me/justinhurttdunkley
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Image Courtesy: Alexander Fresco of Visual AF
The Gorgeous Report: The now colder temperatures coupled with the busy holiday season can shake things up a lot for your skin and your skincare routine. I’ll give you some direction for getting off to a great start for 2019.
2019
Your Skin’s Best Year Ever! By: BeautifulGorgeous)
If you’re anything like me, the colder weather season has been especially brutal to your skin. And you also might not feel like getting caught up in the trappings of yet another batch of unrealistic, and overused New Year resolutions. I say let’s give those resolutions a fresh face (literally) by turning them into New Year skincare resolutions for 2019!
What is happening to my skin during colder weather?
Aside from the many other factors, the colder temperatures alone can wreak havoc on the skin. The harsh conditions prompt your skin to create a barrier against the colder environment in efforts to retain the moisture it does have. This barrier prevents the water loss to the skin that most of us experience during the colder months. While this barrier exists to help lock in and preserve the moisture you do have, it makes it a bit challenging to allow any more needed moisture in. This plus the low humidity, wind, dry weather, forced heat from heaters, and sudden changes from indoor to outdoor conditions causes dryness, flaking, tightness, and sometimes even scaling of the skin. In order to reverse these effects, moisturizing regularly is very important. You should moisturize both day and night, and for dryer skin as needed during your day. Moisturizing regularly helps to bind water to the skin, improving hydration. In addition to your natural barrier, moisturizing creates and protective seal which will prevent further water loss. This is true for skin all over the body. Since skin absorbs better when damp, moisturizing should be done immediately after a shower or right after cleansing and toning your face.
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Is skincare really all that crucial? Skincare is very important because your skin is a barrier protecting you from all that is bad in your environment. If you don’t have good skincare practices in place to ensure good skin health, your skin barrier can become compromised causing damage, poor condition, and premature aging. There are several factors that can affect the condition of your skin. Some of these are where you live, the things you eat, and how well you take care of your skin. There are even certain products that can cause irritation so it is important to know your skin as well as possible, and to become label readers.
Skincare Resolution # 1- Cleanse your skin
It sounds very simple, but you’d be surprised at how much cleansing is not done on a consistent basis. If you don’t already have a regimen in place, now is the perfect time to establish one. Cleansing should be done twice a day to remove buildup and other unwanted debris from the skin. Cleanse once in the morning, and then again at night. Lot’s of people are turned off by regimens because they feel there are too many steps that take up too much time. Throughout the day, your skin comes in contact with pollutants, viruses, bacteria, dirt, oils, and accumulates dead skin cells. Cleansing your skin twice each day not only keeps your skin looking nice, but doing so also allows your other products to work more effectively. You can shave off a little time by cleansing while in the shower. If I just cleansed my skin at night, then why do I have to do it again in the morning? Your skin works it’s hardest overnight repairing itself while you rest. When you wake there will be more dead skin cells and oils to get rid of (especially if you have night sweating.) Simply rinsing with water alone only removes a percentage of buildup. Dead skin cells and oils are sticky and must be dislodged by adding a cleanser.
# 3- Clean your brushes and tools
# 2- Drink more water I know you’ve probably heard this a million times, and it might seem like such a basic thing to do in order to have any drastic changes in your skin, but it really works. Drinking plenty of water will help with dehydrated skin. Unlikedry skin which is a skin type lacking natural oils, dehydrated skin is a condition where skin is lacking water. Simply put, your skin is losing more water than it is taking in. Dehydrated skin is best treated from the inside out, and replenishing hydration is the first and most important step. Practicing this resolution will help the barrier I told you about earlier, function a lot better. You can never go wrong with the standard 8 glasses a day if you’re not sure where to start.
A hard habit to break, I know. Makeup brushes and other beautification tools can harbor bacteria when not cleaned regularly. This is important in protecting the health of your skin because there is a buildup of bacteria happening with the constant contact of the skin. Brushes, tools, and implements should be cleansed after every use. If you don’t use them very often or regularly, then for general maintenance, cleansing them at least once a month is a good idea. I like to store my tools and brushes closed away, but if yours are kept exposed to the open, then cleaning them regularly is a good practice. Also, cleaning out your make up bag is a good idea. Lots of unintentional contamination can happen in there. Machine wash those that can be or hand clean them, and remember to throw out things with expiration dates like mascara wands that can’t be sanitized effectively.
# 4- Use SPF daily It is important to understand that using sunscreen is not something to do only in the summer time. Although the sun is not as strong during the winter and fall months, UV rays still reflect off of clouds and penetrate the glass of your car, home, or office windows. These rays cause premature aging, rob your skin of moisture, and contribute to skin cancer. Using a daytime moisturizer that has an SPF is good practice. If you wear makeup, then using a foundation or powder containing an SPF makes incorporating protection into your routine an easy thing to do. An SPF of 15 should do just fine, but depending on your region you may want to up to an SPF of 30 as the sun gets stronger.
#5- Start using serums I really want you to give this one a go this year. Serums are often seen as not needed and just spending unnecessary money, but let me tell you this is not true. People are finally starting to see the true benefits of serums, and they are now getting the shine they are due. Most serums are light weight and come in gel-like formulas. Some can have a slight milky texture, but they all pack a powerhouse of work. Serums are treatment products for targeted skincare. They penetrate deeper into the skin, even deeper than your moisturizer and actually helps your moisturizer perform better. They usually contain high concentration of skin loving ingredients and address an array of skin issues. You’ll definitely want to find one that addresses your concerns and apply it after cleansing, and seal it in with your moisturizer.
#6 Moisturize day and night Some people don’t think that moisturizing is a big deal. Moisturizing helps your skin to retain it’s natural moisture level. Although we are doing a good thing by cleansing regularly, this also removes some of the moisture we need in our skin. It is important to put this moisture back by using a moisturizer. Just think of it as conditioning your hair after you shampoo, more so like a leave in conditioner. Even oily/acne skin should moisturize. Moisturized skin tends to loosen up the buildup of sebum found inside the pores of oily/acne skin. Even if you have an oily/combination skin type and may not experience dryness often, your skin can become dehydrated. Using the proper moisturizer is very beneficial.
#7 Don’t sleep in your makeup While one night of sleeping in makeup won’t cause any real harm, it’s just good not to even start doing it. Becoming lazy about removing your makeup before you got to bed can be a hard habit to break. Each time you do sleep in your makeup your pores become more and more clogged. This leads to congested skin, blemishes, blackheads, inflammatory acne and other skin irritations. Sleeping in eye makeup is even worse because you put your eye health at risk and your sight is precious. Doing so can clog the glands around the lash line leading to redness and irritation. This can cause things like abrasions to the eye due to the loose or falling particles of eye makeup that irritate the eye surface area. Inflammation to the delicate tissue of the eye can lead to infection. If you find it just that hard to actually cleanse your skin before bed, use a micelle water to remove it. Facial cleansing wipes are a good got to, but don’t overdue it as those can be drying for the skin as well.
#8 – Set a weekly skincare treatment Try setting yourself a weekly skincare treatment in place. It’s a nice way to pamper yourself and gives you a little something to look forward to while your skin reaps the benefits. It can be a weekly mask for hydration, detoxification, radiance, oil reduction, or even a weekly exfoliation treatment. Whichever one is best for your needs, it will definitely enhance the benefits of your skincare routine.
Try a couple of these New Year skincare resolutions or if you like, go for them all! Either way, your skin will win in 2019.
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Sunflowers are Black
Women... Black
Women Are Sunflowers... Written by Ariel Swopes
Photos by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash
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Admiration, healing, bliss and loyalty are all representations of the beautiful iconic sunflower. Sunflowers are the light we need in this world. The sunflower is loyal and one of a kind. It embraces its uniqueness and individuality unashamed. You can’t confuse the sunflower with any other flower. Sunflowers are known as the happy flower, the flower everyone needs to brighten up their day, and it has no choice but to be. And because of that...
I can’t help but to think of black women when I see a sunflower. Black women are resilient, even when it’s difficult to be. They continue to be loyal to a society that have a hard time reciprocating loyalty to them, just like the sunflower, always put itself in a position to face the sun because that’s who they are loyal to. The sun compliments black women’s skin just like they compliment the sunflower. Sunflowers can be used to help heal souls, just like a black woman’s love.
Black women’s beauty is admired, but can’t be duplicated even when its fabricated. They own who they are uashamed, and unapologetically. Just like the sunflower, when you see one you can’t mistake it for nothing else. It’s confident and embraces its individuality. The seeds in the center of a sunflower reminds me of all the stories black women may be carrying along her journey. The stories will be there forever but her strength and power to build from those old seeds is what will help her growing tall just like a sunflower. When black women stand they stand assured just like a sunflower.. A black woman’s ability to reign supreme effortlessly is what makes the world stop to admire. I mean, have you ever walked past a sunflower without stopping to take a picture or gaze at it?
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Balardini’s Take:
The Performance Artist, Director & Businesswoman Discusses a Career in Physical Theatre Interview by Kiara Timo Photography: Steven Shutterz MUA: Eloria Michelle With 30 years in the entertainment industry doing films, short-films, theatre, and voice over work, Debora Balardini is a true vet. Having studied ballet, modern dance, tap, and hatha yoga, it is not a surprise that her love for physical theater has translated into multiple business ventures which focus on physical and immersive art performances. The co-founder of three business ventures, all of which are based in NYC, Balardini is the co-founder of Group.Br, NY’s only Brazilian theatre company, Nettles Artists Collective, of which she is a co-founder and co-artistic director, and Punto Space, an events and performing arts space. Here’s what our multi-talented cover star had to say about her artistic journey... We’d love to know a little about your background. Where did you grow up? I grew up in the city of Curitiba, in the state of Paraná in the South of Brazil. My mother was a housewife and my father, who is Afro-Brazilian, was a bank manager. I was always involved in the arts scene in my city. I started dancing and doing theatre when I was 12 years old. By 16 years old I was a substitute teacher for ballet classes and by the time I got to college at 18, I was independent and pursuing a career in theatre. Growing up as the only artist in my family was not easy, as there was a lot of tension and worry from my parents that I was not going to be able to survive as an artist. Group.BR is the only Brazilian theater company in New York City, so what inspired you to fill that void? It was not just me, it was a group of people including my business partner and Artistic Director or the company, Andressa Furletti. We looked around and we didn’t see any representation of Brazilian theatre culture in New York. There’s so many different theatres, you know, Russian theatre, Chinese theatre, and Hispanic theatre for that matter; you know there’s so many different Hispanic companies out there representing the Latin community and we didn’t see, specifically, the Brazilian culture. The Brazilian theatre culture. So, that was kind of motivation and inspiration to say, ‘Well, let’s bring the Brazilian authors and the Brazilian culture through performing arts. New York has a lot of music and a lot of Brazilian music and food … there’s a lot of Brazilian culture in New York already represented in the type of food, music and through dance and all that but not through theatre. So, that was a big motivation for us to bring that … to make sure we’re also represented through theatre. Group.Br just recently finished a run of its show “Inside the Wild Heart,” which was directed by Linda Wise. Tell us a little about it. We are trying to get an extension for the fall, but it’s not set in stone yet. The show is actually about the works and the life of Clarice Lispector, who is very well known in Brazil. So, she is becoming very well known in the America society. The scholars at universities, and the Brooklyn Institute have a lot of talks about her work. We found that it was very pertinent to bring her work and literature to the stage. Continued on next pages>>
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Group.BR produces plays with English subtitles. How does that work? Well, it was a big challenge for us. It still is a little bit, because not a lot of Brazilian plays or literary work is translated into English. So, in the beginning it was a little bit tough for us to find translators to translate the work before we could even put it into subtitles. And it’s not just in Portuguese, we do have other languages. It’s in English as well and sometimes in Spanish. We also have text in Italian. It really depends on what we are putting on stage; what it calls for. It is very important, and part of the mission of the company, to have the Portuguese sound of the language in every play that we do. That’s very important. For example, doing Shakespeare in Portuguese is not the same as doing it in English, you know, because a lot of stuff—a lot of what the content is, what the work is really about—it is really important for us that the work is written by a Brazilian person in Portuguese—in Brazilian Portuguese; it is very important to us that you hear that sound and that you hear the native language, especially if you have a Brazilian in the audience. But, basically, it depends on the play that we are doing. This last performance that we did was a very immersive piece. The audience would walk around for two hours with eleven performers throughout the whole play, so there are certain places in this performance space that we were not able to put any subtitles. Yet, we have to make it accessible to people, so we do have to perform it in English as well. So, it really depends on the performance space, especially, and what the piece calls for. We try to have some sound of Brazilian Portuguese in every performance. It’s a challenge, but it does work. Are the subtitles presented on a screen on the side of a stage? It depends on where the space is. I’ll give you an example: The first performance we ever did was in a black box in a regular theatre. So, that goes on top or on the side of the theatre stage and you can see and read it. Then, our second production was actually inside of a bar and then you have to get really creative because you have to use the walls of the bar. You have to become very creative with where you put your subtitles because they become a part of the show. That’s another thing that we try to do, is to become part of the show. For this last performance that we did with Inside the Wild Heart it was a three level brownstone on twenty-fifth street in Manhattan, so it was a house. So, how do you put subtitles around a house? We had about—I don’t know—a bunch of projectors, I usually don’t do the technical work, but a bunch of projectors that were placed strategically in different rooms. Sometimes the subtitles would be projected on top of a sculpture, let’s say, or it would be in a blank space just as the text, or it will be a part of an installation that we are doing so that when the actor will come in that installation that was there would have subtitles on top of it. So that really depends. It depends on the space. How has the response to Group.BR. been? Do you find that it’s acted as some sort of cultural education for New Yorkers? Yes, the response is amazing. That’s why we keep going. We’re getting to our eighth year now. In the beginning, we had no idea if we had an audience, even though we knew that there were many, many Brazilians in New York City, but the mission of the company is not to present Brazilian theatre just for the Brazilians but bring the Brazilian culture through the performing arts to New York in general. So, it could be the non-Portuguese speakers, the non-Brazilians, because it’s not only just for Americans, but it’s for all of the tourists that come around as well. New York is a melting pot, it’s a big place with so many people and different cultures, so we wanted to bring to New York this huge center of culture, of theatre to bring a piece of Brazilian theatre in here so people can see that. So, in the beginning, of course the Brazilian community was like ‘Oh my god, we’ve got a theatre company. Let’s see how long this is going to last’ and the more the years passed and people got used to the idea that now, we as a Brazilian community, we do have a theatre company that represents us in New York City. So, the Brazilian community is there and also with the passing of the years that percentage of people that think to see the show that are not Brazilian, per se, and that didn’t speak Portuguese is starting to get bigger. So, I would say that now we definitely—three years ago we had about fifty/fifty percent, you know what I mean? And now it’s increasing even more— having non-Brazilian speakers. It is becoming part of the culture of New York now—I hope. So, the [response] has been very, very good. American Theatre Magazine came to review the play, which was a big deal for us—one of the biggest theatre magazines in the country who did a podcast about our performance and it was a beautiful, beautiful review. So, yeah, the [response] is really big. It’s getting there. Continued on next pages>>
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You are also a founding member of Nettles Artists Collective run by Latina’s, and you act as the co-artistic director. Why is it important to have a collective run only by Latinas? It happened. It was not that we were like ‘Let’s go find a lot of Latino friends and create a collective of art.’ It didn’t happen like that. It was very organic. Years ago my best friend Sandie Luna and I started having coffee in the afternoon, and started talking to each other about what we were missing and what we would like to do and that’s how Nettles was created. And we had something very big in common, which was physical theatre. We started having discussions about what physical theatre is and if representatives for different things in different communities had physical theatre and all that, and suddenly when Nettles was created we were like, ‘Let’s try and connect to other physical theatre companies in the city and we started looking and were realizing that we were the only ones run by Latina’s and my business partner is Afro-Latina and I come from this background in Brazil where my father’s black and my mom is white and being Latina’s doing this was not a common thing, right? Because there’s always this expectation that, you know, a black person, a Latina—an Afro-Latina, we’re not the norm of what they’re ‘supposed’ to do. And we were not doing that. We were like ‘no,’ we’re going to do what we feel like we need to do. We like to do physical theatre, we like to create with different artists and have a space and all that. We’re not worried about what society was expecting of us because of our racial background or if we were black or if we were Latino or this or that. We’re just doing it. But then, of course, you start realizing we’re the only one’s doing this. [Laughs] I don’t have anybody to relate to. So, in a way it’s really good because you’re a pioneer with your best friend, you’re creating something new and at the same time there is a loneliness that you’re like ‘okay, where should I start, where should I begin at.’ Later on you start (realizing) that you’ve created a new wave and you start seeing other companies doing the same and it’s a great feeling.
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Let’s move on to your body workshop, which you also host. The ‘Unlayered Body Workshop’ which is sort of like a movement class. So, with everything that you have going on and all your different businesses, why was it important to you to also be the teacher of this workshop and to lead the class? Well, the unlayered workshop has evolved, already into some many different other workshops. It isn’t there on the website yet, but it has evolved into different layers. And I say that at other, different workshops because of course I don’t stop studying. I keep on going with understanding the human body and the nature of performing and helping actors and helping myself to understand what it is to be onstage or what it is to direct, and all that. Sometimes I’m working with an actor onstage—two months ago I was helping a girl to do one audition, so, I basically taught her little workshops here and there in order for us to work together. So, it is very important to have the workshop to have the idea of—you know you need to have the practice. You need to prepare your body. For me it’s very important to share that preparation because when I’m on stage with my partners, or something like that, and something happens out of the blue, you have a whole preparation in order to get that on to the stage in order to be there. That’s where a workshop comes into place. It’s to practice. It’s to prepare. And I see a workshop—not only for actors, not only for people that perform—I see that workshops are very important for people in general. We are a very repressed society, I think, and socially and politically we have so much to say and we have so much to express and these workshops are an opportunity for people to come in and let it out and then learn something new about themselves in order for them to express what they want in the medium that they want. If you are a lawyer, you can come to a workshop with me and you will probably be a little better of a lawyer than you were before because you’re in contact with your body and you’re in contact with yourself in order to do what you need to do in life. You’re the co-founder of Punto Space, which acts as an events and performance space. What inspired that business venture? That was with the same partner—business partner Sandie Luna, and because we were meeting so much for coffee and talking about theatre so much and learning what we want and what we didn’t want. We actually wondered what it would be to have a space of our own. Where we could have performances, we could practice our own art, have events—so rent the space for events when we are not doing performances, but also having a philanthropic mind as well. A way to help other people in the community as well. It took a while, about a year for us to find the right spot and start the work. It was very organic. Very, very organic and to [be like] ‘okay, we’re going to do this and we’re going to take the risk and we’re going to make sure that we give ourselves at least five years to see where it goes, and it’s going pretty well. You’ve won a few awards in the past year, including the 2017 SheRocks Art Influencer of the Year award. How does it feel to have your hard work validated by your peers? It feels really amazing. I have so much gratitude for having that kind of recognition in the community, in the whole realm of art. It’s always good to have your recognition not only in art but in anything that you do. But most importantly, I think, it’s that I’m very grateful for the everyday rewards that I get doing the work that I do. The big award ceremonies or the actual award in your hand is fantastic, but also, I’d like not to forget the audience that comes to see a show and is touched by a word I’ve said or a movement I’ve made or that the show in general gave them some kind of realization. I feel that I’ve really done my work when those kind of things happen, so I’m super grateful. I am actually living my dream and that’s really good.
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Welcome to the Mainstage: KJ Smith talks life as a Hollywood Actress by Kiara Timo
What does life look like for a Black actress in Hollywood? For KJ Smith, it’s nearly a decade of guest starring roles on shows like Survivor’s Remorse, Dynasty, and Being Mary Jane, before a landing bigger a role in the latest Tyler Perry film, A Madea Family Funeral, as well as reoccurring roles in the BET drama, A Family Business, and ABC’s, The Fix. With the expected success of her upcoming projects, it’s safe to say KJ Smith will steadily continue to be on our screens, and with her sociable and high-spirited personality, I expect that her networking abilities will keep her employed.
[On working for Tyler Perry] KJ Smith: Oh My God. I learned so much from him [Tyler Perry]. He’s just so diligent and what I found most interesting, you know cause I’ve worked on tons of sets before and you can work eighteen-hour days, but Mr. Perry—he’s like—he just has complete respect for people’s time. He’s so efficient. It’s like we start at eight o’clock and we will wrap by six o’clock, seven o’clock, eight o’clock at the latest and it was just really cool. He was so great at, like, multitasking and delegating responsibilities and he’s
wearing all of these hats. So, during the down time he would still be on his phone making phone calls, making deals. It was really cool to see him live and in action. He could not stop working. He’s just amazing. He’s incredible. And then, but also, he is, like, cordial and polite, and he never made us feel like ‘I’m Mr. Perry and this is an opportunity to be grateful’ and, you know, he never made me feel like he was better than me, or bigger than me, or more established, or more
accomplished, or any of that. He never made me feel that way at all. He was always completely warm and welcoming and then he would wear his hat, his producer hat, then he would wear his director hat, then he would put on his dad hat, then he would put on his—you know what I mean, Madea hat, and all the other characters that he played. So, it was great. He definitely forced me to look at areas in my life where I could level up and be more efficient with my time.
[On working for Tyler Perry] KJ Smith: Oh My God. I learned so much from him [Tyler Perry]. He’s just so diligent and what I found most interesting, you know, cause I’ve worked on tons of sets before and you can work eighteen-hour days, but Mr. Perry—he’s like—he just has complete respect for people’s time. He’s so efficient. It’s like we start at eight o’clock and we will wrap by six o’clock, seven o’clock, eight o’clock at the latest and it was just really cool. He was so great at, like, multitasking and delegating responsibilities and he’s wearing all of these hats. So, during the down time he would still be on his phone making phone calls, making deals. It was really cool to see him live and in action. He could not stop working. He’s just amazing. He’s incredible. He’s also cordial and polite, and he never made us feel like, ‘I’m Mr. Perry and this is an opportunity to be grateful’ and, you know, he never made me feel like he was better than me, or bigger than me, or more established, or more accomplished, or any of that. He never made me feel that way at all. He was always completely warm and welcoming and then he would wear his hat, his producer hat, then he would wear his director hat, then he would put on his dad hat, then he would put on his—you know what I mean, Madea hat, and all the other characters that he played. So, it was great. He definitely forced me to look at areas in my life where I could level up and be more efficient with my time.
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Kiara Timo: He sounds like a dream boss. KJ: He’s a dream boss! When I was done working with him, like if there were any trolls on the Internet, I would begin trolling the trolls cause I would be like ‘you’re not going to talk about him like that because you don’t know him. You don’t know him at all. Don’t do that. People just speculate and it’s just like—it makes me mad because he’s a great guy. He doesn’t deserve any of that. KT:He also employs a lot of African-Americans in his films. So, do you think he should be given credit for the increase in representation on screen? KJ: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think right now in Hollywood there’s a real push for inclusion in front and behind the camera. Again, I’ve worked on several different sets and I will say that he has the most inclusive crew that I have ever seen in my life. Well, with the exception of the show I’m working on now, but at that time when I shot that film, he had the most inclusive crew that I had ever seen. And I’ve worked on—I mean, you name it: NCIS, Lethal Weapon, Fuller House, Black-ish, you name it. It’s the most inclusive crew I’ve ever seen.
[On the success of Madea] KJ: I’m from Tallahassee, Florida. There are characters, there are people in my life that are Madea. It’s totally relatable and even if not, it’s funny as hell. He’s so clever. I mean literally, I was like, ‘Why is he not a comedian?’ When I was on set, he just goes, and he goes, and goes, and goes. You guys don’t see half the stuff he does behind the scenes. He is just a machine. It’s joke, after joke, after joke, after joke, after joke, after joke, after joke. He’s funny! That’s why. Because he has something that makes people laugh and people can always relate to laughter. People always know what’s funny. KT: Right, but on the other side of that, he often, and his films, have received some criticism for their portrayal of African-Americans. So, what made you want to participate in the film despite all of the controversies? KJ: Well, I think there are movies you go to because you’re trying to see a real-life portrayal of a story. You know, you go to see Moonlight because that’s a story that, for me, when I saw it, I had not seen an African-American male coming of age story dealing with homosexuality, or drug abuse—I had not seen a story like that. That is a movie I go to, to see that story. Madea is a film that you go to, to relax, enjoy time with your family, to laugh a little bit, and any of that. It’s no different than going to see an Adam Sandler movie. Someone could say,. ‘Oh Adam Sandler, he has a terrible portrayal of the Jewish community, and it’s not a reflection of all Jews. That’s not what he’s doing. He’s creating these movies to bring joy to people and to make people happy and that is what he does. And, that is why he’s able to do it over, and over, and over again, because at the end of the day with all of the politics and all of the drama in the world, we just want to see a feel-good movie. [Laughs]. You know? I’m sorry, I don’t want to go see something that’s going to make me cry every day. I really don’t. [Laughs].
[On her character, ‘Carol’ in A Madea Family Funeral] KJ: I can tell you that Carol is rigid, tight, she is having some issues in her relationship and she’s just trying her best to deal with a terrible family situation. KT: Do you have many scenes with Mr. Perry? KJ: I have, uh—most of my scenes are with Mr. Perry, actually. And the various versions of himself [laughs]. KJ: I’m really proud of what’s happening. I’m really proud of where we’re at because I know when I first became an actor it was very—for me I was kind of like, “wait, this seems irrational” because it just seemed irrational. It seemed like there were two women doing it and there was nobody else. You had to be the top ten and that was it. Now, its women doing everything. Some of my closest friends are showrunners, writers and directors, you know and all that, and producers. So, I think this is a great moment because our voice is now being heard. Our Ideas are now being seen and I feel like we have more stories to tell than just ‘the black woman’ story. There’re so many different variations of our perspective that could be heard. We are funny, we are dramatic. We have so many facets and I think that the world can now see all of it and it’s great. KT: Is there anything you would like to see more of.... KJ: [Pause]. No, I don’t think there’s anything I would like to see more of. I’m getting what I need - I’m seeing women with guns, and I’m seeing women who can’t have children, like that story has not really been on the forefront for—I would say recently. You know, I could be wrong. But I didn’t see it as prevalent as I see it now. Or women who chose not to have children, that’s an incredible story as well that I had not seen because it was always depicted that in order to be a ‘good woman’ you had to get married and have a kid.
There are some women out there who choose not to get married and choose not to have children, or choose not to get married and choose to have childrenor choose to adopt children, or choose to have a surrogate, or da-dada-da-dah.Those are the stories that I’d love to see more in film now cause, you know, women are now choosing to have career first and then start the family part after that, and I love that. I think’s it’s beautiful. It may be my story, I’m not even sure, but I would love to see that, so that little girls can see that there are so many choices and you have to do what makes you happy. I love that women are finally telling their story of miscarriage. And they’re finally telling their story of, “hey, I chose this life. I chose not to have kids. I chose to have kids when I was forty-five. I love that story. I would like to see more of that. KT: Is there any show you wish you could have stayed on longer? KJ: You know what, I think would be cool? I love Black-ish. I love Kenya Barris. I think that show is really dope, so I would choose to be on his new show— um hold on. This is so tough. Let me think about it. You know, I would love to go back to Queen Sugar. Queen Sugar told a story that I didn’t even know about until I started watching it. I was in the first season, kind of as an antagonist to the show and when I started watching the show it was just so much learning that I experienced while watching it that I would love to be a part of that. I would love to be able to be a part of that learning. It was really an incredible experience. We shot in New Orleans, I’m from Tallahassee, Florida. I love the weather. I love the culture, and so, yeah, I would love to do that.
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