outlining the “terrifying and high-anxiety” inducing reality of actors sitting in trailers on sets with artists unfamiliar with doing Black hair and makeup. That year, other Black actresses, including). “One day I wish I can play a character that I actually look like,” she said through tears. When I interviewedleans. “They were committed to me hiding my natural hair, even though a curlier texture would have made a lot more sense in New Orleans,” she told me.
“We're telling stories that look like the communities we live and work in for the first time, in some instances, and especially over the course of the last 10 years,” Okrah says.
We’ve all heard the stories so it shouldn’t be a surprise that this is how Byndloss was feeling, but it’s still devastating to think of a Black woman having to wake up hours before her job to do her own hair only to show up on set and then not feel seen, heard, or protected. The impact of this training at the highest levels, which then trickles down to how performers like Byndloss feel on set, cannot be understated. There’s good news here.