Get rid of clothes that don’t fit anymore

You may remember one of South Sacramento’s greatest exports, Danielle Moné Truitt, from her childhood days, growing up with dreams of being “a superstar,” as she told her uncle when she was just a little thing. “It’s funny the things that we say as kids. The things we dream of end up coming into our lives,” Truitt EXCLUSIVELY told me by phone. “I don’t remember it, but my family tells me that when I was four years old, I said that I was going to be a movie star!” “Some of my fondest memories in Sacramento were my high school years at Valley High School,” Truitt said. “I was a cheerleader, and we won every competition we were in! Even before that, at Samuel Jackson Middle School, I was a part of a drill team called Touch Of Gold. I think that’s where, along with singing in church, I really developed a love of performing. My parents, and especially my mom, were always good at making sure we were involved in a lot of things.” Those “things” eventually led her to Sac State, where the former psychology major wisely heeded an instructor’s advice to change her major to theatre. Truitt had commanded the stage in an elective class she was taking “just for fun.” “She told me that I had a natural talent for acting, and she encouraged me to audition for an on-campus play,” Truitt recalled of that visionary instructor. “I did, and I got the lead in the play. It was a really awesome experience going from reading a script and seeing it come to life and being performed in front of people. That process made me really want to study acting and master it as much as I could.” “I think the four year old girl who wanted to be an actor came back, without me even knowing it,” Truitt said. Soon after earning her Bachelors degree in theatre, Truitt packed up and moved to Los Angeles in 2006, in pursuit of her dream. After appearing in a variety of plays, she was offered the chance of a lifetime to break ground and embody Disney’s first African American animated princess, in the 2009 Disney feature “The Princess & The Frog.” “It’s not one of the projects that a lot of people know about,” Truitt shared, “but to this day, it’s one of the things that I’m most proud of. I wanted to audition to be the voice of Princess Tiana, but Disney wanted a “name” actor. They got Anika [Noni Rose], who I think is awesome.” “Then, I found out about auditions for the physical reference for Tiana,” Truitt continued. “I learned that I’d basically be acting out the body movements and facial expressions for her, filming and speaking every scene, and the Disney artists would then draw what I’d do and give her a real presence. Since I’m from the theatre, you have to be a little bigger than life, and that’s what’s needed in animation as well, so it was a perfect fit. I ended up getting the part and working on the movie for nine months.” “It was such a fascinating experience. When I was growing up, there were very few black cartoon characters, and certainly no black princesses! It’s cool to be the voice, but it was a special thing for me to be able to act this character, and to see her and see my spirit in her [in the film].” “I gave Tiana her essence, her sassiness! My two sons still say ‘My mommy is a Disney princess!’ “ Soon after that ground-breaking project, Truitt got an audition for BET’s “Rebel.” That experience would change the trajectory of her career. “The description of the character was ‘a brownskinned girl with natural hair from Oakland,’ ” Truitt remembered. “I decided that Sacramento was close enough! The casting director liked that I was a new face, and before I knew it, I was auditioning for [director] John Singleton.” “He absolutely LOVED my audition,” Truitt enthused. “When I got done doing my first scene, he said ‘See? You’re black! You’re a sista! I love your flava!’ It was an experience that I never had, before or since. John saw me for who I was, and [he] was totally excited by that.” With Singleton’s encouragement (and advocacy with the network, as they, too, wanted a “name” actor), Truitt won the lead role in “Rebel.” The director continued to be a mentor to her. “He was like a big brother to me, and when he passed, it was devastating,” Truitt said. “It’s still hard for me to believe he’s not still here. I really give him the credit for where I am today. If it wasn’t for John taking a chance on me, it would have been much harder for me to get here.” “I would have eventually gotten here, because God is always on my side, but it would have been a little harder.”