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I want to make you feel seen, I want to make you feel included, I want to make you feel you are protected and worthy”
not going to be our experience, but I do believe the years of aligning black women to this myopic view, singular view of what it means, must be over,” she states. “There has to be room for portrayals of us that aren’t cookie cutters. My mom had me at 18 and she has never been to a club, has never partied in her life - she has worked her whole life. Where are those stories about that experience? I graduated from high school a year early and I graduated from college at 21 – where are those stories? I feel like the more we progress and the more the stories like, If Not Now When? and Don’t Waste Your Pretty get made and embraced, the more we can continue to make them. Then you must normalize the varying hues of us as well. It was important to me that the women in all our films look like a direct representation of all of us. You have natural hair, you have chocolate, you’re slightly thicker – it is all those things because that is who we are. Also, Tamara is someone who loves to help others despite past obstacles. “I try to live a good life and be a good person. I try not to let what I have been through and I have been through a lot, permeate how I treat people. If I felt excluded, or if I felt unseen, or unprotected – which I have most of my life, I do not in turn make other people feel that way. I, in turn, go the opposite way. I want to make you feel seen, I want to make you feel included, I want to make you feel you are protected and worthy. I am a champion. I did not realize how rare I was until recently – I just live. I put my money where my mouth is. If I say I am going to fight for you, I am going to fight for you. If I say it is not about me, it’s not about me.” Despite being an actress and director, you would never believe Tamara hates being the center of attention. “I am socially awkward. If I am in an unfamiliar environment and I do not know anybody, and it is more than 5 people, I am typically in a corner on my phone playing, Candy Crush because I do not know what to say to people,” she states. “I am such an odd ball.” While the culture in Hollywood is changing with Black women now given the ability and being recognized as directors, there are several who Tamara respects and looks up to. “Regina King is the GOAT” she says, “I have always been a fan of hers, because as an actor growing up, she was my direct rep-
Vol 11
Trustworthy Magazine
47
