As one of Empire's new break out stars, Grace Gealey has a lot to be thankful for with her recent success, starring alongside Taraji P Henson and Terrence Howard. During a recent radio interview, the actress explained that though her success didn't happen overnight, she takes her career and the roles that she plays very seriously; and will turn down offers that only cast her as "the pretty one." She also added words of wisdom and advice for aspiring actors who have faced their share of rejection as did she in the beginning of her career.
The name "Boo Boo Kitty" has become the familiar reference when speaking of Gealey's character, Anika, on Empire but hopefully, that character will not become the standard for any future projects that include the young actress; as she is very particular about the roles she chooses and doesn't want to be pigeonholed in her career. During a recent interview with Sway In The Morning Sirius Radio show, Gealey spoke on how influential her role on Empire has been for her acting career and how it has opened up other doors for new roles and opportunities. Although she is grateful for many of the roles, she is also very cautious of which ones she chooses to do because she doesn't want to just be another pretty face.
Gealey, who's last name is Irish, tells Sway of how she was offered two different roles but was not able to do one because of scheduling conflicts, and the other because the role lacked substance. "It's very important to not be pigeonholed," she explained. "It's also very important, being a woman of color, to not - looking the way I do, I need to play something with substance."
Gealey believes that the fact that she's pretty has to be an afterthought when casting her for a role; and she needs to play a character with integrity, who happens to also be attractive. "It's very easy for people to be like, oh she can just play the pretty one," she explained. "I'm like 'No, there's so much more to me than just that.'"
The 31-year old actress is set to reveal to the world just how much more of her there is during her interview on Tyra Banks' FABLife daytime talk show, where as reported by E Online, the actress will make her first official public announcement of her engagement to co-star Trai Byers, Andre Lyons, which has been speculated for months now.
The actress may appear to be living the FABLife but she tells of a time where she faced a lot of rejection and years of unemployment before landing the starring role as Anika. Her jobs on "off off Broadway" would happen every other year, leaving her jobless during the years in between. The conversation sparked a question from co-host Heather B, who asked the actress to pass a long some advice for aspiring actors who are trying to break into the business but, are facing a lot of rejection and down time.
"You have to know who you are, you have to start off with a foundation," the actress advises. "What if tomorrow you woke up and you could never act again but you had 50 more years to live? What would you do? Who would you be?"
Gealey explained how acting should be something that you seek to do but not serve as who you are. She advises actors to first find their goal, which something outside of yourself, and everything else will fall into place.
Watch the full interview below.
