Lynn Whitfield was swaddled in a beautiful faux fur when she entered the Winston Contemporary Art Gallery off Kirby for an intimate event with Grammy Award-winning singer Yolanda Adams.
Her hair was pulled tight in a high ponytail, though the actress says she prefers wearing fedoras to “hide a multitude of flaws.”
Flaws? Hard to imagine Whitfield, 66, having any.
The star of OWN’s “Greenleaf,” a drama about a Memphis megachurch family, moved through the gallery with the grace of a Southern belle as she admired the work of artist Rico Edwards. Given that Whitfield plays a matriarch (“Lady Mae Greenleaf”) who can serve up a tough lashing with one side-eye glance, you’d expected her to be a little haughty.
Hardly. Whitfield gave a warm hug, gushed about her native Louisiana and was thoughtful and down home, especially when it came to talking about food.
“I love rice and brown gravy,” she says. “I bet you thought it would be something sophisticated, right? Rice and brown gravy make everything better.”
More about Whitfield
What’s your style? “I grew up in the South with bows and the petticoats. … I love fashion. I like bargains, too. I like prettiness, full skirts, pencil skirts, bohemian looks. I’m not always the frilly girl. I love comfort.”
Ever wear jeans? “Yes, but they have to fit right. I’m not going to pay $250 for a pair ripped all the way up to my private parts.”
How many shoes do you own? 100 pairs
Must-have in your closet: “My fedoras and a black jumpsuit.”
Favorite books: As a child, “Eloise” by Kay Thompson. As an adult, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston and “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Favorite travel destination: Cape Town, South Africa
Hidden talent: Highly intuitive
Favorite food: Rice and brown gravy
What brings you joy? “When I really take a moment and remember how much God loves me. That brings me joy.”
Like her food choices, her dramatic roles have been savory and rich.
Whitfield, a native of Baton Rouge, has crafted a career playing strong women, from “The Women of Brewster Place” (1989) and “The Josephine Baker Story” (1991), for which she won an Emmy, to Netflix’s “Nappily Ever After” and “Greenleaf,” which concluded its fourth season earlier this month.
“I like characters with a core strength,” she says. “I like playing strong black women because I just don’t know a lot of wimpy black women.”
Oprah Winfrey, who owns OWN network, knew immediately she wanted Whitfield for the “Greenleaf” role, but the character wasn’t well developed when Whitfield initially read for the part. She could relate, though.
“Lady Mae is a Southern black woman. I understand Southern black women because I am one. I was raised by one. I know their queendom. I know how they rule. I know what they tolerate. So I saw it as an opportunity to put a woman like that at the center of television, which we’ve not seen. We’ve not seen that type of woman in charge with children and riches and issues.”
There are other parallels between Whitfield and her “Greenleaf” character.
Her daughter on the show is named “Grace” (played by Merle Dandridge ), and Whitfield’s real-life daughter is singer Grace Gibson, who portrayed Faith Evans in the 2017 film “All Eyez on Me” about the late rapper Tupac Shakur. Also, the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, where Whitfield says she was “saved and sanctified,” has as its first lady Mae Blake, who is “on top of everything but a bit different than Lady Mae.”
Whitfield, a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., was raised the oldest of four children in a proud Louisiana family. Her father was a dentist; her mother worked in a finance agency.
“I was a first child, a first grandchild, so I had this special kind of attention and a place of privilege to be loved, to be the first. I was spoiled by my grandparents. Sorry, siblings!”
Whitfield had a flair for drama even as a girl and, by college, knew she wanted to be an actress.
She earned acclaim in the Los Angeles production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide,” along with actress Alfre Woodard. She also starred in the ABC miniseries “The Women of Brewster Place,” with Winfrey and Cicely Tyson. Her Emmy Award came from her performance in HBO’s 1991 biopic “The Josephine Baker Story,” which required Whitfield to age from 18 to 68.
“At that time, there were very few projects that had any woman in every frame of the film,” Whitfield says. “There weren’t that many roles that were as substantial as that available at that time. It was a real full drama of a woman who was brown like me, and she was a strong woman.”
In addition to “Greenleaf,” Whitfield recently appeared in the Atlanta stage adaption of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ New York Times bestseller, “Between the World and Me,” with Ledisi and Omar J. Dorsey, star of OWN’s “Queen Sugar.” She also is starring as a twisted opera singer in a remake of the 1995 horror comedy “Tales From the Hood.”
Last week, she was one of the many celebrities, from Angela Bassett to Laurence Fishburne, participating in the memorial service for Oscar-nominated actress Diahann Carroll, who died Oct. 4 at age 84 from breast cancer. The two actresses worked together on the 1997 movie “Eve’s Bayou” and were often compared for their strong on-screen roles and stunning looks.
Whitfield said she plans take some time off for the holidays and then “see what God has got going and what Hollywood has going on” in the new year.
On her bucket list: a film project in Louisiana, possibly New Orleans, in which “you really get to know people who look like me. There hasn’t been a lot of that.”
For now, Whitfield says she’s enjoying the moment.
“I think it’s for me to take a moment and be open to what’s next.”
joy.sewing@chron.com
"Actress" - Google News
November 29, 2019 at 02:00AM
https://ift.tt/2DqzGJo
Actress Lynn Whitfield savors strong roles, Southern roots, rice and brown gravy - Houston Chronicle
"Actress" - Google News
https://ift.tt/31HZgDn
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Actress Lynn Whitfield savors strong roles, Southern roots, rice and brown gravy - Houston Chronicle"
Post a Comment